Page 5 of Burn in Bliss

Sin.

Repent.

Repeat.

The way Orion was making me feel was definitely a sin.

A multitude of them, actually.

Because when he had pressed his hard body against mine, I was reminded of what it felt like to meet an equal.

That rarely happened.

Never, if I was keeping count.

Orion dragged me through the maze of hallways and stairs until we exited outside. I didn’t have time to register our surroundings before he turned again, pulling me into a seemingly random archway.

Not so random, I realized when needles prickled across my skin and the sky changed.

What’s Lucifer doing with portals just sitting around for anyone to use? I wondered as the ground underneath my feet gave way to sand.

Whatever sexual attraction I’d been feeling seemed to ebb out of me as I took in the lazy waves lapping on the shore. They fed the growing layer of foam, causing it to rise like a massive creature taking slow, shallow breaths.

Azrael had better still be breathing, I thought with a frown.

Orion disturbed the oceanic scene, plowing through the foam like a giant stomping on an anthill. The bubbles scattered around him, popping into a fine mist until only the frothy waves splashed around his feet.

He turned and glared at me, the chain still in his iron grip.

His golden eyes were held captive by a ring of red and flickering embers of darkness.

Calamity fought against the mate-bond he still held for Lilith. If I was going to get through to him, that was the thread I needed to pull.

My feet sank into the sand at the thought, one that spurred another wave of jealousy through my chest.

Thinking of Lilith and Orion supplied more sin to weigh me down. Literally.

Maybe that was something I could use to my advantage.

While I was plotting how to choke him with the damn chain and drag him out of here—wherever here was—a stirring of desire returned.

Desire didn’t come and go like that. Not for no reason.

I caught myself taking in more than Orion’s eyes. He wore only a pair of pants, like me, leaving the healing scar across his chest on display.

One I had given him.

My magical sword had cut him. It was probably one of the few things that could draw the blood of a demigod.

And my teeth, apparently, I thought, remembering the tang of sunlight and metal on my tongue when he’d tried to silence me in the hall.

I didn’t have my sword, though. Not when I barely had the strength to keep my own body from crushing me. I required magic to summon it, and I’d been far too beaten down to have enough resources to call it again.

As my gaze lingered on the maze of his hard muscles, oversized and utter perfection, as one might expect of a demigod, I wondered what was influencing me.

Is it the mate-bond itself? I wondered. Lilith handled things in a straightforward way. There wasn’t much else more straightforward than taking her mate by the balls and claiming him for herself.

She had a knack for that, not that any of us were complaining.