A Legacy of the Damned: Daughter of Astaroth

Chapter 54 - Playing With Fire

I let the warm shower pound the top of my head. The water should have calmed me as it flows through my hair, cascades down my face and body. But my brain won't stop running, churning, and stressing.

I never thought that I'd be a problem for Sacha. I understand why they don't trust me but for once in my life, I have no ulterior motives. I was prepared to betray Astaroth and bear the consequences.

I just want to be with him. I want to be with Sacha Gauthier, a Nephilim royalty, a demon's biggest enemy.

I want to be with him so badly that my heart aches at the thought of him. My heart aches even more at the thought of not being with him. But maybe the consequences of trying to be with me are too much for him? Maybe I'm too heavy a burden?

Usually, by this time I'd have some deviously conniving solutions to my problem. Selfish, self-serving solutions. But right now, I have nothing. I step out of the glass shower enclosure onto a thick soft mat, still feeling lost.

Or maybe I have a solution but my heart isn't willing.

I come out of the ensuite wearing Katherine's dry comfortable clothes. I have a towel over my head and my feet are bare. I'm using the towel to dry my damp hair but it slides down to my shoulders when I glance up.

Sacha is leaning against the door frame of the bedroom, waiting for me. He has his arms crossed over his chest and he's wearing a different polo shirt than the one he arrived in. He looks so good, my heart aches with a sad but fierce longing for him.

He might have taken a shower too because his hair is slightly damp and the silky strands curl inward at the nape of his neck and behind his ears. When my eyes meet his, his expression changes and it stops me in my track.

He pushes himself off the door frame to stalk over to me with fury and determination in his eyes and purpose in his every step.

Maybe I see the hunger in there too and my heart flips before it starts to jump in my chest. The sadness is suddenly gone and a tendril of excitement unfurls in my abdomen and my fight or flight instinct comes to life. I choose flight and find myself walking backward.

"Where are you going, little princess?" he asks as he keeps prowling forward, making me feel like a hunted little prey.

"Where are you going?" I challenge him as I step right back into the bathroom and try to close the door on him. He places a hand on it, stopping me with his much greater strength.

I step back further and come to a complete stop when my back hits the counter but he doesn't stop advancing until he's towering over me

His lips curl up into a strange wolfish sexy grin. It's part threatening and part teasing. "There's nowhere you could go that I wouldn't follow, sweetheart," he says and it sounds ominous- like a warning. But that tendril of excitement is now in full bloom in my stomach, surrounded by thousands of wildly fluttering butterflies.

His eyes gleam underneath thick spiky eyelashes. They're so mesmerizing that it's almost impossible for me to tear my gaze away.

I let out a sharp gasp when he grabs a hold of my waist and lifts me up to sit on the counter. Then he pushes my legs wider apart and moves closer to stand in between them. It might just as well that I'm sitting down because the look in his eyes and the warmth of his body so close to mine is making my knees weak.

"Sacha..."

He firmly presses a thumb in the middle of my lips, effectively shutting me up. He then spreads the rest of his fingers around the back of my neck, through the damp strands of my hair as we stare at each other in silence. Something in my expression must have angered him again because the tiny roguish smile on his lips loses its teasing quality before it disappears altogether. His expression is fierce and his fingers around the back of my neck tighten briefly before he suddenly lets go of me.