[Music recommendation: PIXIE-T - The Path Of Tears]

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"Show me, Gavriel."

He peered into her eyes, trying to decipher what must be going on inside that head of hers, but her deceptively calm face gave away nothing.

Slowly, he leaned back in his chair, creating a fraction of distance between them. He let her fingers slip from his face before he lifted his own hand and pointed toward his right shoulder.

Her eyes moved to the area silently, then flicked back to his.

"Where else?" she asked.

This time, Gavriel felt a flicker of hesitation before his gaze drifted lower between them.

Aliana followed his gaze, and her expression instantly hardened. Before her thoughts could spiral to where she assumed he was going to point, he added calmly, "Not there."

A deep frown immediately pulled at her features before she replied, "Let go of my back, Gavriel."

Her voice was not loud, but it carried a firm weight that made it impossible for him to refuse. With great reluctance, he loosened his iron grip and let her go.

The moment he did, Aliana stepped back and leaned against the table behind her before looking down at him and asking once more, "Where?"

Without taking his eyes off her, he lifted his hand and pointed towards his thigh, close to his knee, where Diana had placed her hand, a touch that still left a feeling of repulsion crawling beneath his skin.

When Aliana did not react, he found himself strangely intrigued, waiting to see what she would do next.

"Anywhere else?" she asked.

"No."

The moment the word left his lips, she gave him a slight nod before leaning forward once again.

Placing her hands back on his shoulders, she rested her knee right between his legs.

Inching closer to his face, she let her words brush against his lips. "I told you... I don’t like to share, didn’t I, Gavriel?"

When he simply stared at her, she murmured again, "...and since you went ahead close to it anyway, you know there have to be consequences, right?"

Gavriel, on the other hand, completely failed to respond, as if he could not quite believe what he was hearing.

For the first time in his life, he felt as though he, of all people was the one being dragged towards the chopping block... by a human at that.

Had someone told him this a few days ago, he would have laughed right in their face.

Yet now, he remained utterly still. Because something deep inside him warned him that it would be far wiser to stay quiet and watch what this little thorny rose planned to do next.

No sooner had that thought crossed his mind than Aliana did something that completely threw him off balance.

She slowly sank to her knees right before him, between his legs, before lifting her eyes and peering up at him through her thick lashes.

For a moment, his mind went utterly blank. Then the next moment, every dark and forbidden thought he had been struggling to chain down all this time snapped out of its leash.

His hands instinctively clutched the armrests of his chair, the wood groaning and threatening to snap under the sheer, brutal force he was using to hold himself back. His eyes burned so intensely that they looked vividly alive as he stared down at her.

Aliana watched his jaw clench, the muscles flexing with the immense restraint he was exercising, and somehow, that small detail delighted her.

A slow smirk curled at the corner of her lips as she finally moved her hands to place them flat against his thighs, feeling the powerful muscle ripple beneath her palms.

Her heart was pounding hard and fast against her ribs. Yet, even though she was on the very brink of losing her own nerve against him, the lingering remnants of her anger fueled her.

She wanted him to pay for his actions, and that desire gave her the strength to remain entirely composed and see this through.

So, with that, she leaned closer between his legs, not enough for him to feel her warmth, but close enough to drive him to the brink of madness with anticipation, something that was already blazing so brightly within his eyes that it almost felt tangible.

"Aliana..." Gavriel’s voice came out rough and strained, like gravel dragged over stone.

But this time, Aliana simply tilted her head ever so slightly as she met his gaze and commanded, "Stay still."

His eyes looked at her as though she had just asked him to do something impossible.

And perhaps she had.

Yet the warning in her fierce eyes made one thing painfully clear.... she was not asking.

Mustering every ounce of his willpower, he watched her like a hawk as her heavenly fingers traced over his thighs. It was a simple action, yet he had never imagined it could feel so agonisingly good that he felt on the absolute verge of exploding.

As anticipation coiled tightly inside him, his inner darkness hissed in pure excitement.

Just when he thought she would slide her hands further up toward his belt, she completely shattered his expectations.

To his absolute shock and disappointment, she suddenly yanked her face and hands away. Dropping her focus lower, she targeted the exact spot he had pointed out on his thigh.

Parting her lips, she sank her teeth into his skin and bit him hard.

Gavriel hissed low as a sharp spike of pain broke through his composure from the brutal bite she took.

Aliana stayed like that for a couple of seconds before finally letting go of his thigh. Her eyes carefully lifted to his face, fully expecting to see him angry or irritated, but when she saw a small smirk slowly curl on his lips, confusion instantly flickered through her mind.

’Why is he smirking like that? Did I not bite him hard enough?’

Even as the thought crossed her mind, her cheeks suddenly burned a deep crimson as the reality of what she had just done finally struck her.

She had actually bitten him.

And not just lightly.

She had poured every ounce of her anger into that bite with one singular thought running through her mind. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

To make him feel the pain.

But now that the storm inside her was finally settling, embarrassment began crashing over her in waves. She suddenly felt how utterly undignified and childish her actions had been.

Lowering her gaze, she noticed the wet patch left on his trousers from her lips, and mortification instantly crashed over her.

Quickly using his thighs for support, she pushed herself off the ground, finally managing to stand. She could still feel his intense gaze drilling into her, but she didn’t dare to meet his eyes.

Just as she took a step back toward her seat, his hand shot out and grabbed hers, pulling her back down until she tumbled once again onto his lap once again.

Her eyes snapped towards him in surprise, only to see his smirk widen further, his dimple appearing once again, only to make her traitorous heart flutter.

With amusement dancing brightly in his eyes, he slowly wove his fingers into her golden locks and murmured shamelessly, "You missed another spot I had pointed out earlier."