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“He is my second in command,” I clarify, before finally realizing where this is going. Leonid is trying to trap me. He’s already thinking three questions ahead. I’m behind the curve, and we’ve barely even started yet.
“You didn’t seem to get along too well with your second in command when we met in the bayou,” Leonid says, twirling the chains of the bra between his fingers. “What is he really?”
“An untouchable…” I sneer, both afraid and angry.
“What does that mean?”
“It means that my father foolishly promoted him to a position he didn’t deserve, a position that is impossible to strip someone of. A position that belonged to someone else…” I stop myself before I can give too much more away. Castor can’t come up. It will be the end of me.
Leonid keeps his predatory gaze fixed on me as he steps forward. His huge shadow immediately blankets me in darkness. Surprisingly, though, his darkness is warm.
I’m used to much colder shadows.
“Drop your arms,” he orders, his gaze trickling down to my covered breasts.
I keep my arms crossed. “Why? I’m answering your questions,” I rasp.
Leonid just shakes his head. “You’re not answering them how I like.”
“What the hell does that mean? Do you want me to lie?”
“I want you to tell me the real truth.”
“Then ask me a real question!”
He’s dancing around his questions just as much as I’m dancing around my answers. It’s clear as day. He thinks he’s being clever, but I can keep up with him.
Slowly, a heart-tugging smirk lifts up Leonid’s chiselled cheekbones. Fuck. There are those dimples again.
“Fine. Who is Thales Retsos… to you?”
“He’s my second in command—” Before I can uncross my arms and stop him, Leonid grabs both of my wrists with one hand. With the other, he takes me around the throat. But it’s not his fingers that close in tightly around my skin; it’s the choke collar.
His hands are so big that he’s nearly able to touch fingers on the backside of my neck. Just like that, he manages to clasp the collar into place. Only then does he let me go.
“You know all too well that I wasn’t asking the same question twice,” Leonid says.
The chains from the choke collar dangle down from my neck, swinging against my tender skin—the chilly metal makes me shiver.
“What exactly are you asking then?” I choke.
“I’m asking who Thales Retsos is to you, Sophia Xiphias. Not the princess. Not the warrior queen. But you, the girl who has supposedly never even been kissed before.”
My heart drops as I finally realize what Leonid is really getting at.
He’s jealous.
A gut-churning ache works its way through my chest.
He thinks Retsos and me… no… he couldn’t.
“Thales Retsos is a nuisance, and nothing more” I sneer, disgusted that anyone could even think that I would stoop so low. Maybe Leonid isn’t as clever as I feared. Maybe he’s just as blinded by attraction as I have been.
“No,” Leonid shakes his head. “He’s more than that. Tell me, Sophia. Last chance. Who is Thales Retsos to you?” Leaning in close, he takes the bra straps dangling at my side. I don’t dare move. One wrong breath and he’ll be on me again.
Isn’t that what you want?
With an uneasy tenderness, Leonid wraps his arms around my back and clasps the punishment bra into place. Then, very slowly, he pulls back, making sure to stop at my neck so I can feel his hot breath against my throat.
