Page 88 of Can you take it?

“I don’t know about you guys, but a night of rest sounds pretty good to me too,” Bexley said. “And a shower.”

Anna mock gasped. “Possibly a shave,” she said with a quizzical brow.

Bexley smiled. “Perhaps a shave, even though I’ll probably cut up my face. It’s been a while.”

Instantly I touched my own face, feeling for my stubble. When I realized that again I still had none, Bexley caught my attention.

“Angel demon,” he said with a shrug. I kept forgetting he wasn’t fae, like me. Bexley slid off the stool and followed after the others out the large open door.

Anna and I remained in the sitting room.

“It’s not a good idea,” I told her. Another servant appeared, this time a blond woman with a tight bun.

“We’d like two rooms, please,” I said.

“Of course,” she said, and Anna and I looked at each other. “The Ten Tiers of Tartarus are not taking mercy on us and letting us have a night of rest,” I said, as we followed the woman out of the room and down an ornate hallway.

“Here you go,” said the woman as we climbed up what felt like the nineteenth staircase.

Anna made a point of wiping away a fake tear after my remarks, pretending to be sad about not sharing a room with me.

I rolled my eyes and couldn’t help but smile.

We walked into the room, expecting another adjoining one. Instead, we were met with the sound of a door slamming shut and locking behind us.

“Oh shit,” I said, turning to pry the door open. Dejectedly, I looked down, closed my eyes, while still holding the door handle. I let out a heavy sigh. “There’s a bed in this room, isn’t there?” I asked Anna, not bothering to open my eyes.

“Uh-huh,” she said, “and some other stuff.”

“Oh,” I said, letting my forehead rest on the door just below the knob after I slid to my knees.

Anna let out a laugh. “I don’t know what you’re so worried about. We’re both adults. I know that I can control myself,” she said. “Besides, I don’t think the tier traps you for experiencing lust. The tiers trap you when that particular sin overtakes you. Neither one of us are going to be overtaken by lust,” she said, turning from the bed back to face me.

“Speak for yourself,” I said, keeping my eyes closed, hearing her movements only by the ebb and flow of her voice as I kneeled on the floor. I refused to open my eyes for fear the deceitful master of the tiers would only let me see Anna without clothes on or some horrible trick.

“We don’t have to sleep in the same bed,” she said with a laugh.

I pounded my head against the door. “Go ahead,” I said. “Go ahead what?” she said.

“Sleep, take the bed, shower, clean up, do whatever it is that you need to do. I’ll be right here, not looking at you.”

She snorted. “What are you going to do, stay there the whole time?”

“Yes,” I said, tightening my eyes closed when I heard her voice soften with closeness.

“You’ve been around me this entire time. What makes you think in this moment you wouldn’t be able to control yourself?” “Because I’ve barely been able to control myself since we were in Treachery. Your insides are confusing, and I can’t tell if I want to marry you or never see you again,” I said, a grin lifting the corner of my mouth. It was so hard to be serious around her. I found myself constantly in a state of playfulness when she was near.

“I mean, you don’t think they set this tier up as a trap for you?”

“I most definitely think this tier is a trap for me, that this room is a trap, that you are a trap,” I said, pounding my head against the door. I was really struggling not to look at her. It made me realize how often my eyes seemed to wander to her. “You’re not out having sex with prostitutes every night.

Are you?” she asked, putting her hand on her hip.

I realized one of my eyes had opened by a slit and was taking in her appearance. As soon as she put her hand on her hip, I covered my eyes with my hands.

“Don’t do that,” I said. “And no, I haven’t been going to prostitutes every night. I’ve barely been with a woman in a decade because I was too busy waiting for something that isn’t real with your sister.” Just as I began to regret my words, I shrugged—maybe bringing up the past with her sister would

put some tension in the room and douse the lustful kind of tension that was there now.