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The men instantly move to grab Luci, but he easily shakes off their hands.
“Donottouch me,” he snarls, his eyes narrowing on Valentine before slipping to me once more. Again, his expression changes for a split second, as if he’s desperately trying to tell me something, but his back is to me before I can figure it out. The guards step into place behind him, escorting him out of the room and slamming the doors shut behind them.
“There now,” Valentine says with a snort, “that’s much better, don’t you think?”
The question seems rhetorical, so I don’t answer as I shrink further back into my chair. I watch as Valentine bends to pull a bottle of the same nasty-looking liquid that he’d tossed to Luci out of a compartment in his desk.
Pouring himself a glass, he takes a seat, leaning back in it as he swirls the liquid around. Taking a sip, his gaze slowly shifts to me.
“You’re wondering how I knew you were a maiden,” Valentine says. “Forgive me, avirgin.” I blink at him, my mouth opening and closing without a sound managing to escape. “It’s quite simple, really, despite not many having such a … discerning palate as I do.”
He tilts his head to the side, his eyes boring into me as he takes another sip from the glass. It takes me a second to realize he’s waiting for me to say something.
“Palate?” I ask, hating myself for even playing along, as my stomach twists nauseously inside me and I try not to think about what he seems to be implying.
“Yes. You’d be surprised what one learns to distinguish, especially after pleasuring as many as I have,” Valentine says, his voice drawn out, as if taking particular delight in my discomfort. “My son would have realized it, had he taken the time to taste you as I have.”
Ugh, why did he have to say it like that?
I grimace as the mental image of Valentine sinking between my legs resurfaces, and he grins as if knowing exactly what he’s done.
“What makes you think he hasn’t?” I ask, emboldened by my growing hatred for Dante’s father.
“He’d never have let you step foot in this house alive, let alone out of his sight if he had. If he knew you were a virgin, he’d—”
“Then I guess Luci hasn’t told you that he’s dead,” I spit, cutting him off.
Valentine’s grin slips, his expression icing over at my words.
“I do not take kindly to lies, my dear,” he hisses, “or interruptions.”
“I’m not lying,” I say, holding my head slightly higher. “How else do you think I escaped? I’m only here because their mansion burnt down with him and Seven in it. Luci is the only one I’ve seen alive since.”
I know I shouldn’t be adding fuel to the fire, but I can’t help it. Of course, I don’t know for a fact that Dante and Seven didn’t escape the fire, but it still seems unlikely.
Especiallynow that I’ve seen Luci for the traitor that he is. I doubt he went back to help them.
“Impossible,” Valentine snorts, downing the rest of his glass before slamming it down on his desk. “I’ll make an allowance for your lies this time, but only because you do not know the half of things. Your ignorance has saved you, but it will not continue to do so. If I were you, I’d learn to hold my tongue!”
“Then it’s a good thing you aren’t me.”
Seriously, what is wrong with you?!
I kick myself inwardly for not keeping my mouth shut as Valentine slowly rises from his desk, walking around it as his eyes bore into me.
“You will learn,” he hisses, his eyes flashing with fury, “to hold your tongue.”
I scream as he reaches out and yanks me out of the chair, throwing me a good ten feet across the room before I even have a chance to register his movements. I’m lucky he didn’t break any of my bones in the process.
Valentine stalks toward me, and I claw at the floor as I try to scramble back out of the way as he reaches for me again, but I’m not fast enough. He wraps his hand around my arm and drags me to my feet.
“I’m sorry,” I breathe, not daring to look him in the eye.
“You will be,” he says, the threat in his voice sending a chill racing down my spine as he guides me behind his desk and shoves me into the little space beneath it. He leans down to glower at me. “You’d better pray to all that is good and holy that Dante is still alive, or you won’t be for much longer.”
“I—”
There’s a loud knock at the door that draws Valentine’s attention away from me as he straightens.
