Chapter 21

ChapterTwenty-One

He had one chance. One.

He’d already seen the thought in her eyes. She was a wanderer, just as he’d been when he was first birthed into this world. Greed remembered the desire to see and touch and take, to do as much as he could before the very world bent to his ways. They were kindred spirits in that way.

She’d only give him a single moment to prove to him why she should remain in this oasis while the rest of her people were subjected to the sands. And he intended to tantalize her senses until there was nothing else for her. She’d never return to those tiny villages when she could be here with him. When she could live in luxury and opulence.

So he’d brought her back to his room, ignoring the look of disappointment on her face when she realized where he was bringing her. Because he had plans to make. The entire oasis had to be on the same page as him, and they would give her their best.

He spent most of the morning ordering the kitchens around. Then he turned his attention to his own collection.

Greed had a thousand years’ worth of treasures to choose from. So much wealth and beauty that he could lay out at her feet, but he wouldn’t. Not yet. She would be terrified of all the gemstones and the beauty that he wanted to give her.

But he knew the dress he would place upon her. The dress that he’d been dying to see her in since the beginning. And perhaps gifts of jewels while he indulged all her senses tonight. That would be enough, he was certain of it.

He arrived back to his private quarters hours later with a dress over his arm and a plan to enact. Ivo was back in front of the door, and he gave the other man a little frown as he approached.

Ivo bowed and started off. Apparently, even his guard understood that he was not to interrupt tonight. Word traveled fast around here.

Clearing his throat, he knocked on the door as though he were a gentleman. As if he was ever a gentleman at all.

Varya opened the door, still wearing her ripped up sheet, and already rolling her eyes at the sight of him. “What is this, Greed?”

“My lady.” He bowed low and deep, then glanced up at her with a quirked brow as she laughed. “I am here to dress you for the evening. The Lord of the Oasis has sent you a gown for this evening and bid you to humbly accept his invitation.”

“The Lord of the Oasis, huh?” She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against the door. “So who are you?”

“Your servant for the evening.”

“Ah.” She nodded, her eyes going over his shoulder as she exaggerated her attempts to look past him. “Is there a lady servant who can dress me? I’m quite certain that it would be rather... indecent to have a man dressing me.”

A flash of jealousy burned through his chest. “Absolutely not.”

“No one else touches me but you?”

She’d caught him. Damn it. The woman was too quick for her own good.

His jealousy wasn’t a good quality to have. He understood that. And it wasn’t quite jealousy, anyway. He just didn’t want to share her with anyone else.

Was that so bad?

Pushing her back with his body, he moved into their quarters and ignored her look. He strode into the center of the room and then gave her the gown to put on. “This is for you.”

“This is...” She held it out to look, and he knew what she saw.

Molten gold. The entire gown had been made to look like metal poured into a sheet of fabric. It was beyond beautiful, and only three of them had been made. One burned in a horrible fire that had destroyed an entire town. The other he’d gifted to one of Sloth’s queens. Greed could safely assume it had been destroyed when Sloth had found something disappointing about the woman.

Turning her back to him, Varya unhooked the gown she’d made of the sheets and let it fall off her body. The silk slithered onto the ground, trailing down her curves like he wished to do. His mouth watered as she revealed the long lines of her body, the muscles in her back that flexed and moved with her, and the round muscles of her ass.

Oh, he wanted her. He wanted her more than anything else in this realm, and he would have her tonight. That’s what all of this led up to. One final moment to convince her that he was what she needed.

She stepped into the gown, drawing it up all those lovely curves. Molten gold poured over his treasure, just as she was meant to be seen by all who were lucky enough to bask in her beauty. He stepped closer, his fingers brushing against her spine as he tied it at the back so it would stay on. The dress clung to her ribs, just barely, and hung off her shoulders so her graceful neck and collarbone were bare.

He couldn’t resist. Greed skated his lips along that line of warm skin, smiling against her as she let out a little shuddering breath. He trailed the backs of his fingers down her bare sides, tying those strands as well. The fabric covered her front entirely, but the sides were left almost bare other than four strands at her ribs, waist, hips, and just around her thighs.

Sighing, he fell to his knees as he trailed his lips down to each one of those ties until they were all knotted closed. Then he followed the same line on the other side of her body, dressing her as she’d always meant to be dressed.

Staring up at her, he looked up at a goddess who deserved to have an entire kingdom at her feet.

“You are so beautiful,” he whispered.

Her cheeks turned bright red. He so adored that color and had the fleeting wonder if this was what Lust had felt like? Maybe it was. He’d never speculated what had captivated his brother the moment he’d seen his new wife Selene, and yet... surely it had to be something like this. It had to be this consuming emotion that made him want to grab onto her and never let her go.

“Greed,” she scolded. “It’s the dress. It’s not me.”

“It’s absolutely you.” He stood and held out his arm for her to take. “Now, would you like to have dinner with me?”

“Am I allowed to leave the room?”

“I had hoped you would.”

Greed wondered if he was dressed for the occasion as he walked beside her. He’d put on his best leather pants and a leather vest over his white shirt. His rings always glittered on his fingers, but were they enough? He should have placed more gems on his person, a necklace at least, or maybe one of those rare magical crowns. It wasn’t the most gallant of outfits, but he wasn’t a very gallant man.

He’d wanted to give her this, though. And so he had tried to make himself look as though he was a little more put together. Because he wanted people to look at him and see that he was the only person who had what they wanted.

Now she was one of those objects that others would desire. And as he walked through his oasis jungle with her on his arm, he knew no one could see them without wanting what he had. They would try to take her from him and he would fight them to the bitter end. Blood would be fed to the desert on her behalf, and he would feed it many times before he was satisfied.

He drew her into the dome where all of his balls and gatherings should have been held. He had been told there were many in this place before he’d taken over the oasis. The floors were made of molten gold, reflecting everything like a mirror. The massive table at the end was full of every food she might desire. Meat, cheese, wine, vegetables, pies, tiny cakes that his chef insisted on placing there. Not to mention the whole roasted pig that took up the center of the table.

Varya hissed out a breath. “This is too much food for so few people, Greed. It’s a waste.”

“The rest will be given to the staff to eat.” And then he froze. Because maybe she’d want something else. Maybe she would desire... “Or a town of your choosing.”

“Really?” She frowned up at him. “Why would you do that?”

“Because I already have a treasure that everyone desires.” He skated his fingers along her jaw before he could stop himself. “I have no need for food, Varya. Not when you stand beside me.”

Again her cheeks flared that bright red color. So lovely, as she seemed to accept that this food would go to those who needed it. Fascinating.

He watched her as she approached the table. Her movements were graceful and so calculated, a true warrior through and through. She had no idea what she did to him moving like that.

Already he was uncomfortably hard. Already his hands burned to touch her, mark her, make her his. But he held himself back because he also wanted to see what she thought of the food.

Varya stood in front of the table, staring down at it, her hands braced on the wood. But she didn’t move. She didn’t grab anything at all, and it made him wonder if she did not know where to even start. Perhaps she’d never had any of this food before.

And oh, that made his entire body tingle. He’d be the first to feed this to her. He’d be the first to...

Fuck. He could come just from the thought.

Shaking his head, he surveyed the table before making his first choice. A small cracker that his kitchen had been making for years, made of the finest sifted grains. On top, he placed caviar from the fish that they grew in the deepest pools of the oasis. The dark pearls were delicious, and many people would kill to have them.

“Here,” he said, holding it out for her to taste. “I think you’ll find this interesting.”

Obediently, she opened her mouth, her tongue already outstretched for him. He had a flashing image of her doing the same on her knees, and his free hand clenched so hard he could hear the bones creak.

Varya closed her mouth, chewed, and then she moaned.

By all the seven kingdoms, he almost fell onto his knees in front of her again. Her eyes rolled back in her head and he just knew that was the same face she’d make when he brought her to release over and over again. When he’d made her beg him to stop because she couldn’t do this anymore, and he made her come one more time.

“That’s delicious,” she said, her tongue flicking out to lick at her lips. “I don’t even have a name for that.”

“You don’t need to know the name when you’ll be eating it for years to come.” He turned around before he did something stupid. Like crush their lips together and paw at that expensive dress. “Try this now.”

He didn’t use a fork to pick up the thinly sliced meat. Instead, he lifted the marbled, shaved beef to her mouth and watched her lips close around his fingers. She licked the juices off his thumb and almost unmanned him that easily. “What is this?”

“A rare beef that can only be grown here in the oasis. They’ve had this breed of cattle for centuries, only here. They have a specific diet. A very specific way to cut and prepare the meat. And all of it can only be found here, in my home.”

“It sounds like you have a lot of secrets, Greed.”

“You have no idea.”

He took his time feeding her with his own hands. The act was strangely erotic, knowing that she could only get her sustenance from his fingers. They both became more and more adventurous with each other as well.

She’d picked up a saffron dusted roll on her own, but the honey on top had dripped down her chin. Greed used his thumb to chase down the small, sweet drop and then sucked it from his finger.

But it was the chocolate that undid them both. He gave her a small bite of dark chocolate that he’d stolen from Gluttony, and he hadn’t been able to stop himself. She bit into it and he leaned forward to lick the smallest hint of that dark magic from her lips.

And then he was lost. She tasted like everything he’d stolen and everything the world desired. She tasted like the finest of wines and he hadn’t even poured that into her mouth yet. But she was here, his, and he was the only one with this treasure on his arm.

Snarling against her lips, he backed her away from the table. Greed didn’t know where he was going with her, only that he wanted her. Needed her. That he’d shred this mortal form if he didn’t get to indulge himself in her for a few moments.

“I want you,” she said, her mouth skating down his throat and her tongue leaving little marks of red behind. “I don’t care that you think I’m too injured. I want you now, and I will have you.”

“Ach, you do not know what you ask.”

“I’m not broken.” Varya glared up at him, fierce and powerful as the woman he’d always wanted.

A lump formed in his throat and he tried to swallow it down. She was... more than he’d expected. He’d found himself a thief in the desert and suddenly she had become this wild and wicked thing who consumed him every time they met.

For a moment, he feared for his life. He worried about what would happen if he gave in. If he let her devour him, just as she so obviously wanted to do.

But he wanted her as well. He wanted to steal her away, and if that meant giving her a part of himself, then he would. She would rip and tear at all the magic he had, and still he would feed off her greed.

Because that’s what she was. A greedy little thing who demanded he attend to her and he would do all of that and more.

Greed bent her back over his arm, just far enough to see her wince. Her ribs might be healing, but they were not entirely where she thought they were. Not yet. “You do not know what you ask.”

“I do.”

“You think this will be fun evening entertainment and you’ll disappear into the night afterward? But I am Greed, Varya. And if we do this, then you are mine.”

Though she was clearly uncomfortable, not yet in pain, she still stared into his eyes as though trying to understand him. “What are you asking of me?”

He pressed his mouth to her long neck and inhaled deeply of her scent. “I want your pleasure, and I want your pain. I want every feeling you can give me, my treasure, and I will share it with no one else. If you think you can take that, I promise you that you cannot. No one has yet been able to.”

He’d broken so many women. Shattered them from the inside out after they realized this wasn’t what they wanted. They’d been enticed by his looks and his fortune, but none of them had wanted him to own them. Body and soul.

But he stared into those wide blue eyes and he wondered if this was the one he’d been searching for.