And that made me burn.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
ROSALIA
I had never seen so many conflicting emotions in his eyes before tonight. When I’d first walked into the ballroom, my heart stood still. He was devastating, so handsome it made my body ache with desire. His beautiful, lean form wore a tailored black suit and shirt and his hair was slicked back in soft waves. The mask over his face came down to his upper lip and curving down to the bottom of his jaw. It looked like he’d carved it from marble and it was in a perfect likeness of the angels all over the house. Except, its beauty was marred by the skull pushing through the marble skin.
Beyond the mask, his golden eyes smoldered like fire.
Drawing me in the way they always did.
Daring me to jump into his dark waters.
I did, the moment he’d seized me and pulled me to the dance floor, I’d given in to him. To whatever he was planning—because he’d clearly come here knowing exactly what he intended to do. And the secret arousal between my legs begged for it.
“You are my agony,” he said forcefully.
My heart thudded.
“Peregrine,” I whispered. “What happened…I think it made me realize something.”
He shook his head, taking my hand and walking from the floor. “I don’t want to talk about it tonight.”
“Peregrine!”
He spun in the doorway. “It’s dinnertime, Lia. Time to play hostess.”
It was no use. He held out his gloved hand and I took it. We entered the dining room, the long table set up. It was loaded with food and at the very end, balanced on a plate before the head chair, was a swan. I gasped, my stomach turning, although I wasn’t sure why. Peregrine heard me as he led me across the room and pulled out the chair at the head of the table.
“Calm your bleeding heart, Lia, it’s fake. It’s duck inside.”
I sat there, staring at the large, feathered bird. Now that I looked at it, it was clear it was fake, but the sight still disgusted me. I kept still, watching as the room filled and every plate was taken. As I stood there, it began to dawn on me that we were one chair short.
“Where...where will I sit?” I asked.
He sat down at head of the table in the carved wooden chair and spread his knees. My heart fluttered in my chest at the sight of him, sitting there like a malevolent prince on his throne. He beckoned, and like he’d collared and leashed me, I went to him without hesitation. I wasn’t sure if it was because he’d treated me with such coldness for days or because I was a needy, desperate thing like he loved to call me. But there was nothing in me but the reckless need to obey.
He held out both hands, palm up in his leather gloves. “Take them off.”
I complied, working the leather from his lean hands. My neck prickled as I peeled the gloves back to reveal fresh tattoos on his palms. Two dark lines going from his fingers up his wrist with a short slash through the top. It was hard to tell if they were meant to be crosses or swords. A heavy shiver moved up my spine.
“Those are…new,” I said softly.
He took the gloves and laid them on the table. Then his hands were on me, tattoos and hard fingertips, pulling me into his lap and turning me to face the rest of the table. I balanced on his knee, threading one arm around his neck to steady myself.
“Peregrine, what is this?” I murmured.
He looked at me, barely an inch away. There was something so unnerving about seeing him in the mask with his golden eyes burning from beyond the white marble. He leaned in and kissed my mouth briefly and then the side of my neck. And then the line of my cleavage and the thin fabric over my nipple.
“Anything goes tonight, angel,” he whispered. “Give me your fantasies and I’ll give you everything else.”
I turned, looking down at the guests around us, but he turned my chin back to him.
“There is no one else tonight,” he said firmly. “Only me.”
At that moment, the wait staff appeared and silently filled everyone’s plate. The tension in the room lifted and everyone began talking and eating. I swallowed, looking down and realizing there was only one plate before us. It was stacked with food.
“Where is mine?”