The two of us watch each other with bated breath.
Then, the dark figure starts to melt.
From its center, the mass drips down from the ceiling ever so slowly. It stretches down, and long fingers form at the end of the oil spill. Then it touches my arm, ghosting down my flesh until a gasp rips from my lips.
“Bella?” Ruiner asks.
“Bella?” the shadow repeats on a crawling whisper.
Then the figure drops from the ceiling, and a beautiful man lands on top of me.
A scream in my throat catches as a slender hand covers my mouth. His legs straddle me, and he looks down on me with big fiery eyes. Inky tattoos of gold and crimson lick down his arms and up his neck, skimming lightly around his face with symbols I don’t understand.
“You can see me?” he asks, his messy black hair falling into his bright eyes as he cocks his head at me once more.
I nod.
“And feel me?” He runs a long finger across my cheek and jaw line, a shiver tracing his touch as I nod once more.
He’s hypnotizing. Magnetic.
And then something big and solid slams through the shadow man. Smoke wafts around me where the stranger just was. Ruiner’s wings flap chaotically. Books thunder to the floor while glass shatters across the wall. Strong arms slam down on either side of the man, trapping him against the wall. Ruiner’s fist pulls back with intent, and a smile parts the shadow man’s lips.
With a pop, smoke wafts through the space, lingering where the stranger once was.
I stare around the room, carefully eyeing every shadow as Ruiner flings the desk in the corner on its side, trashing my bedroom even more with his wild rage.
“He’s gone!” I urge before my friend’s hand clamps around Ivy’s bed frame, and he looks frantically beneath it. “He’s gone.” I sit at the edge of my mattress, wanting to sink into it and never come out.
Ruiner turns abruptly, and in a matter of seconds, he’s kneeling before me. One big hand clasps over my cheek, and knowing eyes search my face.
“What was it?” he asks with heavy confusion.
“I don’t know. I—I’m fine,” I utter, and even my breath sounds labored and uncertain.
“I can tell when you’re lying, Pretty Monster.” His thumb pushes back and forth along my jawline.
“Who was that?” I ask instead.
His serious features harden as he shakes his head. “I—I didn’t see it. It was all darkness. I could only tell that you needed me.” He looks over his shoulder once more, and he’s just as skittish as I am.
With or without the cake, I’m never going to sleep now.
Someone attacked me. And only I could see it?
“Would you—would you stay with me? For tonight?”
Why did that sound so pathetic? So fragile and fearful like I’m a fair maiden in a regency romance just waiting for the dude to rip his shirt open already.
“Never mind,” I say with a wave of my hands. “It’s not a big deal. Shadow men. Monsters under my bed. Inky blobs falling from my ceiling. It’s perfectly normal here.”
A smirk twitches at the corner of Ruin’s lips.
“I already know when you want me, Bella,” he rasps so sensually, the sound of his voice travels right into me and shudders through my core.
Why did that sound so dirty?
“Scoot over.” He stands, and I don’t make a move.