I’m a hunter. A killer. A monster. But I’m loyal.
Even to a man as disgusting as my father.
“I—I didn’t know you were into this kind of thing,” she whispers on a mostly even tone. The light laughter that accompanies her words confuses me. It conflicts with the slamming pace of her pulse.
I smile quietly.
She’s smart. Controlled. Cunning. All the things a woman bound in my golden chains shouldn’t be. Even vampire women cry when they’re first bound or promised. My sister’s sobs from this evening are a constant shadow at the back of my mind that I don’t want to think about right now.
Why is the girl different?
I linger there and listen as she swallows slowly. I wish I could see her features better. The light surrounding her is all I’m able to pick up on, and it’s making me insane not to watch every syllable leave her fuckable lips.
She’s on high alert but doesn’t even know I’m right in front of her. If I were a different man, I’d break her before her very next breath, and she’d never see it coming.
She’s a female, and females are meant to be broken under Blood Law. It’s not my rule though. I watched that rule destroy my own mother, and now...
I shake my head at the racing, blinding thoughts. My jaw grinds with frustration to get my mind in order.
Not that that’s possible.
I won’t break her. But I will play with her. I want to see how far she’s willing to take her little performance. How long can she cling to that false sense of security before her natural instinct to burst into tears and beg me for her life will kick in?
Show me what you’re made of, Pretty Pet.
“I’m into a lot ofthings,” I tell her, my voice vibrating in my throat, and it’s only then that she realizes I’m right in front of her.
A gasp cuts across her lips, but she silences it. She swallows it down, and then she does the very boldest thing anyone has ever done to me:
She touches me without permission. She does it just like she did last night, and I find myself in a trance all over again.
I don’t lash out at the feel of her touch against my skin. My flesh doesn’t crawl with a need to shove her away.
I—I like it even.
Soft fingertips skim up my bare chest, her touch blazing hot along the low lines of my abdomen. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever felt before. The tingles of her skin against mine ripple right through me and straight down to my cock.
The darkness caged within me rattles to life.
“Why don’t you show me?” she says with a soft, meticulous breath that fans along the edge of my jaw.
My eyebrow arches at this creature. It’s that one soft breath that makes me realize she isn’t fully human. She’s very much dark fae. Conniving and calculating are exactly what she is, and her ability to still use those gifts even while facing a death like myself...
She’s good. Really fucking good.
What is she plotting?
I intentionally take her bait with the snap of my palm against her wrist, stopping her addictive touch from exploring another single inch of my body. Her breath falters.
“No touching, Pretty Pet.” My other hand slides up the smooth span of her soft thigh. She shifts against my touch, adding more friction and—was that agasp of fear or excitement?
It’s a testing touch along the softest skin I’ve ever felt as I trail up her inner thigh and dangerously along the edge of her panty line. She leans in once more, brushing herself against my hand like a creature desperate for affection.
She is desperate. Desperate for survival. And it’s sexy. As. Fuck.
The tremble of her breath is this mesmerizing mixture of panic and pleasure. The peaks of her nipples graze my bare chest ever so lightly through her thin dress. The hitch of her exhale has me devouring the tiny noises she gives away. Images of what I could do to her—how deep I could fuck her, how wet I could make her, how loud I could make her cry out—they all flicker through my mind like scratching thoughts I can’t keep track of. I want to keep her chained here for the rest of our lives just to hear how she sounds with every orgasm I could take from her pent-up body.
She needs this more than she wants it. It’s a distraction we both need.