“You know you can’t leave him unsupervised in the basement, Drae.” Augustine laughs. “Kid in a fucking candy store. I’m just hoping he hasn’t given poor West any more severed body parts as a token of his undying affection.”
“Don’t count it.” I take a deep breath of crisp autumn air, glad for the chance to clear my head on the flight upstate. “Let’s go.”
Wings outstretched, we leap from the ledge and soar out over the city, bound for home.
Chapter Thirty-Four
WESTLYN
I don’t think. I just run.
Up the basement stairs, across the first floor from one end of the manor to the other, then back again, totally uncertain. I start to head upstairs to the bedrooms, but that’s no good. Where am I supposed to hide? The closet? Under the bed? Those are the first places he’ll look.
Fuck.Fuck!
Adrenaline and desire buzz through my nerves in alternating currents, electric tingles zipping through me from head to toe. The look in Jude’s eyes was just… feral. No other word for it. I should be fucking terrified. Iamfucking terrified.
And I’ve never been so turned on in my life.
But some latent sense of self-preservation has me frantically searching for a safe haven, and I finally end up in the study. There’s an old cedar storage trunk behind the leather sofa, empty but for a few blankets and a bunch of Draegan’s old architecture magazines.
Perfect.
As quietly as I can, I slip inside, gently closing the lid and covering myself with the blankets. Taking a deep, cedar-scented breath, I shut my eyes and—
Footsteps on the hardwoods, the unmistakable click of gargoyle talons.
Closer and closer they come, one deliberately slow step at a time.
I can hear every move he makes—pacing the perimeter of the room, stopping to toss a log on the fire, then crossing to the patio doors that look out across the orchard.
And then, silence.
I don’t know how much time passes—five minutes? Ten?
I strain to listen, but there’s nothing but the crackling fire.
Has he grown bored with the game? Or is he trying to—
Firelight suddenly floods my hiding spot as he wrenches open the lid and tears the blankets from my body.
“Lookie, lookie what we’ve got here,” he says, eyes flashing. Before I can draw another breath, he hauls me out of the trunk so fast it tips onto its side, then shoves me back against the wall, one hand wrapped around my throat, the other digging into my hip.
I’m trembling in his hold, heart pounding in my chest, my core flooding with molten heat.
Jude inhales deeply, his gaze dark with a mix of predatory hunger and pure animal lust.
“I probably should’ve warned you the game is rigged.” His grin is wicked, fangs gleaming like knives in the firelight as he lowers his mouth to mine. In a dark whisper, he says, “I can smell your sweet little cunt clear across the house.”
I gasp, but there’s no time to suck in another breath before he crashes into me, his mouth punishing in its relentless attack. His tongue thrusts between my lips, forcing my mouth open as he licks and bites and claims what he wants.
He tastes like smoke and sin and my darkest, wildest desires—all the ones I’ve been so afraid to admit, finally shoved into the light.
And I let him. I let him take, and take, andtakeuntil I can’t fucking breathe.
And still, the monster wants more.
Lifting me up, he yanks off my shorts and panties, then shoves two massive fingers inside me, thrusting hard and deep, stretching me wider and wider until…
