Page 204 of Sorrow & Strangers

“I thought I was broken.” That she shattered me as a child and into adulthood. I thought I was dead inside, broken by the past and allowing what happened to break my present. My hands slide over her hips to her lower back, my fingers brushing idle patterns against the bare skin above her swimsuit bottoms. “But you burned through me.” She arches a little at my touch on her lower back, embers sparkling to life in her dark eyes. “What if it consumes me?” I lean closer, our breaths mingling. “What if you consume me?”

And what if I love it? What if I can’t live without it? What if you leave when you realize how worthless I am? How broken I am in every other way?

“Kiss me,” she breathes.

I hesitate for a moment before dipping my head and kissing her softly, a little unsure. She moans but doesn’t deepen it, letting me explore and experiment. I can feel her holding back, but I can also feel her skin warming against the bare skin of my chest where it meets hers. I don’t want her to hold back. Not anymore.

I want to burn.

Keep. Pursue.

I grab her around the waist and lift her against me. She wraps her legs around me and tunnels her fingers into my hair. She fists it with one hand and strokes over one of my horns with the other. The bite of pain in my scalp, combined with the pleasure of her caress, has fire shooting down my spine. I walk across the room and lay her back onto the bed. Following her down, I pin her beneath me and bite her lower lip.

Flames flare to life in her eyes when she looks up at me. Scalding heat radiates from her grip on my horn, feeling as if it is setting every bone in my body alight. I sink into the heat, letting it warm every bit of cold in me.

“There are things I want that I don’t understand, but I think I want them from you,” I murmur, resting my forehead against hers.

I want you to run, and I want to chase you. I want you to fight, and I want to take you even as you do.

Are these my thoughts or the demons?

“Take them,” she says, arching against me.

“What if I hurt you?”

She moans. “What if I like it?”

My fangs ache, and giving in to the voices in my head, both mine and the demon’s, I sink them into her shoulder like a viper, holding her still.

Chapter Eighty-Seven

Summer

After a perfect day of exploring with the stranger, he drops me back at my room.

“I have to go prepare for the event tonight,” he says, cupping my jaw and brushing his thumb along my bottom lip. The tension between us is borderline painful, but it’s been nice to just spend time with him. I won’t think about how I almost broke my rule like fifteen times today.

“Will I see you tonight?”

“You will,” he says, his gaze burning into me.

I glance at his lips and smirk. “If you can find me in my costume. It is a masquerade after all.”

“You think it will be a struggle for me to find you?” His dark eyebrow quirks, and he echoes my smirk.

“Perhaps,” I say, lifting my shoulder in a shrug.

He moves in closer, and I recede a step, pressing my back against the door. “Is that a challenge, princess?” he asks, bracing a hand above my head and looming over me.

I moan softly, my lips parting in invitation. “Definitely.” Fuck, make that sixteen.

“And what is my reward for catching you?” he rumbles.

“What do you want?” I ask breathlessly. It’s a dangerous question, but in this moment, if he asked me for a kiss, I’d give him fucking anything.

He hums softly in thought, and his eyes darken as he watches my tongue slide over my bottom lip. “I’ll think of something.” His smirk deepens, and he lowers his head to sink his teeth into my neck.

I moan and roll my head to the side, instinctively giving him access. He sucks on my skin and grinds his hips against me, letting me feel how much he wants more.