Page 268 of Sorrow & Strangers

“Rafe,” I moan. “Kiss me.”

Rafe pulls his fangs from my shoulder and slams his lips to mine, kissing me wildly and driving me even more insane for him. An orange glow bursts from around me like a solar flare, and I know my red hair is now a mane of flames. The bed creaks beneath us, the frame struggling with not only the ferocity with which I’m being fucked but also the heat emanating from me. I bite his lower lip hard, moaning when I taste his spicy blood.

“Mira,” Rafe growls demonically. “My Mira.”

My toes curl with pleasure. “More . . .”

Rafe, always eager to give me what I need, gives me more, pistoning his hips into me. Again, I find myself teetering at the edge of my orgasm, and with one more thrust, I fall. I scream again, this time even louder. The destructive pleasure consumes everything, and there is no containing it. Even my vision goes red and orange, and I know my phoenix is looking up at this beautiful demon that we are both obsessed with.

Rafe spills inside me, roaring so powerfully that the whole building shudders from it. His hips slow and he presses his forehead against mine. The bed creaks, and it collapses beneath us in a cloud of ash.

I moan. “Rafe⁠—”

“Mira?” I hear Annabeth’s small voice through the door as she knocks softly. Rafe and I both go completely still. “Are you in there?”

Rafe pulls back and glances over his shoulder at the still closed door, both of us holding our breaths and remaining completely silent.

“Mira?” She knocks again. “Rafe broke up with me.” She sniffles loudly.

Rafe winces, and I swallow the lump of guilt lodged in my throat.

Annabeth knocks again. “Mira? Can I come in?” She sobs softly. “I ­really need a friend.”

Rafe stands and buttons his singed jeans, bending. He kisses me deeply before hurrying to the window.

I watch him, paralyzed with guilt. “Just a second, Anna. I’ll come through to your room,” I say, looking around at my disaster of a room.

I pull on shorts and a shirt before shaking the ash from my hair. I glance out the window, watching Rafe run through the forest shirtless. Once he’s out of sight, I leave my room, praying to all the gods to give me the strength to support Annabeth. She isn’t my friend yet, but she has been kind enough to welcome me to the university when I didn’t know anyone. As I knock and open her door, I make a vow that what happened between Rafe and me cannot happen again.

Chapter One Hundred Ten

Summer

Ipace the living room, waiting for Rafe to come downstairs. Embarrassment is making my heart race. The stranger and I both know what I was dreaming of, but he wasn’t actually in my dream, which means I must have been talking in my sleep, or worse . . . moaning.

Right, no more sleeping with him on the phone.

Rafe walks through the front door. He’s shirtless and shoeless, his pants have holes in them like they’ve been burned, and he has the biggest smile on his face.

“Hey,” he says, pulling me into a hug, and my nose wrinkles from the smell of flames emanating from him.

“Hey . . . you coming to the gym?” I ask. It’s obvious he’s been with Mira, but I’m not sure if he’s broken up with Annabeth yet. It can be a tricky thing breaking a kitsune’s heart, and you need to approach it with caution.

“Absolutely. Give me five minutes,” he says, bounding up the stairs.

Alice passes him on the way down, wearing her blood-splattered onesie and yawning widely.

“Rafe’s smiling,” Alice says with a scowl. “It’s weird.”

“I think he was with Mira.”

Alice sniffs after him and nods in confirmation. Fae have a pretty good sense of smell, but it’s nothing compared to a vampire’s. “He’s going to end up getting cursed by a kitsune, and he’s going to deserve it completely.”

Kitsune victims are known as anathema, or the cursed one. It’s not common for them to do full curses, and they are mostly illegal, but that doesn’t mean she won’t do something to make his life hell for a while.

“I know, I’ll try to reason with him,” I say, rolling my eyes.

Alice snorts. “Good luck.”