AllFreeNovel
Share Us
His hands slip up to cup my face. “I always dream of what I shouldn’t have. Freedom. Peace.”
Still vague. I wanted to goad him, but his shadows billowed around him, pulsing and throbbing with anger, like a storm might erupt if I triggered them.
“I dream of what I have always desired.” He set his pupils, which darkened, back on me.
He couldn’t possibly mean me, did he?
But he was staring at me like he did. Like a man starved of air, and I was his only oxygen.
“Would Gaksi expect a kiss to finish a first date?” His nose brushed mine. Now it was I who needed air.
I should say no. I should pull back, accept the information I have received, and report back to Flora like the docile, virtuous girl I should be.
But you don’t win blackjack by pulling back.
“Yes,” I dared.
He swept me up in capable arms, stealing my breath away. He pressed his lips to mine, shocking me with the electrifying intensity. His kiss was raw. Exploratory. Passionate. Sparks flew so brightly, I’d kissed no one before, but I never needed to kiss another again.
I wanted… more.
When he pulled back, I pushed forward. When I returned his kiss, one of his hands tightened around my shoulders, moving my lips in a tender rhythm against him, igniting every corner of my soul.
When his tongue parted my lips, I receded.
That’s enough, I thought. If this went any further, I didn’t know if I’d ever stop. First, his tongue would be in my mouth, then mine in his, then I’d be begging him to put it all over me…
Reaper’s face was stricken. Devoted. Devastated.
“Was that—a good date?”
His hesitation broke my heart. “Yes,” I said, placing my hands on his cheeks and kissing his nose.
“If you weren’t forbidden, I would do it all over again.”
ChapterTwenty-Three
THE ORACLE MUSINGS
Revealed: Hunter and Co. will be training on the Diamond today, shirtless, for anyone who cares to see. And I would certainly care to see that pretty boy very much, abhorrent personality aside.
Dallying with any man is a form of sickness in itself.
“Was it a good kiss?”
I nearly leaped out of bed. When I returned home last night, a silver twin bed inlaid with jewels rested against my window. A glossy marble desk faced the other side, and an oak bookshelf sat empty on the far wall. I’d thanked the stars for Gaksi’s refurnishing, slid between the downy sheets of my new bed, and slept like the dead.
“Mind your business, Gaksi.” My stomach flipped, sickness stirring within.
“Oh, it’s everyone’s business, girl. All the demons in the Beyond are chattering,” Gaksi said.
I rubbed my eyes. “What?”
Did he tell people? Bile rose to my throat. I threw back my sheets, hurtled across the clean floor to my bathroom, and retched.
“Many of them are quite loyal to Reaper,” Gaksi said, voice trailing in my necklace. “It brings them joy to see him succeed.”
Strands of energy pulled my hair back, preventing the worst of the vomit from spreading as I fought my hangover—and regret—over the toilet.
