Page 57 of A Game Cursed and Deadly

Tei doesn’t relax, just continues to study me with that unnerving gaze of his. “And you assumed I was one of them?”

“I assumed,” I start, mimicking his tone, “that if random guardians have horns, then the crown prince surely does too.” When he stays quiet, I continue. “Am I wrong?”

Another interminable moment passes as we just stare at each other, both keeping our defenses high. I’m not going to be the one crumbling. If he’s not willing to share even the most innocuous information, then he doesn’t want his freedom badly enough.

Finally, he groans and severs our eye contact. “You’re not wrong. I have horns.”

The small admission is like a sliver of sunlight on chilled skin. “And you will show them to me?”

He looks down. “What are you hoping to accomplish here?”

“You’ll see.” I could just tell him what I’m after, but asking him to trust me in this small way feels necessary. Proof that I’m not fighting a losing battle.

With a long inhale that has his nostrils flaring, Tei throws his head back and closes his eyes. A moment later, black horns sprout from the crown of his head; ridged and spiraled, they keep growing and growing until they’re nearly two feet long, and so thick at the base I couldn’t wrap my hand around them. Mystified, I crawl closer to him and, kneeling on the bed, I reach a finger for the tip.

“Esmeralda,” Tei growls in warning.

I’m too spellbound by the way the black bone shines like obsidian to heed. “Will it hurt if I touch them?”

Tei’s jaw twitches. He’s standing at attention, every muscle corded, like a predator ready to strike. “No, it doesn’t…”

His sentence ends in a hissed breath when my fingers make contact with the tip of his horn. It’s sharp — not quite like his claws, but enough that it could puncture skin with enough pressure. Slowly, I wrap my fist around the bone, feeling all the ridges against my palm as I lower it, following the twists and turns of the spiral. Despite the texture, the material is smooth as marble, except hot to the touch.

Tei sits with his eyes closed and teeth clenched as I continue my exploration. “Esmeralda, stop,” he grits out.

I still. “I thought it didn’t hurt?”

He shakes his head, and I involuntarily clench my fist around his horn. That makes him growl. His fingernails digging in his biceps turn into claws, scratching his own skin and causing deep black blood to trickle out. Before I can do anything, those clawed hands are on me, holding my waist, scraping me even from over my bodysuit. He hauls me in the air to straddle his lap, chest pressed against his heaving one.

His lips press hard on mine. One of his hands runs up my spine all the way to the nape of my neck, tangling with my hair. His claws scratch at my scalp, not enough to break skin, but definitely enough to send a thrill of adrenaline through me.

Using both his horns for perch, I lift myself onto my knees and deepen the kiss. Tei groans against my mouth when I squeeze his horns. He takes the chance to snake his tongue past my parted lips, and I battle it with my own. His hand on my waist presses me closer to him, and I’m not proud to say I bring my aching center against his hard abs. I’m too far gone to care.

This time, when his fangs intrude my mouth and nick my lower lip, I let them. Tei laps at the blood hungrily.

In the span of a heartbeat, I find myself tossed on the bed, back pressed against the mattress and front caged in by Tei’s nearly naked body. His lips descend from mine to my jaw and lower, until they press against the pulse in my neck. When his fangs graze my skin, I moan. Loud.

That breaks Tei out of whatever trance he was in, and he staggers back to the furthest end of the bed. My body aches at his distance. I scramble onto my elbows to look at him as his wide eyes roam over me, from the hair that’s most certainly a tangle to my swollen lips to my disheveled shirt.

He runs a hand, back to its human form, over his face, pushing damp strands of hair back.

“What… what was that?” I ask, still short of breath.

His fangs have also retracted, and he licks his lips. “My horns don’t hurt. They’re highly erogenous.”

Oh.

I’m at a loss of things to say. Despite my best efforts, my gaze roams down his body, to where his cock tents the towel. He may have gotten control of his monster parts, but that one is still raging.

“Was that… the point you were trying to make?” he asks in a whisper.

Heat blazes down my neck. He thinks I wanted to seduce him? I scramble to sit up, retrieving my tote bag which fell to the floor in the heat of the moment.

“No,” I’m quick to answer. “No, I…”

Fishing through the bag, I find the jewelry box and pull out the third trinket. The animal skull’s horns are sharp against my palm. “I figured this was probably…”

I hold the skull in front of Tei, comparing the miniature horns to his. They don’t match. Something inside me deflates. “Oh.”

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