Page 33 of Out of the Darkness

He could honestly say that he was surprised that she hadn’t put up more of a fight when he told her he would be staying with her. It wouldn’t have made a difference since her life was on the line, but he hadn’t expected her to give in so easily. He guessed she understood how dire the situation was, which was good. She had only recently stopped fighting him so much, and he didn’t want to go back to that.

“So, how long were you with Isabelle?” Madelyn called from the bathroom.

He chuckled and shook his head. She was trying to make it seem like a casual question, but he could hear the bite of jealousy in her voice.

Over the last couple of hours, he had answered every question she had about shifters and his time with the Cortez family, refusing to lie or keep things from her any longer. It wasn’t what he was used to doing, opening up like that, but for her, he vowed to make the effort. It hadn’t been easy, and he had ended up telling her a lot more than he thought he was capable of.

It felt as though she had sliced him open to expose his very soul. He told her about his kills, about the torture he inflicted, and he told her a bit more about the monster hiding inside of him with the insatiable bloodlust. He had thought that knowledge would make her run for the hills, and he wouldn’t have blamed her for it, but instead, she seemed to accept it as a part of him.

It did not go unnoticed though that she tended to get a bit squirrelly whenever he brought up Isabelle, and he had wondered when she was going to ask about her directly.

“We were never together,” he replied. “Not in a relationship anyway.”

The bathroom door opened, and Madelyn stepped out looking good enough to eat. She had pulled her hair up into a messy bun, her face was freshly washed, and she was wearing short sleep shorts and a tank top with no bra underneath. Even in the dim light, he could see her nipples peeking through the thin material of her shirt, and his mouth watered.

“But you slept with her,” she stated pointedly.

He shrugged as his eyes drank her in, his sweats doing nothing to hide how much he liked what he saw. “Yeah, but it was just a way for us to blow off steam, to scratch an itch. There were never any emotions behind it. Two people don’t have to be together to fuck.”

“Maybe there were no emotions for you,” she said as she climbed into the bed and sat in the middle of the mattress, next to his hip, while tucking her feet beneath her. “But Colby said that it broke her heart when you left.”

Xavier snorted. “Colby is a fucking liar.”

“Maybe. But you also said that Colby may want to hurt me in order to hurt you. He knew you were into me before he found out you were a shifter. What if he told me about her to make me doubt this? Doubt us?”

“I’m sure he did,” he agreed easily. He wouldn’t put it past Colby to do just that. “But that doesn’t mean he was telling the truth. There was never anything other than sex between Isabelle and me, so you have nothing to worry about.”

“I’m not worried,” she said quickly, the tone of her voice giving her away.

He chuckled, not believing her for a second. “Whatever you say, Madelyn.”

She rolled her eyes but couldn’t hide the blush that crept to her cheeks. “Okay, I think it’s time we talk about you marking me the way you did.”

Unable to go another minute without touching her in some way, Xavier lunged forward and pushed her down onto the bed, his hips settling between her legs. “No. No more talking.”

“Xavier,” she said seriously.

He sighed. It wasn’t that he was trying to avoid the conversation. He just didn’t see the point of it. He already told her why he did it, and there was no taking it back. Besides, there were other things that he wanted to do much more than talk, like burying himself in her tight little pussy.

“It’s already done, so there’s not much to talk about, is there, little dove?”

“Yes, there is. I only said that I would give this a shot. But you went and marked me, something you claim is permanent. Why?”

“Because you are mine,” he said simply. “And you will always be mine.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “So, I don’t get a choice in the matter?”

“You would have chosen me anyway. I just skipped past all the bullshit.”

“You don’t know that for sure.” Despite her words, she wrapped her arms around his neck while worrying her lip in between her teeth. “I could still change my mind about us.”

A grin spread across his lips as he shook his head and nipped at her jaw. “No. You couldn’t.”

He watched as her lips pressed into a thin line, her eyes bouncing between his. He was silently daring her to deny what they both already knew to be true. She couldn’t change her mind about him any more than he could change his about her. The fact that she was still trying to do so was irritating.

Thankfully, she seemed to think better of fighting him on it. She sighed heavily. “Well, no, I couldn’t. Not now—you made sure of that,” she relented softly as he began trailing kisses down the side of her neck. He loved the moan that came out of her because of it. She was always so receptive to him, and it drove him crazy, knowing that he held all the power. “Are we crazy? I mean, this is… this is so unconventional.”

Lifting his head, he met her eyes. “Yes, we are absolutely crazy. But who the fuck cares? This here”—he motioned between the two of them with his hand—“it’s between us. No one else. Now, are you done with all the questions? I’d like to get back to what I was doing.”

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