Page 49 of Stalked By Seduction and Shadows

Luckily, he spoke again before I had to. “You must let me paint you sometime. Or even just a quick sketch. You are nothing short of a muse.”

When the room grew a shade darker and a familiar coil of heat wrapped around my neck, I knew it was finally showtime.

I smiled at Reggie. “I’ll think about it.” I winked at him, softening my noncommittal answer.

He nodded, satisfied, and lifted his drink back to his mouth.

I was off again, my dagger strapped comfortably to my thigh as I played my simultaneous games of chess with immortal blood-drinkers and powerful, wealthy mortals. I knew Rune was near, watching me, even before I met his intense, scalding eyes.

The sex workers and courtesans in the club had begun to eye me with varying levels of curiosity, envy, and disdain. I had a hunch I was only tolerated because I wasn’t cutting into their bottom lines, without the ability to take men down into the mysterious sex dungeons or share my blood.

And gods, did these men and women make being fed from look like the most orgasmic, pleasurable, filthy act imaginable. City-hating village folk had absolutely kept this tidbit about feeding to themselves—the extent to which it made mortals’ eyes roll back into their heads with rapture after each bite.

I couldn’t even watch these acts for too long before I lost my precious concentration. The next time I let my focus slip, my eyes snagging on a courtesan in a gorgeous turned vampire’s lap, I caught Rune staring at me. He stood next to the bulky, frightening woman with a sea of shadows etched into her skin. She was talking to him, but his eyes were trained on me. I could see his muscles rigid and flexed under his black clothing even from all the way across the room. He was at once murderous and divine, a god of death and destruction with every bit of his unholy judgment focused on me.

Then, catching me entirely off guard, he grinned, flashing his fangs. I nearly dropped my tray of drinks.

“Careful,” a shifter man said as he reached out to steady me. As soon as his fingers wrapped around my arm, I could’ve sworn the heat on my neck burned hotter.

Perfect. My pieces were beginning to fall. Rune was about to see just how little control he really had.

I smiled wide, admiring the shifter’s chiseled form as if I hadn’t already done so dozens of times tonight. His friends were rowdy, but he’d been nothing but kind and polite. He was dressed in a burgundy shirt and black pants, his cuffs rolled to show off his veiny forearms and gold watch. His friends had all stopped chatting where they stood around a tall black table in the center of the main floor, each set of eyes focusing on us.

“I’m Finn,” he said.

“Scarlett.”

25

SCARLETT

Finn and I walked back to my place at the end of the night. Snow had been picked up by one of Reggie’s younger, artsy vampire friends. Her mother would likely spontaneously combust if she ever found out.

I, on the other hand, was going to need her to spill every last detail of this tryst as soon as she was back. I knew she could take care of herself. But despite my intrigue, I still worried. She’d been the one who’d warned me of vampire-mortal affairs to begin with. Granted, she’d meant actual relationships, which her affair certainly wasn’t.

As I walked, holding Finn’s arm as he chatted away about athletic competitions I didn’t care about, I was slammed with the unmistakable feeling of being watched.

No, watched wasn’t exactly the right word. It was more like I was being consumed.

It was infuriating. In public, he acted as though my command to stay away was gospel, all but pretending I didn’t exist aside from a few long staring matches tonight. But I knew he watched me. I knew he couldn’t stay away from me just as much as I couldn’t stop searching everywhere for him, scouring for evidence each morning that he’d violated my privacy.

How dare he act like I was his property, ban me from feeding and sex dungeons and having cute boys over to enjoy my lovely new furniture. I would not play his games. I would make him play mine.

I was not the one out of control. I was not the one in danger. I was not his prey.

As soon as we were inside my apartment, I grabbed Finn’s adorable face and kissed him. He happily obliged, shoving far too much tongue in my mouth.

Ew. Work with me here, Finn.

I felt him harden under his black pants immediately, and soon he’d lifted me off the ground and carried me to my bed. He hastily rubbed circles closer to my thigh than my clit, and I had to stifle laughter.

This was just my luck.

Rune’s infuriating words slipped through the cracks as Finn began to grind his sheathed cock against me, hiking up my deep blue dress.

Dull mediocrity, disappointment, and selfish, lackluster performances…

No. Fuck Rune. I was young and new to the city, and I deserved to go home with nice, normal mortal men. And men could be trained, right? I could show him how to bring me pleasure. I could politely nudge him in the direction of my clit.

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