Page 46 of Their Pretty Little Monster

Suddenly, it’s just him and me again, and my breaths come too quickly.

He’s looking at me, seeming to forget about his meal. His deep blue gaze lingers on my stronger violet hair, then focuses on my matching eyes… and I curl a lock around my finger.

“I’m guessing these changes are somehow related to the ritual?” I taunt, well aware that the ritual changed me.

“It’s your Shadowfen emerging,” he admits. “Being here in Blight, having the magic of the ritual in your body, your true self is finally showing itself.” He pauses for a moment as though waiting for my response, but I’m slightly panicking on the inside, my heart going too fast. Then he continues, “It’s beautiful. And I know it’s a lot to take in, but?—”

“Yeah, it is,” I interrupt, shifting in my chair uncomfortably. “And I’m changing. I feel it inside me, too, and it’s scaring me. You should have told me this would happen.”

“Would it have made a difference?” he asks nonchalantly, which annoys me.

I blink at him, my heart pounding. “Well, yes.”

He leans forward, his presence overwhelming and intense. “You don’t want to understand who you really are?”

I hate the way he says that. It’s too much, and maybe I’m not ready.

“I grew up my whole life being different, being ridiculed for it, bullied. Maybe I just want to stop being different.”

Killian leans closer, the table groaning under the weight of his elbow resting on it, his stare dark and intense.

“You’re not different, Sage. You’re extraordinary. And extraordinary people face extraordinary challenges. You are coming into your strengths and abilities. It’s exciting.”

“Is it?” I exclaim sarcastically. His words hit me hard, making my heart beat faster.

His large hand reaches over, covering mine completely on the table, and the room seems to tilt. That single touch has butterflies twisting in my stomach, my gaze falling to his mouth, to his lips, that tongue that devoured me.

I might be swooning.

“And it’s not fair to praise me when I’m mad at you,” I admit, my insides tangled, my breaths speeding up the longer I stare into his dark, dangerous eyes. His gaze consumes me, the stroke of his fingers on the back of my hand teasing me.

A curl on the corner of his mouth has me hypnotized.

Breaths tear from my lungs, savage and fast.

“Maybe you should stop staring at me that way,” I say, repeating something he said to me when I first arrived.

He breaks into a loud chuckle, the sound addictive. “We’re way past that point, my pretty little monster. We’re true mates, and that means the craving for each other becomes insatiable if left ignored.”

I gasp. “How long will the craving last?”

He shrugs, a predatory gleam in his gaze. “Varies on how much you’re longing for me.”

I burst out laughing.

He reaches over and cups the side of my face with a hand, his finger on my mouth, pushing his thumb past my lips and into my mouth. Something comes over me, something so primal that I draw him deeper into my mouth, sucking on him, my tongue running over him.

The lingering heat bursts through me, and I flush with shame at how much I enjoyed having him in my mouth.

“Tell me that you feel nothing right now,” he teases with a low growl.

My body reacts before my mind can catch up, my lips closing tighter around his finger, my breath hitching. The taste of him, the feel of his skin against mine, sends tingles along my pussy.

I can’t lie to him. I don’t want to.

But admitting it, giving in to this savage hunger I feel for him, scares me more than anything else. Because once I do, there’s no turning back.

I pull away slightly, his thumb slipping out. “I… I can’t.”

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