Page 82 of Psycho Devils: Aran's Story 2

Arabella smacked her lips louder.

Splat. Another thing dropped next to her foot.

Now that my mate song wasn’t interfering, I could hear minutiae I must have missed before. I sat up straighter and leaned forward. “What did you just drop under the table?” I asked her.

“What did she do?” Corvus leaned closer.

“Calm down,” John said, and I knew from the defensive tone of his voice that he was covering for her.

Arabella huffed, “Nothing,” and counted odd numbers under her breath.

The chair beside me squeaked as Corvus looked under the table.

The temperature at the table increased.

His voice was deadly. “Why is there a pile of meat beside your chair?”

I sat straighter with incredulity because I’d known there was something off about Arabella’s eating pattern.

“You will eat meat to retain your strength,” I ordered.

She scoffed and tapped her foot. “I don’t negotiate with slavers.”

“Good thing it’s not a negotiation.” I lunged across the table and wrapped my fingers around her throat.

Ever so slowly I dragged my callused thumb across the smooth planes of her neck. Her skin was impossibly delicate.

She shivered beneath my touch, and I masked a similar response.

I moved up to her jawline.

Arabella held her breath, and anticipation unfurled in my gut. I’d wanted to touch her face ever since I’d shoved my thumb into her mouth and she’d sucked it wantonly.

The feeling had been obscene.

This time, I touched her face because I wanted to feel for myself how different she was as a woman. I didn’t need to touch her to know what she looked like; it was an ownership thing. A marking. To let her know what it would feel like when I rubbed my bodily fluids all over her.

Her chin was delicate. I dragged my nails up to her cheekbones and made sure they pinched her skin lightly as I felt her lips.

Her mouth was lusher than Orion’s, and her lower lip was ridiculously full.

I felt a scab and frowned.

Had she been picking at her lip? Was that the scratching sound I hadn’t been able to place? I’d deal with that later.

For now, I forced my fingers upward and couldn’t hold back a scoff. Her nose was a ridiculously small thing with a gentle slope. Long, soft lashes fluttered as I slowly traced her eyes.

Orion was right; the enchantment had disguised how large they were.

She had doe eyes.

My fingers were featherlight across her eyelids. Sooty lashes fluttered and sent little pinpricks of sensitivity shooting into my groin. I smirked and leaned forward. “Hideous. Just like I thought.”

My fingers grasped at empty air as she wrenched away from me and said, “You don’t get to touch me without permission.”

I chuckled and sat back with my arms crossed like I didn’t have a care in the world, even though my fingers still buzzed with the rush of touching her.

She might act unaffected, but I knew my words got to her.

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