Page 96 of The Villain

“She let you kill him but left me on bans?” I pout.

“Tera didn’t know about me at this point. And I didn’t know about you,” he says darkly. “I don’t do bans. This was personal.”

“I’m proud of you,” I whisper with a smile. “He needed to go.”

“Yeah,” he mutters as he reads next to me.

“And Shade?”

“I fell off,” he scowls. “I was pretending to be weak.”

“I did that once,” I nod with a frown. I pick his hand up and kiss the back of it. “You need to stop. If you play weak long enough you become prey.”

“Is that what happened to you?” He turns to me with a concerned look.

“Yes.” I’m positive about that. I could have pretended to be stronger but I don’t think that would have mattered in the long run. As my normal self, people are terrified enough to not test it. Except his exes. They’re fucking morons.

I roll to my side and prop my head up with my palm.

“I know you feel like hiding is your best option. Tera does it too. I’m hoping you take this advice more seriously than she did, statue. Stop faking it. You’re a predator, not prey. Not very many people test a predator. Everyone tests prey. Stop letting yourself suffer for fools.”

“Did you suffer for fools?” His tone is too tight to be teasing but he’s trying.

“I didn’t suffer,” I huff a laugh and stroke his cheek. “Pain is all I had. My emotions are too stunted for much else, even if I remembered it all. But, yours aren’t. You can feel things I’ll never understand. The need to watch someone suffer. Why do that when you can get home and do the things that you like?”

“Because that’s what I like,” he tells me quietly. “Too much.”

I shrug with one shoulder. “Then take your time with it. You’re after the right people. As long as you don’t get caught I don’t give a shit.”

He clasps the back of my neck in a firm hold. “Do you know how scared I was to let you see this?”

“No. I never will, either,” I warn him. “I have a lot of limitations when it comes to emotion.”

“I’ll feel them for both of us, then,” he mutters.

He leans in to press a soft kiss to my lips.

“That sounds exhausting. I’d rather you relax and stay happy.”

He starts to chuckle and shifts until I’m tilted enough he can lay over me.

“Watch the figurine,” I mutter as his lips descend on mine again.

He stops in surprise. “What the fuck, Evie?”

“It’s important to you. Be gentle with it,” I pull him back down to stroke my tongue along the line of his lips.

He settles into me to start his drugging kisses again. His body is looser now. Whatever tension he was struggling with over this reveal is soothed enough he can give his entire focus to me. It’s heady.

I’m just parting my legs for him when his phone starts ringing again.

My head drops back. “I do feel anger. Strongly at this point.”

“I am about to kill a motherfucker,” he mutters and gets out of the bed again while he curses.

“What, Tera?” He practically yells.

After a brief hesitation he snaps, “Yes, she’s awake. If you’re coming over, do it. You’ve ruined this twice now.”

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