Page 56 of Death is My BFF

It was time to change the subject. Fast.

“What—what are you going to do with me?” I stammered, as he corralled me backward.Wow, brilliant subject change. “I don’t have much meat on me. I rarely eat vegetables and junk food is my favorite food group, so I definitely don’t taste good—”

Death pinned me to a row of steel shelves with a single finger to my chest. A deliberate gesture of dominance, a movement he clearly enjoyed making, but something had changed since the last time. My fear took a step to the side as I ignited beneath his touch. I was attuned to the sinewy muscle rippling the edges of his silhouette—the leather of his right pant leg grazing my bare skin through a hole in my sweatpants, and the glowering burn of his veiled stare fueling the anticipation of his next calculated move.

“If I were you,” he purred out slowly, intensifying the sweep of heat down my front, “I wouldn’t mention your taste again,cupcake.

And I wouldn’t fuck with me.”

Message received. I must have looked like a pop-eyed toy.

He held that gloved finger on my chest a moment longer, before removing it.

“You didn’t have to save me,” I said softly.

He threw off heat like blazing coals. “My, my, your heart is racing.”

My breath hitched. With a cool expression, I stared into the endless shadow of Death’s face. “Did you expect anything different?”

“Of course not,” he said rather silkily. “Though, I know it’s not entirely from fear.” His laugh was low and seductive as sin. “You mortal women and your strange fetishes for mysterious, psycho-pathic men. It’s sick, really.”

A shameful blush warmed my cheeks. Couldn’t defend myself there.

“I’ll tell you a secret, Faith.” He leaned in, and I battled with the urge to move away. “I always get what I want.”

“Not this time,” I snapped.

“We’ll see about that.”

Although he was practically purring again with that deliciously velvet voice, there was a lethal undertone to his words, which I couldn’t overlook.

“From the memory I saw in the fun house,” I began, “I am going to assume you want my soul because it’s special.”

“Correct.” It was obvious he’d held back a snarky remark.

“I’m going to take a wild guess and say you don’t plan on telling me why you want it.”

“Get to your point.”

“You’re doing a pretty shitty job of convincing me to trust you,”

I said, fighting the slight tremble in my words. “That’s what you want me to do, right? Trust you, so that you can do whatever it is you want to do with me?”

He flexed his fingers at his side, as if wanting to unleash his claws.

“You can’t make me come with you, can you?” I challenged.

“You can’t force me.”

I couldfeelhis glare. “It’s in your best interest to come with me.”

“And that best interest is?”

He clasped his hands behind his back. “You ask far too many questions.”

“Because you’re vague and speak in riddles! This is the longest conversation I’ve had with you, and you don’t even want to have it!”

“Do you want what happened tonight to happen again?” Death inquired, in a dangerously calm voice. “Because that’s exactly what will happen without my protection. Once rumor spreads of your existence, monsters you couldn’t conjure up in your worst nightmares will come after you. They’re drawn to your soul.”

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