Page 73 of Monsters in Love: Lost in the Underworld

He swallowed again. “I have never felt loneliness, nor have I tired of my task. I don’t need anything else.”

His words didn’t match his motions. He seemed to know that himself. He avoided the lie, breaking our eye contact to once again stare over the water. As his head turned, I feigned a forward stumble, slipping my hand under his clothing and touching warm metal…

With the speed of a whip, Charon snatched my hands. His gaze snapped to mine, barely long enough for me to register the rage, betrayal, and…hurtin his features.

It cut through me like a knife.

Was this remorse? I hadn’t been remorseful in years.

With a forceful jerk, my hands were whirled behind my back and I was pressed forward to the side of the boat. The ferry rocked dangerously as he kicked me so that my knees buckled.

I cried out with fear, struggling to get free, but it was no use. He used his hold at my back to shove me even further forward until I hung over the side of the ferry.

My nose was only a scant breath from the Styx—the river that could siphon my soul.

“You dare to steal from the Ferryman, Little Thief?” Charon growled against my ear. His entire body was pressed against mine, holding me in place. “I should throw you overboard, let the Styx take you. I could watch everything you are drain from your eyes until you were nothing but iridescence in the water.”

Even as he threatened me with a fate worse than death, I was conscious of how his body pressed into mine; the feel of his thighs, strong and thick, pinning me into place. The way his chest seemed to wrap around my own, so much larger than my body.

I shouldn’t be attracted to Charon, and I certainly shouldn’t be focusing on that attraction while he promised me death.

A sobering look down at the swirling current washed away my distractions. I began to tremble. “You don’t understand.”

“I don’t need to.”

He inched me closer to the water so that my skin barely met its cool touch. A tiny thread of sensation tugged at my chest. I squirmed and kicked, managing to lift my face enough that I didn’t touch the water, but still hung dangerously close.

He pushed against me harder until the wood of the hull dug into my ribs. Yet, something else—something new—was also pressing into me.

I rolled my hips against him, eliciting a sound that was something between a snarl and a moan. Charon’s hard length slid against my ass.

“Is it truly wrath you feel, Charon? Or did you merely want an excuse to bend me over the side of your ferry?”

His shout of frustration made my ears ring. Charon jumped to his feet, ripping his body from mine. I jerked when he hauled me up with him. My body protested the sudden movements, but he showed no care. I was a rag doll, his toy to move at his will. When we were both upright he released me. I spun to face him, ready to take on my adversary.

The movement was too quick.

I lost my footing and stumbled backward, falling towards the bow of the ferry.

Charon

Moira gruntedas her back slammed against the deck of my boat. A growl quickly followed, raw and animalistic for such a beautiful creature.

Beautiful? Treacherous. A treacherous creature, a fact I would do well to remember.

She had tried to steal from me—to take the one thing of importance.

For a moment, I had given in to her temptation. I thought I was content, but the more this dangerous mortal amused me, the more of her presence I craved.

I followed her forward. Pain ricocheting up my legs when my knees hit the deck. My body fell, my weight resting onto my hands and knees, caging her beneath me.

My little thief was still more fiery than a fury. Moira raised her fists to strike me, clearly not having learned her lesson.

I was faster than her, stronger. Her wrists felt frail in my hands as I captured them and shoved them above her head.

“Brute!” she spat, dark eyes full of contempt and rage.

“Thief!” I snarled back.

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