Page 99 of Stone Cold Touch

His warm breath danced along my cheek. “Yes.”

Did that make it okay? I wasn’t sure. “I don’t want to think about this.”

“You don’t have to. Why don’t you sit down?”

Because there didn’t seem to be much else I could do, I made my way around the edge of his bed and sat among the king-size pillows. His scent was everywhere, and when I closed my eyes, inhaling deeply, I remembered being here before, on this bed...in his arms.

A warm flush traveled over my skin and my eyes drifted shut. When I reopened them, I saw Roth striding toward the bed with a long tray in his hands. Several plates were covered with silver tops.

I sat up straighter, confused. “Did I fall asleep?” It had felt like seconds had passed when I’d closed my eyes.

He laughed as he sat, placing the tray between us. There were two tall glasses filled with ice, sitting next to two cans of soda. It was like room service provided by a hot, half-naked, demon dude. “No. You were sitting here singing.”

“I was?”

“Yep. ‘Paradise City.’” He smiled as he peeked up at me through thick lashes. “I think I’m rubbing off on you.”

For some reason, that didn’t sit well with me, but then he started removing trays and I fell in love—in love with all the glorious, wonderful food placed before me. A buffet of meat, grease and salt.

Between Roth and me, the food was gone in a nanosecond. As he gathered up the plates and took them into his kitchen area, I lay on my back and patted my stomach. “My belly is happy.”

“I bet it is.” There was a sound of water running and then it stopped. Not even a second passed before he was sitting down beside me. Placing a hand on the other side of my shoulder, he leaned over me. “How are you feeling?”

My lips split into a wide smile. “Good. Great. Happy. Maybe a little tired, but I feel like—”

“I get the point,” he said, chuckling. His head tilted to the right as the intensity of his stare increased until it felt as though he could see right through me. A tense look appeared on his face as he carefully picked the strands of my hair off my shoulders and spread them out on the pillow. “I wish you would feel this way later, but you won’t.”

My heart turned over as he lowered his gaze. “You’re going to hate yourself after this, even though you didn’t hurt that woman. To her, it will be like having a hangover after a bad night of partying. And she won’t miss that tiny part of her soul that you took. Not that she missed any part of her soul that she willingly gave for every atrocious sin she committed.” He sighed heavily, as if there was an invisible weight settling across his shoulders. His lashes swept up. “I didn’t mean for you to do this when I brought you here. Sucky and Inky should’ve stayed away from you. I should’ve made sure of that.”

He gave a little shake of his head. “I just wanted you to see how the other half lives. Not those two bastards. They’re bad news, but not...not all of us are like that. I wanted you to see that. For you to see that what’s inside you...” He tapped a finger off my stomach. “Isn’t bad, no matter what that asshole of a clan leader says to you or how he makes you feel.”

“Same to you.”

A brow arched. “What does that mean?”

I reached up, tappingmyfinger off his chest. “You are not as bad as you like to think. You are capable of acts of great kindness.”

He snorted. “You’re high.”

“Am not.” I poked him again. “You’ve done things that humans with souls wouldn’t do. You—”

His hand encircled my wrist, pulling it away from his chest. “Everything I do is for a purely selfish reason. Trust me on that.”

I didn’t believe him. I went to pull my arm away, but somehow all I managed to do was pullhimcloser. The muscle in his arm flexed as he hovered over me, supporting his weight. The warmth of his body once again seeped into mine. Bambi stirred. I really liked that snake, I realized. She slithered over my skin, tickling me as her head reached my shoulder, seemingly compelled by Roth’s closeness. A faint smile crossed his lips as he spotted Bambi, and I wondered if he missed her.

Our eyes met and that feeling from earlier was back, slipping through my veins. The words bubbled out of me. “Kiss me.”

Flecks of amber darkened in his eyes. His face tensed, almost as if he was in pain, and I wasn’t sure why that request would bother him so. “Layla...”

I tugged on my arm again, and he came even closer. When I spoke, our lips were inches apart. “Kiss me.”

His lashes swept down, shielding his eyes. “You don’t know what you’re asking for.”

“Yes, I do.”

He shook his head as he let go of my hand. “You don’t. You’re really—”

I pushed Roth and he landed on his back with force, bouncing the bed. It might have been the fact that I’d caught him off guard, but, either way, I took advantage of it. I threw my leg over his hip and sat down, pressing the palms of my hands into his shoulders.

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