Page 21 of Beneath the Watching

I felt my cheeks flush. He glanced down at my lips before slowly dragging his gaze back to mine. An urge to hide from him rippled through me when he reached out and brushed a thumb over my mouth. It was just the briefest touch, but it felt like so much more with the way it lit me up inside.

My eyes fluttered closed for a second when his finger then tugged my lip, and I sucked in a breath. He was watching me carefully, seeming to not take in any oxygen, nor make any sudden moves for fear I would flee. My tongue brushed the tip, and he pulled the digit back. “Mabel,” he moaned my name in warning. “Be careful.”

I was in danger of many things; things I told myself I didn’t want to be any part of. Stefan was a stranger in many ways although I’d been very aware of his existence and here I was, letting him touch me intimately. I was sharing parts of myself I didn’t share with anyone else. My behavior didn’t make any sense to me and yet I couldn’t stop myself, I’d spiraled out of control. The mixed signals he sent were driving me over the edge.

Stefan held himself apart from others, much as I always had, a one-man island. He seemed to prefer lurking in the corners, hiding in the shadows and he dressed to match, his gaze drifting over anyone who’d dare to enter his self-imposed solitary sphere.

I never saw him spend more than two seconds of his time with any of the other men. They were clearly all acquainted with one another yet behaved more like sentinels, guardingthe activity around them without mingling with us commoners. Until recently.

“Careful of what?” I whispered. My head was buzzing, and my cheeks felt like they were burning.

He snickered and said, “Me.”

My hands slid to my lap, and I began picking at a nail where the polish was flaking.

“You didn’t answer me, before,” I mumbled.

Stefan leaned into me, the linen of his shirt brushing my bare shoulder. His body heat pulsed through the fabric, and I wondered what his shoulder would feel like under my touch. Would it be soft and smooth? Would it feel like velvet? I wanted to trace the lines of his tattoos, the ones I saw peeking around his collar and find out where they led.

“I’ve made the answer extraordinarily clear; I believe.”

When I turned my head, his face was inches from my own. If either of us moved, our faces would touch. “Why don’t you want me there?”

For a moment, he looked as if he were daydreaming. “You’re not welcome there.”

The softly spoken words drove a knife through my chest and I shut my eyes as I tried to breathe normally.

Stefan’s fingers gripped my chin lightly and he urged me closer. “Open your mouth,” he ordered, my lids still firmly shut.

He slid his hands around my waist, dragging them to where my dress dipped in the back to explore my skin before he bent his head, thrusting his tongue between my parted lips. His grip shifted downward to rest right above my hipbones, squeezing my flesh while we tasted each other in an exhilarating rush.

As I clutched his shirt, I felt every demand he’d ever made of me while he owned me with his mouth, heard every unspoken promise as his lips slid against mine. The taste of him filled me with visions of smoke and shadows while his hands left burningtrails across my body. My thighs pressed together as I tried to keep some semblance of control and not climb on to his lap.

His hair was just as soft as I’d imagined when I threaded my fingers through the strands at the nape of his neck. I’d only been fantasizing about it for months, how silky it would feel against my cheek and brushing my forehead and it was precisely as I’d imagined.

When Stefan pulled out of my mouth, he ran his tongue up the side of my neck, alternating between biting and sucking, leaving me a whimpering mess. I was getting high off his ministrations, lost beneath his masterful touch in a world with just the two of us where nothing mattered other than leaving myself in his very capable hands.

As quickly as he’d devoured me, he let go, his eyes full of glowing flames while he licked his bottom lip. Movement in my peripheral vision drew me away to see Al and James walking back and the area around our table now mysteriously empty. They stopped to chat with someone in their path, giving us just seconds more time. My heart sank, knowing it was over and sensing Stefan would leave.

“I can’t stop myself; you know. I just show up there,” I stated, continuing what we’d been discussing.

His eyes continued to burn into me, anger and desire wrapped up together in his gaze. My boyfriend and Madison’s stayed where they were, appearing to yell to each other over the music although I couldn’t hear a word of their conversation.

Stefan got up from his seat and I felt the tension radiating from him. Following his eyes, I spotted the man I’d seen with friend Kiara a few times approaching us. Levon’s appearance was unlike how I’d ever seen him before, his clothes wrinkled and dirty.

When he got closer, I thought I spied blood on his hand. He noticed my fixation and made quick use of his cargo pants’pockets, but not before glowering at me with a force that should’ve buried me under the club’s marble flooring. He must have been used to people bowing before him and looking away, which I didn’t do.

For someone who consistently told me they didn’t want me around, the sound that emanated from Stefan’s throat clearly indicated he didn’t want me around anyone else in his circle either. He moved to stand in the way, blocking me in.

“Say one word and I’ll stab you in the throat,” Levon warned my self-appointed bodyguard, glancing at a clump of something on his sleeve.

“Ilya,” Stefan said, gesturing toward his friend and ignoring the order about his appearance. “What happened to you? And I require the same from you.”

Ilya? My curiosity overtook me, and I attempted to shut out the sounds around me to focus on the two men.

“She fled, as you know. I had to intervene.”

“That’s not human or one of us,” Stefan said, nodding at the mess on his friend’s arm. “Let it go.” Stefan’s voice was softer than I’d heard it before, indicating he cared for the man in front of him. My belly ached again and my eyes smarted, listening to his tone. I couldn’t figure out what they were talking about.

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