Page 173 of Mama Si's Paradise

My jaw touched the floor. “You wouldn’t,” I whispered, and I don’t know why a part of me wasgiddyabout this whole thing.

How dare he put that on me?!

“Oh, I will,” he said, raising his head to give me the full intensity of his mischievous smile.Fuck me,my panties were dropping.

Who even looked like that?!

“I brought them here for you. If you don’t want them to live, then they won’t,” Grey continued.

I climbed back down a couple steps, saying, “Idowant them to live!” more frustrated at myself, at the thoughts in my head and that heat between my legs, than I was at him.

Grey said, “Very well, then. I’ll see you there tomorrow.”

He turned around and walked away, leaving me staring behind him, half-incredulous, half-pissed, but with a big, goofy,idiotsmile on my face.

Damn him.

I hadno chance of even trying to think through the events of the night, what happened in Faerie’s Aerie, what Valentine said. All of it would have to wait for tomorrow.

That night was the first night I hid under the covers and risked touching myself. The tension was too much, and I couldn’t fucking sleep otherwise.

I came embarrassingly fast with Grey’s face in my mind, fully aware that I was absolutely screwed.

Thirty-Eight

Sleep leftme at two in the morning, and I was burning. I had nothing but a thin satin nightgown on, but I still felt like I was lying in purgatory, not a bed. My skin was on fire and logic said I should have been sweating like a pig, but I wasn’t. The heat was coming from deep inside me, somewhere I couldn’t see, somewhere almost out of my reach. So, I got up and I went to the window, and I opened it as far as it would go, but even the night air felt hot against my skin. I stayed there, almost falling asleep on the windowsill, breathing in fresh air until I cooled down somewhat, thinking maybe I had caught a bug in Faeries’ Aerie. Maybe I got sick with a virus or something because I was most definitely feverish.

And that was okay. I’d been in contact with foreign creatures,magicalcreatures, and my immune system needed a boost. No need to panic. I was just a bit sick. Nothing some good sleep and some soup couldn’t fix.

By three a.m. I went back to bed again, feeling a tiny bit better having breathed in that fresh air.

What could have been minutes later, I heard the door opening as if from a dream.

But my eyes seemed to be glued together, the sleep-like state I was in not letting me go, pulling me under harder.

Fuck, I was burning. I was going to combust into flames any second. It hurt in the pit of my stomach, deep in my bones. It hurt as if someone was digging holes all over me or cutting my skin with a blade on fire or pulling me apart all at the same time.

A hand on my cheek.Cold.

“Fall.”

Grey’s voice traveled inside my ears and gave a small shock to my entire system. I wanted to open my eyes so badly, but my body didn’t obey. I wanted to call out his name, to tell him to keep his hands on me because I was burning, but the sound that left my lips was just a moan.

“You’re okay,” Grey said, and I felt his breath blowing against my mouth. Cool breath. He was there, in my bed, right over me. I felt him but he was standing on all fours, not falling on top of me. He only kept his hands on my cheeks.

Move!I shouted at myself in my head, and I somehow managed to move my arms up just a little to grab him by the shoulders.Nakedshoulders.

Fuck, his skin was ice-cold. It washeaven.

“Grey,” I whispered, desperate to tell him to keep touching me, but I couldn’t get my jaws to function properly yet.

“I’m right here. You’re okay, Fall. You will be just fine,” he promised me over and over again—but he didn’t understand. I focused all of my being in my eyes, to open them, to see his face.

I needed him to understand, damn it!

By some miracle, it worked. My eyes opened a slit and Grey was right there, his face over mine, his wide grey eyes bloodshot…his fangs extended just below his lower lips.

Chills shot down my back, relieving mefrom the fire if only for a moment, and my eyes opened wider. His fangs were showing, and his face was full of sharp edges—a monster, but he looked to be in pain at the same time, too.

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