Page 59 of Guarded By the Phantom

“Look, doll. I want you. I want you so bad, okay? It’s kind of pathetic, really.”

She looked up, not yet convinced, but her features softened a fraction. I took a deep breath and removed armor from my palm, cupping her cheek. She swallowed, her throat bobbing, and let me touch her.

“But you and I will never work,” I continued now that I had her attention. “Let’s face it, baby: you are nobility, while I am scum. You’re this innocent good girl who’s afraid of dogearing a book, while I kill people regularly. And I hate to say this, I really do, because I want nothing more than to ride you raw, but I can’t. It would end in tears for both of us.”

She huffed and pushed me away. I stepped back, wishing I could tattoo the feel of her on my skin, because I was pretty sure this was the last time she would ever let me hold her. And yet, I had to do this. If I fucked her, I would belong to her. And who would put me back together after she came to her senses and told me to fuck off?

I might be attractive in the dark of the night, with my bad boy aura, crude language, and abomination dick, but once they saw me in daylight, human girls tended to flee in shame.

And it was fine when it happened with a casual hookup, but with her? I would be destroyed.

She eyed me with that angry glare that made me all hot and bothered, until her lips tipped up in a challenging smile. It made me weak in the knees even as foreboding crept up my spine. She nodded once, coming over until we almost touched. I was frozen in place, staring down at her eerie smile.

“You really think you know everything,” she said, sliding her thumb over my outer teeth. Her scent enveloped me, and my skin tingled, needing to lose the armor and feel her heat directly.

“But you don’t know how hard I work once I have a goal,” she finished in a whisper, standing on her tiptoes.

Her lips brushed my chin, a barely-there kiss, and she pulled back, watching me with dark, determined eyes.

“Goodnight, Phantom. And watch out.”

Chapter 20

Barbara

Ihad to thank my mother, I decided as I got ready in front of my window, looking at the lone ember of Phantom’s cigarette. Because if not for her actions, I wouldn’t have lost all my fucks to give. I supposed Phantom was to be thanked, too, but I wasn’t sure he’d appreciate my gratitude considering what I was about to do.

When I was certain I had his attention, I reached back to unzip my dress. Slowly, I slid it down my shoulders, kneeling on the padded bench in my window nook so he could get an eyeful. Once the dress pooled around my hips, revealing my soft, pink bra, Phantom’s cigarette suddenly vanished, as if he dropped it. I smiled, biting back my nerves. Undressing like this, knowing a man watched, was so far out of my comfort zone.

But I told Phantom the truth. I was a hard worker, and I learned fast, too. Right now, all my determination was focused on him, whether he liked it or not. Since he wanted me anyway, all I had to do was break through his weird scruples.

He said he didn’t want to be my little rebellion. Well, I didn’t want him to be that, either. I simply wantedhim, and so, I’d do everything I could to have him. It shouldn’t be more difficult than mastering a challenging choreography, really.

The tree opposite my window rustled. I stepped out of my dress and knelt back on the bench, biting the inside of my cheek as I toyed with the strap of my bra. Was I brave enough to take it off? With the cigarette gone, I didn’t even know if he was watching.

A dark shape exploded out of the tree, flying gracefully through the air. I fell back with a shriek of surprise when Phantom landed on my windowsill, keeping impeccable balance. He grabbed the edges of my window frame and pressed his face to the glass with an eerie grin.

I landed on my ass when he appeared, and now, I instinctively covered myself with my hands, spooked by his proximity. Phantom’s grin widened when he saw it. He raised one hand, wagged his finger chidingly, and fell off the sill in an easy leap.

I knew he’d be fine but still rushed over to open the window and stuck my head out. Phantom waved at me from the ground.

“Don’t play adult games with me, little girl,” he called out with a cackle before disappearing around the corner.

I pulled back into the room, slowly closing the window while my face burned. I felt humiliated, yes, but mostly furious.Little girl?I would show him a little girl.

And yet, I had no idea what to do next. Maybe it was naïve of me, but I thought he’d give in if he saw me undress for him. Men were supposed to be easy like that, according to some of my friends back at school.

“Just take off your clothes,” Jenna once said with a shrug, like it was obvious. “And I promise you, he will be yours.”

Well, I did take off some clothes, but I chickened out before I went through with it. Maybe it wasn’t the best strategy for me yet. But what else could I do?

Feeling a bit defeated, I got in the shower, washing off the remains of the gala. Then, I wrapped myself in my fluffiest pink bathrobe, put on a hair mask, and sat down at my desk.

How to seduce a man, I typed into the search bar.

Half an hour later, I had an entire list of useless things. “Lean in when he speaks, laugh at his jokes, play with your hair, hold intimate eye contact, compliment him, listen to him…” It was all things I’ve been taught to do in conversation with any man, whether he was seventeen or seventy, no matter our relationship. It was the stuff well-behaved girls were supposed to do. Listen to him and laugh at his jokes. Yes, that about summed it up.

But none of the websites I looked at explained how to actually get a man into bed with me. I stuck out my chin in thought, my fingers hovering over the keyboard.

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