Page 57 of When the Woods Go Silent

“Well, I know a few places where the trees give head space for that. And I have snacks.” I pat the bag across my shoulder, full of sample recipes.

“Okay, now you’re just bragging. It’s really not a good look,” Ruby says, giving me a stern glare that sends a surprising need surging through my body. What is she doing to me, this back-talking little human? I want to bend her over and-

She takes off at a run, and I swallow an instinctive snarl. It’s all I can do not to crash through the trees after her and pin her to the ground, taking everything I want like the beast I am. This one is so much trouble, but I can’t seem to stay away from her. Idon’t like the idea that Idris could be right about me developing a dangerous need for Ruby’s blood.

Moving slowly to give myself time to calm the fuck down, I’m surprised again when she chooses the same spot I’d been planning to show her.

“Perfect, right?” Ruby asks, already spreading out the blanket. Still wondering what the hell I’m doing having a picnic in the woods with something that should be prey, I pull out a few containers of the food I created earlier today.

“This is tomorrow’s menu, so you have to keep it secret,” I warn, thinking of how much this woman shares with other humans online. Ruby smirks at me, then opens each cardboard container, tasting everything one bite after another. Her moans and sighs would normally have me at her throat, taking exactly what I need, but instead I resist, the hungry ache in my jaw growing into a sweet torture that’s somehow becoming as addictive as my blood is to her.

Gobbelin blood always finds the weakest, the most open to the influence of magic, and renders them helpless and happy. They sleep right through the bloodletting, remembering nothing when they wake. And Ruby, for all the strength and survival instincts she has as a smart young human, is incredibly, disastrously susceptible to my magic.

“These are my favorite,” she says, taking another soft cookie made with goldenberries and hazelnuts.

Her tongue darts to the corner of her mouth to catch a crumb, and I hold back another possessive growl. There’s no other gobbelin here to take what’s mine, but the animal need to claim her anyway is like a thousand crystals of ice pricking my mind. Each bite draws her deeper under the spell as she consumes my blood with the sugar and fruit, and as Ruby gazes up at me with heavy eyes, I can’t resist any longer.

I surge my body over her small form, caging her between my arms and diving my mouth onto hers as she squeaks breathlessly. Even her skin tastes like ambrosia.

I suck at her lips, tasting my blood on her tongue, and a feral insistence beats relentlessly behind my eyes. She hasn’t fallen asleep yet, and unlike my full-blooded gobbelin family, I refuse to fill her mind with fear. Fae are better than that.

If I lose control, neither of us will be able to save her.

I’m shaking with the effort of holding back my teeth, and my cock is like steel between us, but I can still tell when she notices the strange power she holds over me. Her scent grows heavy with desire, and her hips raise to meet mine. Her body undulates against me, rubbing slowly up and down the length of my shaft through our clothes, and the kiss flares into something dangerous, explosive.

“Wait... want to... slower,” she pants, pulling away. The moment shatters, offering me a choice.

Will I be a man to her? Or a beast? I want to believe my fae side is stronger, but I’ve never tested it like this.

“Ruby,” I grind out, a hard warning in my voice. “I’m not made for slow.” The last shred of my willpower is nearly gone.

She stops moving, a look of guilt flashing across her pretty face. “Holy hell. I’m sorry. I’m giving you mixed signals, aren’t I? Sorry,” she says again, squirming to the side. I raise up on my elbows, letting her escape as some of the heat between us dissipates into the chilled night air. The darkness has grown thick and velvety around us, and I sense the trees watching carefully. They don’t trust me, and I don’t blame them.

“I want to respect you,” I manage, hoping she won’t hear the lie in my voice.

I want to be very, very disrespectful to this little killer kitten.

It’s a new experience for me to hold back, and it’s one reason I never fuck humans. They’re too fragile for my appetites. I’mnot quite sure why I’m doing any of it now, but the idea of hurting Ruby feels as much like torture as never seeing her again.

“I... I think I want to wait. I want to. I really, really want to,” she says, her breath coming in little puffs as she tries to calm the lust I can smell coming from her skin in waves. Fucking hell, she’s making this hard.

“You want to what?” I ask, unable to resist this at least. I can pretend to be good, but I’m just not made that way. The beast within will always find a way out.

Her cheeks flush even more, and my grin widens. Is she going to play shy now? How unexpected.

“You want to kiss me?” I ask, brushing some strands of hair away from her flushed face.

Ruby nods, her lashes sweeping her cheeks as she closes her dark eyes briefly, relishing my touch.

“You want more than a kiss?” I tease, my fingers dragging down between her breasts before grasping her hip, pressing her down into the forest floor with a bit more strength than I’ve used with her before. She gasps a little, and I feel how hard it is for her to resist me.

It makes me want to push harder, to see how much she can take before she breaks.

“I want... to wait,” she finally manages, and I find I’m actually pleased to be playing this game. How much fun will it be to break her down, bit by bit? Erode her willpower more each time, until she’s begging for me to fuck her?

The gobbelin animal in me retreats, leaving the game-playing fae side in charge as I decide I want to play with my little kitten until she’s so desperate that she forgets to be shy. So needy that she begs me with the dirtiest words she can imagine, and so hungry that she tries to force me the way I’m denying her right now.

This game is exactly the distraction I’ve been needing, though I’m annoyed that Arlo was right.

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