Page 30 of Eye Candy

“I made it as a prototype for my brother years ago,” I told her. I had a thing for biting while my brother had a thing for tearing his enemies apart, for feeling his metal claws sink into their flesh. Yeah, neither my brother nor I were particularly sane, I guess, but that’s what made life fun.

“You made this?” Laina sounded breathless. She looked silly with the claw on her hand, but she was amazed by it all the same. “Is your brother Freddy Krueger?”

I chuckled at that. “No, he’s not. More like a beast.” She struggled to take it off, so I knelt down to help. I gripped the gauntlet and helped her hand out of it, carefully setting it on the coffee table afterward. “So, you see, my work can be quite practical, too.”

I still knelt beside her, and I ran my tongue along my sharp canines when she turned to look at me. Damn it. I really could imagine sinking my teeth into that pretty, porcelain skin andmarking her up. “I could make something like that for you, if that interests you.”

Would this girl like to tear into someone? Would she like inflicting pain? I couldn’t say for sure, but I hazarded a guess:yes.

“I don’t think that’s something I could get away with,” she was slow to say.

“Princess, you’d be surprised at what you can get away with in this city.” Her name was Laina, but I think I liked calling her Princess. “How about I sketch up some ideas and send them to you? We can find something that works for you, I’m sure of it.”

“How much do you cost?”

I smirked at her, flashing her my teeth again and, once more, drawing her focus to them. “For you, Princess, I don’t cost a thing.” I should get up, should put some distance between us, but I rather liked kneeling before her.

Her cheeks flushed again. “I meant how much for your work.”

“Oh, well, that’s something you and I could discuss later. I’m sure we could come to an arrangement, you and I.” I lifted a hand to her hair. She was so small, even sitting on the couch with me on my knees before her brought us to about the same level. My fingers took some of her bubblegum pink hair between them, and I let out a hard sigh. “I could eat you up, Princess.”

Laina breathed a little harder after that, but she didn’t pull away. “Do you always say that to your possible future clients?”

Again, I grinned at her. “Only the ones I could eat up. You just happen to be the first. Normally my clientele are a lotless…” My fingers twirled her hair between them, catching some blue strands with it. “…adorable.”

“I’m not adorable.” She pouted at that, but I could hear how half-hearted her resistance was.

“Cute, then?”

“I’m not cute, either.”

“Hmm. I think I’ll beg to differ on that one.” The hand touching her hair fell to her arm, drawing down it and causing the girl to shiver. “You’re like a Barbie doll. Tell me, do you taste like cotton candy, too?”

Okay, that was probably a step too far, but I couldn’t help myself. This girl was like a light in the middle of the night, the lone brightness in an otherwise dark world, and I was nothing but an insect drawn to its flame.

The breath Laina let out after that was shaky, almost like she struggled to keep her composure. “I don’t know,” she whispered. Based on the fact she wasn’t pulling away from me, I’d bet anything she felt it, too. She was curious about me, attracted to me, in ways words couldn’t describe.

“I bet you do,” I spoke, the hand dancing along her arm moving to the top of her hand, in her lap. “I bet anyone who has a taste of you is addicted for life. All sugar and sweetness, how could anyone resist? I bet I’m not the only one who’d like to eat you up either.”

She didn’t say anything to that, not for a few moments, at least. Eventually, she breathed out, “You’re… not what I thought you’d be.”

Taking my hand off hers was perhaps the hardest thing I’d had to do in a while. In reality, all I wanted to do to this girl was toss her over my shoulder, carry her to my bed, and show her what I did to candy.

I ate it. I sucked on it. I devoured it.

And then I’d do some things I’d never do to candy.

I still knelt before her, though my hand now rested on the couch beside her thigh. “And what did you think I’d be, Princess?” I was very glad I’d only let her in; I didn’t think either of her guards would appreciate the way I was staring at her, how I’d touched her, or the things I’d told her.

I know, I know, it was all very unbecoming, very inappropriate for someone I’d just met, let alone the mayor’s daughter who’d just escaped being held captive. But, again, I just couldn’t help it. Something about her pulled at me in a way no one else had.

“I don’t know,” she whispered. “Just… different.”

“Am I a disappointment?” I asked, slow to grin at her once more. “Do you find me disappointing?”

“Disappointing isn’t the word I’d use,” she was slow in saying, fidgeting with her hands to hide the way her thighs clenched together. “You’re very, uh, intense and—”

“And?”

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