Page 85 of Switching Graves

“No, I walked in, foundmythings.” I pause to raise a single, disappointed brow at her and my heart jump-starts at the pure terror that crosses over her features. God, I fucking love playing with her. “Then I made my way in here and waited for you.”

The lie slips out easily, practically begging her to challenge it, so we can have some real fun.

All her anger has morphed into fear at being caught with the journals. She couldn’t pay attention to another word I said after calling her out for stealing from me, and that hardened stance she held before withered away to something weak and cowering.

“I was going to return them,” she practically whispers, voice shaking.

“There will be plenty of time to punish you for stealing,” I assure, utilizing the opportunity to advance on her, wrapping my hand around her throat as I step behind her, then quickly drag us toward the mirror. The towel falls off her head and her nightgown succumbs to my rough touch, straps dropping off her shoulders as it bunches up at her abdomen. My palms remain possessively against her neck and hip to trap her against me.

The room still smells of her shampoo. Wet, humid vapor floats around us, clinging to my skin and fogging the mirror. Ican hardly make out the expression on her face, but those wide eyes are unmistakable.

“You are quite the headache, aren’t you?” I tease, wrapping my forefinger and thumb around her chin to tilt her jaw back and force her to look up at me. When those oddly colored eyes meet mine, I have the stark realization that she’s been hiding her secret right out in the open. Right in those violet irises.

An Aeternum.

She doesn’t possess the ability to manipulate my thoughts, as Poppy Ellery should.

She controls time. A seamstress stitching together the fabric of past, present, and future.

I’ve only met one other Aeternum who carried the same traits, and she’s long gone.

So, who the fuck is standing before me? And why don’t I care either way?

She swallows, the motion drawing my gaze to her throat, where my fingers tighten. She shifts her hips, digging her ass further into my groin.

Arousal has her cheeks tinged pink, brows tilted upward in a quiet desperation.

She likes this. She enjoys being at my mercy—a plaything for me to use however I see fit. But only in these intimate moments. Only when no one else is around, and she isn’t expected to appear as the strong, confident woman she is.

I lean forward, pressing my smiling lips against hers. She makes me crazy. Her presence drives me to delirium. Just as she enjoys settling into a role where she’s not expected to think or do or say, I enjoy the opposite. The uncapped control.

We are yin and yang. Push and pull. Black and white.

We are balance.

And everything feels right with her.

She readily accepts the kiss, immediately opening for me as my tongue infiltrates her mouth. She whimpers against me as my control slips and my grip tightens against her. My teeth nip at her lips and tongue, earning little mewls of pain vibrating against my palm on her throat.

My other hand migrates from her hip to the hem of the nightgown, pushing it up the final few inches to expose her bare pussy to the mirror.

She twitches when my finger slips between her legs, swiping up her arousal.

“Look at you,” I muse, shifting her attention to the mirror. “So fucking ready for me.”

She slips her half-mast gaze toward the mirror to watch me kiss along her jaw, down her neck, and across her bare shoulder. My hand works against her slick center, teasing her clit just enough to have her standing on her toes, encouraging my fingers further against her.

She’s a puppet, controlled by my invisible strings, and I don’t take her trust lightly—this magnetic, deceitful, intelligent woman set on destroying the powers that be. My little nightmare. I’m drunk on the power it grants me. She could burn the world down with the spark from a match, and she has no idea.

If I weren’t so hellbent on destroying her, I’d dismantle the patriarchy right alongside her.

I pull my hand off her throat to quickly unbutton my pants, allowing them to drop to the floor as I fight my way out of my briefs one-handed. Once my cock is finally free, it springs forward against her plump ass.

She moans as I slip my fingers out from inside of her and line myself up with her hot center.

When she attempts to drop her head back on my shoulder, I tug it back up.

“I want you to watch me fuck you,” I growl into her ear. “See how fucking beautiful you are when you come all over me.”

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