Page 55 of Of Blood and Smoke

Didn’t he know there was an order of steps for something as serious as moving in together? There was no way I’d be able to pay my half of a billionaire’s rent.

He gave me a soft smile. “As a matter of fact—that’s my job. You don’t have to verbally invite me, that’s a myth, and I don’t hear you complaining. I distinctly recall you asked for more.”

He was fighting dirty, and I was suddenly very aware he maintained perfect clarity of his effect on me. I did want more; I wanted a lot more from him. My skin began to feel warm and the more the heat rose, the more his eyes glittered. It almost looked as if part of his eyesmoved. And I didn’t mean his eyelids like if he’d blinked, but the color of his eyes seemed to change... or do... something. Holding my breath, I shook my head. Everything was really too much lately.

Staring at him, I took in the sight. He was perfectly relaxed, almost too relaxed. He met my gaze, and a mixture ofcontentment, desire, and something like peace looked back at me. It was odd how he remained so still, almost as if he didn’t breathe for long moments.

And his eyes. I hadn’t really questioned it before, but I’d never seen anything like them and I’d just sort of accepted that black irises, nearly indiscernible from the pupils, weren’t that unusual. The longer I stared, the moreotherthey became. Why did I think black irises were normal, again?

Suddenly, my heart slammed into my ribs, my internal system began yellingabort,abortand all at once I realized I was in the presence of an apex predator. Scrambling up from the couch, I went to make a run for it. How had I not seen it before? I hadn’t placed one foot in front of the other before an arm wrapped around my midsection and slammed me against a wall of steel. “Where do you think you’re going, Little One?”

Blind panic overtook me, and I pushed and shoved against Josiah, but he didn’t relent. He waited until I tired myself out and then turned me to face him, keeping a firm grip and holding me in place. “So, you’ll let me eat your pussy,” he whispered, his voice low. “But when I want something more, suddenly you’re scared of me?”

In a moment of clarity, it occurred to me that the man who stood before me, holding me and speaking softly despite the warning in his tone, was very much not human. I somehow knew that he was responsible for keeping me frozen to my bed all those weeks ago even if I didn’t understand the mechanism behind it. I did not have a sleep disorder as he’d so easily implied.

None of it made any sense and my brain railed against the sheer absurdity of imagining such a thing to be so, that anyone or anything should have the unnatural capabilities of my boss.

With a startling burst of adrenaline, I started fighting him all over again. It was all too clear he let me go willingly when I easily escaped his grasp. He could’ve stopped me in the blink of an eye.

I ran for the door, catching my foot on the edge of the sofa and nearly tumbling to the ground. Bracing myself on an end table, I flung a glance at him, and he was as stoic as ever, just casually watching me as if I were a deer grazing at the edge of the forest.

My front entry wasn’t that far away, and I scrambled for it, somehow having the foresight to snatch up my purse. He lifted his arm for a moment, pointing at me, but I didn’t stop. I grabbed the door latch, and nothing happened.

The handle moved up and down just like it was supposed to, I could hear the click of the lock, but the door remained firmly shut. Josiah slowly stalked toward me, irritation marring his beautiful features.

“Stay away from me you undead douchebag,” I snarled at him. “What the fuck?” I wasn’t one to curse that often but ever since he’d entered my life, my vocabulary had become quite diverse and now the stupid door of my brand-new apartment wouldn’t open.

“’Undead’? I’ve never died,” he stated. “Stop hitting me, you’re going to hurt yourself.”

Tears were streaming down my face, and I wiped them away once he let go. Suddenly, I felt like an absolute moron. Josiah had never hurt me; in fact, he’d done the opposite, and I’d just freaked out like a psycho. He was right when he’d said he didn’t need an invitation, I’d wanted him here, I’d wanted his touch. How many times had I let him have his way with me short of having full-on sex?

None of that changed the fact that something was very wrong with him. There had to be a reason why I’d started thinking of him as an evil spirit in my head. Maybe he was possessed?Everyone’s heard of celebrities and billionaires making deals with Satan. Anyone who’d ever been on social media, at least, had heard the insane conspiracy theories.

He led me back to the couch and it felt like I was trying to walk underwater, every step a struggle while my head felt like a balloon. I was both scared he’d explain himself and scared he wouldn’t. There was no acceptable explanation, no reasoning that I’d be able to understand, and I’d have to try and convince myself of what up until ten minutes ago had been an impossibility.

Despite all that, I didn’t want him to go away even if I’d just yelled at him. What I really wanted was for all the extra stuff to go away—the strange behavior, the sudden uncomfortable changes to my life, the unease. I wanted order in my life.

The Josiah that I’d catch in unguarded moments, the Josiah that set my soul on fire, that was the one I wanted. The one who’d cuddled with me on the couch for hours and hours, was welcome.

If I was completely honest with myself, I was sincerely hoping he’d have some other explanation for the oddities other than revealing he was a zombie or an alien, or a ghoul.

Please don’t be an evil spirit.

He helped me sit down and I took a few measured breaths.

There’s no way he’s going to say he’s not human; no one’s that crazy.

“You’re not gonna say you’re an alien, are you? Please don’t be a creep.”

He laughed. “There’s no such thing as aliens, no such thing as little green men in spaceships.”

I gave him a dirty look. “That’s not what I meant.”

He squatted down in front of me. “I’m not human, that is correct. I contain a minor amount of human DNA, but I’m not from here.”

My anxious thoughts tried to distract me. “She doesn’t even go here”echoed in my brain.“Then what do you think you are?”

He licked his lip and reached for my hand, running his thumb over my knuckles. His fingers were warm and soothing, his touch comforting. “I’m considered a crossbreed. My father is a demon, and my mother a vampire.”

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