Page 51 of Priest and his Anarchist

Someone passes behind me, but River doesn’t shift her focus from me. She rolls her eyes. “Don Julio!”

I click my fingers. “Right!”

I don’t remember. Probably because of the Don Julio.

She fills both our glasses and slides mine across the counter. I take a sip, the aged barrel smokiness of vanilla and caramel stirring my memories. Now I remember…

“Thank you for the birthday party.” I choke on my whisper. “But you didn’t have to do this.” My fingers itch to touch the velvet texture of his skin and the sculpted lines of his lips. The party can be heard on the other side of the door thanks to the heavy bass line, yet here we are. In his bedroom, after I found myself running away from the knowledge that he’s in fact, allowing other girls on his lap.

I reach up, and my hand is on his cheek before I can stop myself. Mortified, I’m about to pull away when he stops me, his eyes closing and the bloodstains over his face a brilliant shade of slaughter.

“When will you get it, Madness? It’s not only in there—” He gestures over his shoulder with his head. The fire in his tone burns through his throat when his eyes drill through mine. “It’s every. Single. One of them.”

It is the first time we’ve ever been this close together for this long. Twice in one day I’ve seen a different side to him, the one I suspect lives beneath the pile of corpses he leaves behind.

His arm slips behind my back, seizing the air in my lungs when he pulls me close. “Fuck.” He buries his face into my hair. “You’ll leave soon.”

Confused, my neck aches when I bend to look up at him. Ridiculous since he’s built like a beast yet radiates controlled elegance. Everything he does is deliberate.

Something trickles over the base of my foot, but I ignore it.

“I’m not going anywhere.” His eyes darken as they drop to my mouth, probably making sure I said the words and he wasn’t imagining it. “Unless you don’t want me.”

A blizzard gusts through my veins when the corner of his mouth curves up in a sneer. It isn’t a beautiful one. It’s feral, animalistic, and reminds me of the monsters I’d been told about as a child.

“Don’t you see the problem? It’s not that I don’t want you.” He steps away from me as if he’s realized what he’s done. The muscles in his jaw tense. “It’s that I can’t help that I fucking hate you.”

“Earth to Luna!” River clicks her fingers, snapping me out of the blurred memory of my birthday party. When I had found the girl that was so comfortable on his lap, dead on his bedroom floor. I’d watched him kill. Daily. But that was the first time he didn’t do it for a reason. He didn’t kill people in some twisted lesson to teach me something. At that point, I knew he did it because he had to. It was also the last time we ever went near each other again until Madison’s charity event.

I lower my glass to the table. “I shouldn’t be here.”

Her smile drops. “Look.” She rests her hands on my shoulders, moving closer until her forehead rests against mine. “I get it. With yours and the Mad Prince’s history, but you’re free now. You’re out of his psychotic grip. You can leave whenever you want. Just not right now.”

I laugh, the tension in my neck releasing. “Fine!” My laughter stops when the familiar weight of his attention holds me in place. My smile slips. The beating of my heart pounds louder than the music when I see him.

Sitting in the same spot he was in all those years ago, his black T-shirt stretches over his muscles, but not in a way that looks tight, only that he’s too big. His black hair is a mess, and his dark gaze holds me hostage, refusing to let go. Crimson-colored fingernails brush through the strands of his hair, and I force myself out of his invisible hold by breaking eye contact. I need to see who it is that's touching him.

Tanned, long legs barely covered by a tiny, white skirt. Her lace top hardly covers what the leather jacket doesn’t.

She moves to his side, skimming her lips over his jaw and whispering something into his ear.

River’s disgust is loud when she shoots back her drink, her fingers forcing my attention to her. “Don’t even stress that. I wish I could say that it’s Aunty Madison’s new way of trying to see if her son really is a sociopathic lunatic by loaning—yes, loaning—a family friend, but that isn’t it. What it is, though…is something that you…” She taps the tip of my nose with her finger. “Do not have to worry about.”

When I don’t answer, she rolls her eyes and rests her glass on her lap. “You and I both know she won’t last. Though I am intrigued to see how long this one will since the last one barely made it past the first meeting.”

I shrug. “It doesn’t bother me.” My heart rate drops low enough to flatline.

“Good! Because—” The lights cut, leaving us in darkness and the sound of Lily-Rose Depp singing about not being one of his girls. I fumble across the counter to find my phone.

“Ugh!” River growls, sliding off the bar and landing in front of me. I direct the weak light of my phone screen toward her. “I’ll be right back. It’s a fuse issue and since I’m guessing the boys are distracted!” She waves her hand in the air and bellows, “I’ll do it, I’ll do it!” Slowing her steps, she turns over her shoulderat the last minute, flashing me a lazy smirk before disappearing through the darkness.

I exhale, resting my head against the cabinet. What was that about, and why did she look so damn smug.

Tequila burns its way down my throat as the talons of a dark shadow form around me. I could feel him in any room, in any lifetime. Even in barely any light, it’s ridiculous hot he is. I hate that. I hate that the worst person I know is also the most interesting to look at.

He stops, his mouth set in a straight line. He’s mad.

With sharp cheekbones and eyes that tear through your soul, his beautiful exterior is merely a shield to the many layers that mold Priest Hayes. I wouldn’t know how to peel them back. Even if I did, I’m not sure I’d want to. The thought kind of scares me. Which is probably what he wants.

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