Page 164 of Under an Endless Moon

His head cocked to the side as he let his attention devour me. “If I could only paint you like that, Raven Tayte. Capture the absolute splendor that you are. Woman lying there in my bed like a portrait. Fuckin’ stunning. Stealing my breath and my mind. Stealing my heart.”

“It seems only fair since you’ve always had mine.”

“Want to keep you right there, just like that, for the rest of my days.”

“I wouldn’t mind. All except for the fact that I’d need you over here in this bed with me.”

Arrogance rolled through his demeanor, and he started across the floor. Though he took it slow, like he was relishing every second that he got to keep me like this.

“I intend on taking you right back to my bed, but I think I need to feed you first. You’re going to need your energy.”

Excitement pranced in my stomach, and I pressed my thighs together as he made it to the side of the bed.

He dragged a fingertip from my chin and down to my chest. A shiver rolled, but he didn’t stop, he kept moving lower across my belly until his fingers fluttered just at my pubic bone.

“On your back and spread your knees.”

Surprise jutted out of me, though I was quick to comply, mythighs shaky as I bared myself to him. He pressed the warm washcloth to my center.

A little moan climbed my throat as he gently swept it over my tender flesh. “You sore?” he asked, voice low.

My nod was tentative. “A little. But I like it.”

“You like feeling how I marked you? How I claimed you?”

That time, my nod was erratic. “Yes.”

He wiped the cloth between my legs before he stood and moved to take me by the chin. “Gonna write myself on every inch of you.”

My teeth clamped down on my bottom lip. “That’s where I want you. Everywhere. In every way. Forever.”

FORTY-FIVE

OTTO

It feltodd after you’d spent so much time in your life fighting against something you thought you couldn’t have, doing your best to deny yourself the very thing that felt like it sustained you, then turning around and letting it slam directly into you.

The way it rocked through you. An earthquake that knocked you from your axis. Crumbled your foundation.

But the epicenter remained the same.

The one single focus that guided everything.

I watched her through the increasing darkness of the room as I moved to the end of the bed and snatched my underwear from the floor. I pulled them on, before I turned and started for the dresser against the wall.

I did my best to ignore the picture that screamed at me from the top, the voice that demanded vengeance.

Haddie. Haddie.

I felt torn between two destinies.

Unsure which of them would be the end of me.

I pulled open the top drawer and grabbed one of my tees, then I turned and moved back for Raven who anxiously awaited me.

An enchantress in the middle of my bed.

Just a glance, and a spell was cast.

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