Page 204 of A Love Like Venom

“You’re staring,” she points out shyly. Her cheeks flush as she meets my gaze.

What I wouldn’t give to place a kiss there. To feel the heat of her skin against my lips.

But I won’t.

I won’t allow myself to touch her that way.

People like me, dark and monstrous don’t deserve to touch angelic creatures like her.

Some days I feel guilty for breathing the same air she does. Wondering if I get too close the darkness I carry will diminish the light she has.

But I’m a selfish young man. I admit it. Her light speaks to me. It calms me. It makes me believe I am not the monster Hollows Point wants me to believe.

Deflecting her I say, “I am not.” Except we both know I was and she caught me.

Her eyes flash with amusement. “Liar.”

“How would you even know?” I ask her. Pinning the conversation on her and away from me.

She opens her mouth and then shuts it.

Removing my pinkie from hers I place my arms on either sides of her hips and lean in dangerously close. The scent of vanilla fills my nostrils. Her eyes go wide as they flicker at my lips before landing on my eyes.

She exhales and I inhale.

“How would you know unless you were sneaking glances of me yourself?”

Her cheeks deepen in color. There’s a sharp intake of breath.

So achingly beautiful.

Absolutely captivating.

“If I was?” Her voice is a whisper as she dares asks.

My heart pounds in my chest. It pounds so fucking hard that I’m afraid she can hear it. That it will rip right out of my chest and into her precious hands.

And as her eyes land on my lips and stay there I know what she feels for me goes far more than friendship.

She may even feel what I do.

She might love me.

Me, the young man who certainty doesn’t deserve her and never will. Someone who is filled with darkness. Someone who will one day ruin her if it ever leads to more.

No, I can’t do that.

I can’t take that risk. I can’t give into temptation.

Slowly I pull away. One of the hardest things I ever had to do. She deserves better. Someone far better than me.

Her eyes swell with disappointment, but she recovers quickly.

She smiles at me and intertwines our pinkies again. Then with her free hand she tips my chin up to look at the stars.

“Perhaps we will make the same wish and one day it will have no choice but to come true,” she whispers.

I swallow, my heart beating faster. “Alice, that can be dangerous,” I warn her.

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