Page 92 of A Love Like Venom

His eyes flash open and there’s a fierce fire brewing in them. “I will always protect you, Alice Hall. Even when I thought I hated you I couldn’t allow someone else to hurt you. Never you.”

My thumb brushes along his cheekbone. “I know. You just couldn’t protect me from yourself.”

“What you said that night was something I always thought would come true. That one day you would see me as the monster that I am. Where there is only darkness. And you couldn’t live with yourself carrying on a lie for someone who was beneath you. Because you Alice Hall are an angel sent from God himself to tempt sinners like me. I knew one day soon you would open those beautiful brown eyes of yours and see that you were holding hands with the devil all along.” He closes his eyes once more and removes his face from my palm.

With his head cast downwards and his shoulders slumped he resembles a man who is defeated. One that has fell to the very bottom and can’t find the strength to get back up.

“I always saw the darkness in you, Reed. I knew it was there when I first met you at the age of seven. But I recognized the light in you, too. You aren’t a monster, not to me.”

He swallows. On a low murmur he says, “So I’m not a monster.” Then he raises his head and tortured eyes meet mine. My heart constricts painfully. His face then twists with disgust. “You see me as the devil instead?”

Closing the distance between us I sit on the edge of the chair, our knees touching each other’s. Taking my hands, I bring them to caress either side of his face, forcing him to keep his eyes on mine.

“The devil was once an angel. An angel cast out from heaven because he rebelled against God. That doesn’t make you evil, Reed.”

“It doesn’t sound like someone good to me. Not like you.”

“Have you failed to remember that I was right there beside you. I saw what you did to Chris Blackwell. You killed him. I was there to help you burn the body. Does that seem angelic to you?”

“What he did to you deserves a punishment far worse than death,” he growls.

“I agree with you, but wouldn’t that make a small part of me evil, too?”

“But you aren’t,” he denies vehemently.

“Says you but to someone else I could be. What I did, what we both did most of society would deem that as wrong,” I try to tell him.

“You could never be wrong, Alice Hall.”

I smile at that. “You could never be evil, Reed Carter.”

“But the way I treated you,” he starts.

“Was out of misguided anger and immense pain. I’m not excusing you of your behavior. I’m not ignoring how you made me feel. And you should feel like absolute shit for it. But I am also telling you that I understand you. I always have. You know I would debate a lot in my head good and evil, right and wrong and I’ve come to a startling conclusion.”

“What’s that?”

“That the world isn’t so black and white. There’s this grey area that no one wants to talk about. And I think you and I live in that grey area.”

His brows draw close in confusion. “Are you trying to say we aren’t right for each other?”

“No, that’s not what I’m trying to say at all. I’m saying that you are a man born with a dark soul who craves the light. And I, a woman born with a soul that is light is drawn to the dark.”

“That sounds-”

“Wrong,” I finish for him then add, “But together we create the most beautiful eclipse.”

Snake

My hands come to frame her face. Her eyes never wavering from mine.

Her beauty is mesmerizing. Angelic features that even a saint can’t deny. Soft lusciously pink full lips that are just begging to be kissed. They’re parted just slightly, tempting me.

Not being able to help myself, captivated by the sheer beauty of her I swipe my thumb against her bottom lip.

She takes a sharp intake of breath but doesn’t move away from me.

In fact, she takes another daring step closer. Her breasts now pressed up against my hard chest.

---