Page 51 of Her Psycho Beasts

“I’lldo whatever I want,” I toss over my shoulder, that hulking body pursuing me. “Includinggoing dancing.”

“When you lot are quitedone,” comes a pissed-off drawl. I turn around to see Xander leaning against the wall, joint in mouth, glowing eyes fixed on his phone. “We need to leave.”

“Aurelia.” Scythe’s voice stops my stilettos in their tracks and I practically turn around against my will.

The shark has a black garment bag in his hand. “You need a dress for this and nothing you have is suitable.”

The fact that Scythe has noticed my clothes and remembered them makes me a little giddy. “What’s wrong with this dress?”

He drags his eyes up and down my body in a leisurely manner as he prowls towards me. Holding out the garment bag, he simply says, “Trust me.”

I swallow down the retort in my throat and try to hide the tremble in my hands as I accept the bag. Without another word,I speed-walk back to our room. Within seconds, Minnie follows me in, and together, we open it.

“Well,” Minnie says after a moment of silence, “Scythe has good taste.”

“No bra,” I say in a daze. “None.”

It’s in utter and complete silence that we carefully extract the gown from the bag and get me dressed in it. Minnie does the zip and steps around the short train so we can look in the mirror together.

I’m at a loss for words.

“A dress worthy of the Lady Boneweaver,” Minnie whispers. “Holy Goddess.”

It’s made of a silken material that looks like liquid gold and is gathered along one hip with a thigh-high split on the opposite side. It has a sweetheart neckline with halter neck straps that tie behind my neck in a bow with long strands that dangle down my bare back.

I was mistaken before. If my first dress was distracting,thisdress is a spectacle. And the fact that Scythe is dressing me in this way, hadchosenthis for me… I can’t even begin to compute the meaning of that.

Speak of the devil and he appears. That voice of cold darkness broaches my mind.“How does it look?”

I can barely reply. What on earth am I supposed to say? That this is the most stunningly beautiful dress my sorry ass has ever had the pleasure of wearing? That it feels like soft heaven on my skin? That it makes me feel like a sin and blessing all at the same time?

So I just say,“You’d better come and see.”

A second later, there’s a knock at our door, and Minnie calls for him to come in. When the door opens, I’m facing the mirror, so I see the reflection of Lyle entering with a pair of golden heels dangling from one hand, closely followed by Scythe.

When I turn around, Lyle freezes. Like, actually becomes the stone statue of a Greek god, staring at me with dilated pupils.

“Put the shoes on her,” Scythe says quietly.

Lyle doesn’t take his eyes off me as I sit down on the edge of the bed. To my eternal surprise, my lion kneels before me and picks up my bare foot. I bite my lip as he first kisses the tops of my toes before sliding the golden stiletto on. He plants my foot on his chest and laces the thin gold straps around my ankles and shin.

Minnie lets out a giggle before escaping from the obvious sexual tension in the room, presumably to find her men.

Lyle finishes up with my other foot and straightens, offering me his hand. I take it and smile nervously up at him. “It’s not too much?”

My lion steps aside and both men sweep their gazes leisurely down my body.

It’s Scythe who replies. “You’ve been clinging onto an illusion because it kept you safe. But beasts like us, Aurelia? We are danger. We are death itself.Safeis not a word that should enter our minds. Safety is not something we should cling to, but something we destroy.” I stare at him, processing his words with heated wonder. “So,” he says with finality, “it’s perfect.” The word charges the air between us for a single moment that seems to stretch taut. Then he turns around and that only stretches the band out further still. “Let’s go.”

Lyle catches my eye, and it’s his animus who stares back at me, wild and untameable. I let out a shaky breath, raising my hand to run my fingers along his jaw. He leans into the touch in such a feline way that I smile.

“There is no more perfect a creature than you,” he says quietly. “None more beautiful. None more kind.”

Heat floods my face and every other part of my body. He leans down to kiss my neck, polite enough not to want to ruin mymakeup, but wild enough to scrape his teeth there too. “I know you sat at your father’s knee and watched some of his business,” Lyle says, after straightening, “but this place is different. This is…” His eyes search the air for the right words. “This place is the worst of us. The most savage of us. The men you know, Scythe, Savage and Xander, are not who you’ll see tonight, and you won’t like it.”

I stiffen. “What does that mean?”

Lyle’s jaw clenches. “You’ll see a group of vicious beasts who’ve had to become brutal and ruthless to gain the power they have. And I need you to be able to handle that.”

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