Page 26 of The Hellkeeper

My breath catches. Because the answer is yes. Constantly. And judging by the way his lips curl, he already knows it.

I busy myself stuffing the sage back into the drawer. “No.”

“It eats at you, doesn’t it?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You do.”

He steps behind me, not quite touching, but there. “You’re curious.”

I hate how easily he sees through me. This has got to be the dumbest moment of my life. I should be screaming. I should be running. I should be doing something other than sitting on my bed talking to the man who stalked me like we’re old friends catching up.

But instead, I hear myself turn the conversation to something I’m more comfortable with. Because again, like the idiot I am, I want to talk to him. “What do people in the city do for fun?”

Damien stares at me like I just asked him to recite the scriptures.

I sigh. “What? I’m serious. Back home, there wasn’t much to do except read, sew, and pray. If you didn’t do those, you were ‘straying from the light.’”

“You strayed, didn’t you?”

“Clearly.”

“To answer your question… People drink. They go to clubs. They fight. They waste time.”

I frown. “That sounds awful.”

“Depends on the person.”

“What do you do?”

“I watch you.”

My stomach twists, but I force myself to roll my eyes. “That’s not a real answer.”

“It is to me.”

I groan. “Okay, let me try again. If you had to do something normal, something that didn’t involve tracking my every move, what would it be?”

“I go shooting sometimes.”

“Like… with a gun?”

“Yes, little flower. With a gun.”

“Of course Mr. Mysterious Stalker Man can’t have a normal hobby.”

“Mr. Mysterious StalkerHusband.”

Huh?

“What?”

He sits on the bed next to me. “Not only a stalker, Amelia. Your future husband, too.”

I chew on my lip, choosing to ignore his nonsense. “We weren’t allowed to have those back home. They said weapons only belong in the hands of demons.”

Damien chuckles, dark and low. “Then you’d hate my collection.”

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