Page 6 of The Hellkeeper

Not in this rotting excuse for a bed. Not in a fucking storage room that smells of damp wood. Not wrapped in a blanket rough against skin that should only know silk and lace.

A girl like her should be in the finest penthouses, where monthly rent costs more than most people make in a year. She should have people falling at her feet, desperate for just a second of her attention. She should be covered in diamonds.

Instead, she’s here. Forgotten. Vulnerable. Mine.

The light above her illuminates her doll-like features. She’s ethereal, like a being put on this earth just to test men like me.

I could swear she glows from the inside, like something holy.

She doesn’t turn the lights off to sleep.

Is she scared of the dark?

She has every right to be. Because tonight, a monster crawled out of it and basked in her innocence.

I kneel beside the bed, close enough to feel the warmth she emits. My fingers itch to touch, to take, to claim. She’s so small. So soft.

I barely brush my knuckles against her cheek, and the heat that sparks up my arm is enough to make me repent. Something deep inside me snaps like a cord pulled too tight.

I do it again, drag my fingers across the line of her jaw, down the column of her throat.

She stirs, shifting slightly. I twist a strand of her hair around my palm, bring it to my face, and rub it along my jaw, my lips. I could drown in her scent. I could fucking die in this moment and be happy. I let the strand slip from my fingers, watching as it falls back across her pillow like spun gold.

My fingers twitch. Fighting the urge to bury themselves in it. To fist it. To pull. To mark.

My lips part, breath ragged. I lean in to press my nose against her temple, breathe her in, and my eyes roll back at the scent of her.

Something sweet. Something innocent. Something pure.

I could stay here forever.

Watching. Waiting. Guarding.

No.

Not just guarding.

Owning.

She needs me.

She has no idea, but she does.

If she’s here, sleeping in a goddamn storage room, then she has no one. No family. No friends. No one to protect her from the world.

No one but me.

I’ll give her everything.

A life fit for a queen.

I’ll worship her. Ruin her. Corrupt her until there’s no part of her left untouched by me.

She’ll wake up wrapped in silk. In gold. In my arms.

She just has to accept it.

Even leaving her now seems impossible.

---