Page 279 of Flirting with Darkness

Well, it was the thought that counted anyway. Nova would have been fine, even against four.

Without turning his head, his gaze slid to hers and she instantly looked down.

But she could still see his grin.

Her heart pounded, and Nova swallowed hard.

“So, what’s up with the eye?”

9

DEX

He’d caught her looking at him and the blush on her cheeks made her freckles stand out even more. His sharp grin at her reaction surprised even him.

That’s what she got for nearly making him choke on his own pizza.

Dex wanted to ask her a million questions. Like why the hell she was so afraid of the light that she’d get into his space like that.

At first, he’d been pissed. Dex had assumed she was afraid of him. Challenging her would have proved what he couldn’t smell. But she’d wrapped the darkness around them like they were wings as soon as his shadow had touched her.

It had been surprisingly intimate.

That wasn’t something he was ready to ask her about, so he’d settled on the obvious.

“My eye?” Her hand went to her hair, checking to make sure it still covered the left side of her face.

Instantly, he regretted the question.

The way her voice had nearly broke when she’d told him it was ugly had made his stomach drop.

It wasn’t a feeling he was used to and here she was, making him experience it multiple times in one night.

“My mother is a witch,” she whispered, but the words sounded lifeless and rote even if they were true.

There was something else she didn’t want him to know, but Dex didn’t press. A scar like that on a paranormal with access to magic was rare. Whatever had happened, it had been brutal.

Seeing that eye for the first time…it had stolen the breath from his fucking lungs.

The sharp contrast of the purple next to her blue one reminded him of every fucking time he’d looked in the mirror and seen the dichotomy of what he was – some freak whose father couldn’t even stand what he’d created.

And here was that same rare trait in a female witch with very little magic. Maybe that was why she could fight? Weaker paranormals were always in danger since they couldn’t pass as human.

Except she could, thanks to whatever she had on her that was fucking with his senses.

She stared down at her plate, and he didn’t know how to fix this.

I know it’s ugly.

Dex reached out and brushed the thick curls away from her face. Every time he saw that vibrant purple, his heart stopped.

It was bad just how much he wanted to trace that scar with his bare fingers. Dex pulled away slowly, surprised she didn’t try to shy away from him. Nova let him look at the vertical mark on her face that bisected her left eye, making the vibrant purple even more fascinating.

Whatever had scratched her face from her eyebrow down to her cheek had done something strange, because she didn’t have that milky film that he’d seen on others who’d lost their eyesight. No, it looked like her magic had settled there instead, protecting her.

Despite the way the scar marred her perfect skin, it didn’t make her any less beautiful.

“I like it,” he finally told her. “I think it suits you.”

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