Page 33 of Reaper's Hunt

I take my other hand and caress her cheek, running my thumb across her lips before pressing the tip just inside her mouth. Her tongue licks it, a shudder running down my spine at the visceral need to have this woman. Selene leans forward just the slightest bit, giving me the invitation but I’m ripped away before I can do anything, Harley pressing a hand to my chest as he pushes me up against the opposite counter.

“What the fuck are you doing to her?”

Dante yanks Harley off of me, saving the police officer a stab to the neck. “I get that you’re fucking angry but whatever high horse you’re on is bullshit. How dare you fucking touch Malik?”

Harley spits out a bitter laugh, shaking his head. “Are you fucking him too? That’s rich. This is the man you chose, Selene? A man who lies to you and—”

Selene raises a hand and cuts him off, Dante resting against the counter beside her. She threads her fingers into his hair and yanks his head back hard. A grin spreads across my lips because I know the pain’s for him hiding that he knew her secret. It’s also a show of domination and I’m here for it. Dante winces, but his eyes stay on her, my cock twitching in my pants at the control she has over my man right now.

“The difference between Dante and you,” Selene pushes out, “is that I asked him to come over. I’d say get out or I’d call the police, but I’ve got one better. Get the fuck out, or I’m filing a restraining order, tanking your career, and making you truly hate who I’ve become.”

Harley looks like he wants to fight but I’ll be right there before he touches my sparrow. He thinks better of it, stomping toward the door but not without the last word as he yells that Selene will be summoned to the station first thing Monday morning. Only when the door closes behind him does Selene say anything.

She turns her attention fully on Dante, those gray eyes darker than a torrential storm. “I have beef with you,” she snarls.

I watch, intrigued on which way this will go. She’s already stabbed me for being too forward, but I want to see her take Dante down a peg or two before I step in. He lets out a heavy sigh, twisting himself out of her grip. “Selene, I didn’t say anything because you were very adamant about doing everything alone. You’re the Reaper and I respect that. I kept it quiet to keep you safe.”

“Safe? You let me think I was alone, Dante. You let me carry this, not knowing you knew, not knowing you were watching. That’s not protection. That’s control.”

Selene

Ijumpoffthekitchen counter, snagging the banana jar and then whirl on Dante as I hold it up. “How the fuck could you not tell me you knew? What happened to being an asshole, all that bullshit after we were childhood sweethearts? Fuck, Dante, howmuchdo you know?”

Dante leans against the corner, folding his arms across his chest, his expression strangely unbothered. “Why the fuck was Harley here?” he asks, ignoring me. “You’re more than capable of dealing with people. You couldn’t call him a car?”

I glare at him, disbelief burning through me. “Seriously? I did call him a car,” I snap, setting the jar down again. “He canceled it, said we needed to talk after he found a bloody washcloth. I didn’t expect him to show up, berating me about possibly being blackmailed, saying I need to tell him if someone’s threatening me. I don’t know what he thinks I know, and I don’t care, but this is a new low for him.”

My eyes flick to Malik, who’s staring at my side. I follow his gaze to my bloody arm, the red streaking from my palm where I squeezed the cloth dripping onto the floor. “Did he hurt my sparrow?”

“No one hurt me,” I say, wiping my hand on my robe. “I just grabbed a bloody cloth. Look, I’d really like to decompress and none of this is helping.”

Dante snorts as he pushes off the counter, laughing at me. “Seriously? That’s what we’re going with? Malik fucked you over a dead body and you want to throw me some bullshit about needing to decompress? Princess, I know you better than that.” He pauses, his tongue darting out to wet his lips as his gaze moves down my body. “Let’s get it out of the way. Yes, I know you’re the Reaper. This fucker over here has been watching you, gathering your shit like I have, so you don’t get caught, because you’ve been getting sloppy.”

“Thanks, for that,” I mumble, not really sure what else to say to that. “But why would you keep any of that a secret?”

Dante steps close enough to touch but he doesn’t reach for me, doesn’t shove me against the wall, does nothing else than meet my gaze. “I’ve always been in love with you, Selene. That’s never changed. But how I love you has. When your stepfather died, you didn’t need someone to lean on. You needed somewhere to channel your rage. At first, I was angry when I found out you killed him.”

“Why? Is this where you get on your high horse and tell me you thought you could change me?”

He reaches forward, his hand wrapping around the front of my neck as his thumb digs into my chin and pushes upward. “No, I’d never change you,” he purrs. “I was angry because I wanted to get my hands on that fucker myself.”

“I don’t need saving.”

He chuckles, leaning down so that his lips are a breath away from mine. “And that’s why I love you, princess.” And then he kisses me. I moan into it, whiskey meeting my tongue as his possessive ass pulls me under with a hunger that matches my own. My hands fist his shirt until I come back to my senses and push him back. “No, we’re not fucking doing this.”

He hums, tugging me toward him again as if I’m going to give in that easily. Feeling his cock pressed up against my belly makes me melt, the growl to his words shattering my resolve. “Tell me you don’t want me to help you decompress, and we’ll leave right now. Or you can let me fuck you the way you need to be fucked.”

My body betrays me as a moan slips out but I swallow the end of it. “I don’t…”

“Let’s stop the lying, alright?” he muses. “You’re forgetting I know. Kitten, I’ve been a profiler for years. I know you. After every goddamn kill, you had me on speed dial, finding some way to draw me here so I could fuck you into oblivion. I can still be that for you.”

“This is just business,” I spit out, not even sure why I’m pushing back, why I’m lying when I’m wet between the thighs and the idea of a good hard fuck sounds like heaven.

“It’s never been about business, but whatever you’d like to call it.” He glances over at Malik, who’s watching us with a deviant smile, the bulge between his thighs obscene. “Now, is Malik invited?”

I swallow again, my gaze flicking to Malik as well. The memory of him pounding me into the mattress while I clutched Philip’s heart comes back and my body betrays me again, this time as a whimper slips through my lips. “He can stay,” I whisper.

“And his knives? He’s a little pent up right now, needs to blow off some steam too.” Dante reaches forward to drag his thumb over the cut on my cheek before dipping to run his fingers across the bite on my shoulder. He’s not disgusted. In fact, he’sintrigued.And then I remember the few times Dante was around long enough to give me a full view of his chest and all the little nicks and cuts.

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