Page 107 of Red Ruin

But, this is fine.

We’ll get to the sex as soon I figure out what the hell is going on with him.

I finger-comb Vhex’s hair, grooming his silks and soothing his damaged meridians.

As his emotions settle, my stomach clenches.

I can fix the burn damage, but that venom sac is a chaos engine. It fills him with fresh poison, ruining my progress the second I try to focus anywhere but the twisted mess surrounding his fang.

I brush the sore spot on his jaw. “How do we get this venom out?”

“I bite you again.”

My fingers freeze. “And then?”

“Then you make a wish. If you choose lust, we fuck.” Vhex rubs his head against my stilled hand, forcing me to keep stroking. “Then you’ll want more. More power. More venom. More sex. You’ll do anything for it. Any fucking thing I want.”

My blood ices.

As our connection slips, my voice hardens. “You’d make me your servant.”

“No.” Vhex fights to hold on to the bond as our spiritual weave breaks down.

He’s losing ground.

I’m nottryingto pull away, but our distance widens with the truth.

Whether I guide Vhex for a day or for a hundred years, I’ll never be delusional enough to imagine that he cares.

The idea of being bound to him—inanyway—opens a pit in my gut. “So what? You get me addicted, use me, lose me, then run and bite the next one?”

“It’s not like that.” Vhex tries to shift, but I grip his horn. Unless he breaks my wrist, he’s stuck looking up from my lap.

I like the position. It lets me loom while his eyes bubble pink and red with panic.

“No?” I ask. “Then what’s it like?”

“More like I’m yours.”

My throat tightens.I’ve heard that before.“Explain.”

“The sky turned to pink fire when I was born,” Vhex says dreamily. “They said I was loved by the flames.”

The only flames I want to talk about are the ones teasing my clit from his leftover venom.

I don’t want to talk about love.

Never again.“What does that have to do with?—”

Vhex covers my mouth with hot fingers.

I swallow hard.

He grins as my lips rub his hand. “Did you know Trezzoran is the only bloodline conceived the old-fashioned way? Not by blood. By sex.”

I shake my head, starting to overheat.

I didn’t know. I wouldn’t think it was possible for a human and a monster.

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