Page 119 of Even Robots Die
I can’t answer him anymore though, so instead I tip my chin up in challenge.
With his left hand, he grabs my chin between his thumb and index finger and tips it even more, so I can look him in the eye even with blurry vision.
“I care about you,” he says, and I’m expecting him to say something more, but instead his lips crash against mine and his hand slips from my chin to the back of my neck, and then lowers some more and pulls me by the hip so I’m flush against him.
Maybe I’m still dreaming, but I don’t really care.
I pour my whole self into that kiss and Brice demands entrance with his tongue, and I let him.
The kiss is urgent, almost desperate, as if we both need this more than our next breath, and maybe that’s true because when Brice finally releases my mouth I’m even more breathless than I was after I hit him with my fists.
Brice is not as breathless, but I can still hear him breathing louder than usual.
He removes his hand from my hip to cover my left hand that’s just on top of his heart, my hands having never left his chest after I hit him with my fist.
I still don’t know what to think about what just happened.
Is this even real?
Brice kisses me softly before he speaks again.
“You’re not an asset. You’re not an employee. You’re not a blood bag, and you’re definitely not a mistake. You’re what makes my day brighter. You’re a privilege. You’re a genius and you have the biggestheart I’ve ever seen. But you’re so used to being dismissed that you can’t see anymore when someone genuinely cares about you. Yes, I’m an asshole; the biggest one if I let you believe that kiss yesterday was only due to bloodlust on my part. The only reason I thought it was a mistake is because there is a venom in a bat-shifter’s bite that provokes arousal. Maybe I’m an idiot, but I thought it was the only reason you answered my kiss. I didn’t want you to regret it if I followed what I really wanted to do to you, and I’m not talking about how I wanted to eat that pussy of yours right there on your workshop table and fuck you until you forgot your own name. No, what I’m talking about is that deep need I have inside of me to mark you as mine for the whole world to see. I may not have had any feeling when I hired you weeks ago, but you awoke more than what was there before the birds disrupted my brain. You’re all I think about, you’re all I see and all I want, and you’re right, I’m definitely an asshole because I’m not letting you go.”
Before his words have even registered, his lips are back on mine and I’m drowning in the feel of him.
67
Florentine
This is real. I’m not dreaming.
Both of Brice’s hands are on my hips, tugging me to him, like he needs this as much as I do. They slip under my shirt, slide along my skin until they reach my bra and then they circle my back and he expertly unhooks it. He doesn’t lose a single second before his hands pull down the cups of my bra so he can caress them.
Only then, his lips leave mine to trail the side of my throat and for a second I have the irrepressible need for him to sink his fangs into my skin, but his lips continue down and I feel them through the fabric of my shirt before they wrap around my right nipple. My back arches against the door and Brice's left hand slides to the underside of my thigh, bringing my leg up so I can hook it behind his. He presses his hard on against my pussy and plasters me against the door with a tip of his hips, and with a speed I can’t see, he grabs my left thigh and hooks my leg with the other one. I have to move my hands from his back to the back of his neck, so I don't feel like I’m about to fall. I shouldn’t have worried though because once my legs are at his back, Brice’s lips are back on mine and he’s strolling to the bed as if I weigh nothing.
He drops me unceremoniously onto his bed and all I can see in his eyes at this moment is a hunger I’m pretty sure is mirrored in mine.
Except, what he told me mere minutes ago is also playing on a loop and I can’t get rid of it.
Brice seems to see the change in me and stops short.
“I know that look. You’re about to tell me we’ve got something more important to do and I’m going to want to punish that addictive mouth of yours for uttering those words,” Brice tells me, and I want to laugh at how on point he is.
“I need to save my dad,” I tell him, and he sighs before coming to sit next to me on his bed.
I curl on my side so I can look at him more easily.
It takes a few seconds for Brice to finally speak again, and the vulnerability I can hear in his voice almost breaks me.
”Don’t trade yourself for him. You’re worth ten of him or even more to me.” he cups my cheek as he says that. “Please.”
I sit again, and his hand stays on my cheek.
I can’t tell him I didn’t entertain the thought of giving myself over so that Dad would be back with the girls, but I’ve seen the sort of games the birds play, not only on Brice but on everyone. Before Brice there was Léandre and it wasn’t much better, but they’ve been wreaking havoc on my city, on my country, and even the whole world for much longer than this.
They’ve been passing as angels for more than three hundred years now and fanatics would do anything to make the masses believe a lie. After all, it wouldn’t be the first time humanity has killed in the name of a god or a religion. It’s like we never learn from history and that it’s bound to repeat.
“I have a plan,” I tell him. “Trust me.”
