Page 19 of Unleashing Mayhem
So Matty changed the subject. “Why didn’t you want me to touch you, earlier? Are you not attracted to me? It’s okay if you aren’t.”
Matty knew he wasn’t pretty like Seth, but he’d thought he was maybe cute.
There was a long silence. Nightmare really did like to consider his words carefully sometimes. “It’s the reverse that interests me.”
“Oh. AmIattracted toyou?”
Nightmare nodded, and Matty thought it over. He wanted to give Nightmare the same courtesy Nightmare gave him—a thoughtful answer to a question.
Washe attracted to Nightmare?
Matty was still getting used to this absurdly beautiful human form of Nightmare’s, so that side of it was maybe a trickier question. But Nightmare’s demon form? Wrapped in shadows, all sharp teeth and talons, more monster than man?
“Yes,” Matty decided. “I think so.”
“You offered it as an exchange.”
Matty tilted his head up to look at Nightmare. “You didn’t like that? Lots of men seem to. ‘I’ll give you this if you do that.’ ‘Let me do this, and I’ll maybe do that.’”
There had been men in Luca’s employ who’d been either brave or stupid enough to try for something with Matty, despite what Luca would have done to them if they’d found out. They’d always seemed to approach the prospect as a barter of some kind.
Nightmare straightened, all impressive height and predatory stillness. “And do you accept these offers of exchange, Matteo?”
“No.” Matty frowned out at the ocean. “They always scared me.”
And while Matty could be stupid, he certainly wasn’t brave.
“And I don’t scare you.”
It was half statement, half question. In answer, Matty leaned his head against Nightmare’s arm and held up his pastry. “You want a bite of this?”
“Yes, sweet.” Matty could hear the smile in Nightmare’s raspy voice again. “Give us a taste.”
Matty lifted the pastry to Nightmare’s lips, and his demon took a careful bite, his teeth scraping lightly against Matty’s fingers.
A shiver went down Matty’s spine, the good kind this time. Nightmare’s lips were soft, and his breath was hot, and as he leaned back to swallow his bite, Matty missed the feel of them both. He wanted those teeth to scrape against more of his skin—his throat and his belly and the shell of his ear, maybe.
Matty swallowed hard, staring at his pastry again. He looked at that perfect bite mark Nightmare had made, and he brought it to his own lips, pressing his teeth where Nightmare’s had just been.
Yes, there was definitely attraction there.
6
Nightmare
Nightmare let his shadows dance and play over his talons as he watched his summoner sleep.
Matteo was active in rest, both in body and mind. It was a constant snag on Nightmare’s attention, to keep his little human’s dreams from trailing into the darker reaches of his psyche. It was as if Matteo’s mind yearned to slip back into terror, to visualize the horrors that chased him. As if it kept running straight toward his fear, the exact opposite of what Matteo did during the day.
During the day, Matteo hid.
Nightmare had tried several more times to name the man who haunted Matteo. The man Nightmare intended to rip apart from sternum to pelvis. The man whose organs he would give to his dear shadows as playthings as soon as they found him.
But each time Nightmare had attempted it, Matteo had shied away, changing the subject without an ounce of shame. Bold even in his timidity.
It was making Nightmare restless, this blind spot Matteo insisted on. He itched to work around the impediment, to catch a glimpse of the face Matteo so feared. But that would require allowing Matteo to slip into a nightmare—allowing him tosuffer—and that Nightmare would not do.
Now Matteo’s brow furrowed as he mumbled something about “sugar toads” and rolled onto his stomach, his arms and legs sprawled out to the four corners of his bed.
