Page 50 of Wings of Ashes
He acted like an immature child on a playground, pushing the pretty girl away because of his confusing feelings for her.
Feelings.
The gargoyle shifter, who actively turned to irreversible stone a little more each day, did nothavefeelings.
And right now, the biggest, most choking feeling that caught in his throat was lust.
Salacious lust. A mutual lust, apparently, because Nix Oadess panted with pink cheeks and pointed nipples as she stared into his eyes with her endless blues.
“Oh,” he said in an I-dare-you-to-look-at-me-while-you-lie tone. “You don’t want me?” he asked lowly.
The forest stilled.
Tree branches quieted in their shaking. The wind halted in its light breeze, allowing the quiet night air to blanket the two of them.
He swore he couldfeelher presence in every electrically charged molecule of oxygen between them.
Her throat bobbed with a swallow as she said, “I don’t like assholes.”
“No?” Yet, in his class, she sat beside Baelfire Obsidius, the sex demon miscreant. Maybe she liked dominant assholes.
“I find you unattractive,” she lied.
“Tell that to your body.”
She sputtered, inhaling more of his rich, musky alpha scent.
“You read the full textbook?”
“Y-Yes.”
“You are forgetting chapter three, Miss Oadess.” Étienne’s hand lifted to hover over the curve of her cheek. “Alpha shifters’ paranormal sense of smell includes the ability to scent the lust of others. And right now? You are all I can fucking smell.”
Her brows furrowed, adding creases to her forehead, as she exhaled roughly.
“That scent is clinging to my lungs, refusing to leave my chest,” he breathed. “Never smelled something so…sweet.” His gaze dropped to her pink silk nightgown and the way it flowed over her breasts. “Your body is fucking hot for me.”
“My nipples are hard from the chill in the air,” she exclaimed and crossed her arms to cover herself.
“I am not smelling your hard, little nipples, Miss Oadess,” he purred.
Her mouth opened and closed, and she hastily pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. “Er—”
“Your dampening pussy is what’s giving off that mind-numbing scent.” Étienne breathed her in, and an animalistic growl shook his chest. “So sweet. So needy.”
His pupils dilated into big spheres of primal black. His fangs ached and lengthened in his mouth. His forehead throbbed where his stone horns craved to extend and rub against her soft body.
“I…I am not horny for you!” Her voice cracked on the lie.
“I thought you were my ‘honest’ student. My good, extra credit, reads-ahead student.” Étienne’s thumb grazed her chin.So soft. So…warm. Turning into stone left a man with a constant chill. “Your prideful, angry voice haunts me.”
His thumb tingled from where he touched her chin, right below her parted lips. He growled at himself, struggling with his self-control.
“Fuck,” he admitted. “I’ve never wanted someone. Ever. I don’tfeelthings like this…”
“You don’t even like me,” she whispered as his thumb jerked up to press to her bottom lip—the plush, pillowy pink flesh he wanted to suck. And bite. And lick better.
“I don’t like anyone.” Not even himself. His thumb petted her bottom lip, and her teeth nipped the tip of his digit. Étienne’s cock stiffened beneath his black pants, and he cursed, “Fuck.”
