Page 44 of Dark Prince

“I’ll just, um, go put these on,” she says a little breathlessly.

I pull my shirt off as she leaves, focusing on the next step. First, I need a shower, and a quick one at that. I still don’t know who sent the demonic dragon, and I don’t want to leave Sophia alone any longer than I have to, for her own protection. It has nothing to do with wanting to be close to her for my own selfish reasons.

“Lucas!”

My head snaps up at the sound of Sophia’s voice. She’s staring at me in wide-eyed horror, her clothes lying in a forgotten heap on the floor.

“What?” My brows furrow. “You’ve seen me without my shirt before. It’s not—”

“You’re hurt!”

Damnation.I thought my wounds had healed already. I glance down to see that the gashes which nearly tore out several important organs still look pretty bad by human standards. The streaks of blood coating my skin, leftover from when the wounds were bleeding profusely, make everything look worse than it currently is.

Sophia has gone pale, hugging herself. “Oh fuck. Lucas…”

I grab my shirt and swipe it across my torso, removing some of the blood. “It’s fine. I’m not hurt that badly.”

She gapes at me. “Are you kidding? I can see your muscles! Is that your sternum? We need to get you to the hospital right now!”

I give her an amused little smile. “And be thrown out for wasting their time with a prank? These wounds will be healed before we got there.”

Her eyes flash with impatience laced with panic. Her full lips press together in a stubborn line as she strides toward me, peering at my torso. “Stop playing the stoic man card. This is going to get infected if we don’t—”

She stops mid-word, her jaw dropping. Her mouth snaps shut, and she looks up at me with eyes wide as the full moon.

“It’s very difficult to kill a demon,” I explain softly as a layer of new tissue finally starts to spread over the wound, knitting my flesh back together. “We heal too quickly, although some injuries take longer than others.”

“But… but that thing back there. The dragon. It was a demon, wasn’t it? You killed it.”

“Broke its neck,” I confirm. “Not instantly fatal, but near enough for something like that. Lower level demons are easier to end. The more powerful demons? Well, we’re damn near impossible to kill. Not wholly out of the question, of course. Everything can die. But it’s incredibly difficult, and it takes a lot more skill and cunning than a thing like that could deliver.”

Sophia is staring at my torso again, watching as the thicker outer layer of skin finally crawls over the tissue beneath, sealing my wounds entirely. The pain recedes in a heartbeat, leaving nothing but a rapidly-fading memory tickling over my nerves.

She looks up at me and speaks in a reverent whisper, her voice shaking slightly as something settles in her emerald green eyes. “This is all really real, isn’t it?”

Watching her closely, I give a slow nod.

How will she react? Will she panic? Throw up? Splash me with holy water?

But rather than doing any of those things, this fierce and unpredictable little human takes half a step closer, brushing her trembling fingertips over my unmarred torso. Then she snatches her hand back and clutches it to her heart, gazing at me in awe.

“You saved my life,” she breathes. Her eyes flick back and forth, putting the pieces together. She looks up at me again, wonder written all over her face, “You caught me. You held me, and you… you flew with me.”

I nod again, not trusting my voice not to give me away. Her reaction being awe and wonder, rather than disgust or terror, is churning my insides. Very few humans have ever discovered my secret, and even fewer of them were allowed to live afterward.Noneof them reacted to the knowledge with anything but fear.

Until Sophia.

I want to tug her towel away from her luscious curves and show her my appreciation long and slow. Or ravage her, as a reminder that demons are to be feared. Perhaps she needs that fear for her own safety, needs it as an incentive to stay away—because I can’t seem to make myself stay away from her.

She moves even closer, tension crackling between us as our bodies touch. With every breath she takes, the thick terrycloth wrapped over her breasts brushes against my skin. Her green eyes turn a deeper shade, and her breath quickens. Her mouth… oh fuck, that mouth.

As if drawn by a magnetic force, I drop my head, bringing my own lips close to hers. Her breath catches in her throat, and her tongue flicks out, moistening those lips, beckoning me to taste her.

I know it’s a bad idea. I know there are very good reasons I’ve spent so much of the time since she came to work for me avoiding her, why I’ve tried to control my wild, ravenous attraction to her.

But the thin thread of my self-control has been worn down to a tiny thing as delicate and breakable as a spiderweb.

“Sophia…” My voice is hoarse with desire as I murmur her name.

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