Page 117 of Wicked Dreams (Fallen Royals 1)

His eyes flash. His hand slides around my neck, threading through my hair. He yanks my head back, exposing my throat.

“I can,” he murmurs.

There are still bite marks under my scarf and two layers of concealer.

He tugs the fabric away from my neck, eyes heating. “You covered them up.”

Slowly, he puts his thumb in his mouth and then rubs at my skin.

“There.” He releases me, grinning. “Now the world will know you’re mine. Don’t fucking hide it next time.”

We’d managed the day without him going all dark on me. And here we are…

I press my thighs together, ignoring the impact of his words on my body. Especially because we’re in the middle of the freaking sidewalk in Times Square.

People move past us like we’re rocks in the middle of a river.

He’s hungry, and I can’t help but feel the same. Like we’ve unwittingly been starving ourselves.

He touches my neck again, and then he straightens. He smirks at me.

He knows what he does to me.

My phone buzzes.

Unknown: How’s it feel to be so small in such a large city?

I choke on my gasp, shoving my phone back in my pocket.

Caleb raises an eyebrow. “What was that?”

“Riley trying to be funny.” I clear my throat. Please don’t call me out on that lie.

He narrows his eyes but doesn’t question it.

We eat pizza at a diner on the second floor of a building. It overlooks the street. The people below, on the sid. They’re a sea of grays and blacks. When the sky opens up, suddenly every single person seems to have a black umbrella.

Caleb frowns. “I’ll call the car.”

We had left his at the edge of the city, then took a black car into Manhattan. The driver didn’t say a word to either of us, although I caught Caleb slipping him folded bills.

We sit in silence at our table, ignoring the looks from the waitstaff, until a car pulls up to the curb and Caleb’s phone chirps.

“Ready?”

The pizza was delicious. The diner was cute. The city is impossibly big and daunting and everything I could’ve imagined.

I can see how people would come here to chase their dreams. And I can see how the city would chew up anyone not a hundred percent committed.

“Yes.” I take his offered hand. “Let’s go home.”

Caleb opens the car door for me, letting me slide into the backseat first. He follows, closing us in, and scoots close to me. God, he’s a giant in this small space. I didn’t realize it before—no, I was ignoring it before—but his presence sucks up all the air in the car.

The driver glances back at us in the rearview mirror. “Have fun?”

Caleb smiles. “It was refreshing.”

The driver navigates back toward the outskirts of the city, and Caleb traces patterns on my leg. I try not to look at him, but soon, my body aches. One touch has me burning up.

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