Page 17 of Ashes of Sin and Stardust

Excitement ran through me. My inner demons sang at the sound of his growl and the glow in his eyes.C’mon, big scary man. Do it. Try to break me. Prove you can.

For the first time since I’d arrived in Greenwood Valley, I was hooked. Something about Reuben staring at me like that, angry and vicious for no apparent reason, but holding himself back due to the self-imposed rules he put on himself was more exciting than anything I’d experienced in years.

Also,fuckwas he hot when he was mad. Hot damn. The energy coming off him was making my blood hot. I bit my lip in expectation.

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and dug his fingers into his leg. That seemed to settle him. His breathing regulated, and he opened his eyes again, his face shifting back into that apathetic place where he refused to let himself cave to my bullshit.

“Oh, man, you aresomuch hotter when you’re angry.”

No reaction.

“Great. Back to the stone face. Guess we’ll have to startallllllover.”

“You and I need to have a conversation about your behavior, little girl.”

“Yeah, that’s not really my learning style. But choking works well.”

I was interrupted by Sophie’s voice. “Mister Weston, are you going to play with us?”

His face softened and he turned around to look at her. She held a tray of chocolate chip cookies, and she smiled up at him like the little angelic service sub that she was.

If she begs, he won’t say no,I thought.And then maybe I can ask him questions.

“Please stay, Mister Weston,” I said, and tried to make my voice as sweet as possible to match Sophie’s.It didn’t work. He just glared at me.

“Yeah,” she agreed. “It would be really fun. We’ve missed you. And, I made cookies.” She held the tray up just a little higher, as if it were an offering.

He closed his eyes and sighed in defeat.

“Yes,” I hissed, and stole a cookie from Sophie’s tray. And then I snatched the bottle of nasty rye whiskey from his hands while he wasn’t focused on it.

“Hey!”

I jogged up the stairs into the game room, a feeling of euphoria coursing through my veins. God I loved fucking with big scary men with pretty dark eyes.

I settled next to Cat and handed her the bottle of whiskey. Reuben appeared at the stairs a moment later, his hair messed up, panting slightly, looking mad. Cat took one look at him and burst out laughing.

I set the whiskey on the table. “You can only have it back if you stick around.”

Reuben made his way to an empty armchair, directly across from me and Cat, and poured himself another shot, glaring at me.

I smiled sweetly, and let my eyelashes flutter. His eye twitched.

I studied his face as he fumed, soaking in the details. He looked ferocious when he was angry: his dark eyes flashed, deep creases appeared in his forehead, and I could see the muscles in his jaw flex as he clenched his teeth together. A shadow fell across his face, making the crookedness of his nose a little more prominent, and the darkness of his eyes even more intense. His black hair was rumpled from him running his hand through it in frustration. His broad shoulders were slightly elevated from how frustrated he was with my simple action. Reuben wasn’t handsome... but something about him made my stomach flip.

I wasn’t even that bad,I thought.This barely scratches the surface of the brat-meter.

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