Page 40 of Touched By Sin
Placing his hand on either side of my face on the trunk, he whispers, “Show me your power, little angel.”
My chest rises and falls with each quick breath. He’s so close that his heat burns me everywhere we connect. “I can’t fly if you’re crowding me like this.”
He strokes the backs of his fingers over my collarbone, my pulse point, where my heartbeat flutters against my skin. “So push me away. Tell me to stop.”
I can’t think when he’s this close. Why does he affect me like this? He’s an asshole underneath the smirk and all that delicious muscle.
Sliding my hands up his stomach, I feel each groove contract. My intention is to shove him away—to assert my freedom—but then his lips descend on mine, and his kiss is so sweet and toe-curling that I sink into him.
“Angel,” he whispers, braiding his fingers in my hair and tasting my lips softly, hungrily. There’s nothing rough about his touch now. Is this the same Daemon who licked my ass last night before ordering me to crawl to him?
He steps back, looking dazed. And if I’m surprised by his gentle kiss, he looks even more confounded. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out,” he says, rubbing at the back of his neck. “Just err.. just spread your wings and trust. Let yourself be guided.”
I stare at him unblinkingly while he walks back to the house. I’ve never met a more confusing man. First, he steals me away to the underworld, and now he trusts me not to run away. There must be a catch.
ChapterTwelve
AURELIA
The lady behind the reception staples a stack of papers together, her eyes falling up and down my body, before she hands me the paperwork. “Sign these. Your class schedule is there, too. You have been assigned a locker, which Dariana kindly offered to show you.”
As if summoned by magic, Dariana’s high heels click on the floor. Her black dress is short and hugs her curves to perfection. It’s hard not to gawk and even harder not to blush. She takes the paperwork from the lady behind the counter and walks off, calling out over her shoulder, “Are you coming or not?”
I shake myself off and hurry after her. Students stare as we pass. I don’t blame them; we look like an odd pair. Yin and Yang.
“Where are your keepers?” she asks, barely sparing me a glance.
It’s hard to keep up with her. She’s too fast, weaving through bodies like she knows that everyone will step aside for her.
And they do.
“I don’t know,” I reply.
This morning, they took off and left me alone at the reception. I think I stood there blinking for ten minutes before the lady behind the reception cleared her throat. I feel lost. I’m so used to them hovering over me at every turn.
“They trust you not to run away now.”
“I guess so,” I reply.
They have something I want, and they know it. I won’t leave here until I have mastered flying—a chance I know I won’t get offered in Eden.
“Why are you volunteering to show me to my locker?”
Her eyes briefly meet mine before she focuses her gaze forward. “Why not?”
“You’re being kind. It’s weird.”
She snorts.
“It is!”
We pass a corner, and she pulls me to a stop next to a set of lockers. “This is yours. And these here,” she gestures to the lockers surrounding it, “belong to Daemon, Alaric, and Ronan. Your leash is stretchy, but make no mistake, you’re still leashed.”
“Oh.”
She gives me a bemused look, leaning her shoulder on the locker next to mine while I open it to peek inside. “What do I do with it?”
Her eyebrows fly up. “You put things in it.”
