Aniyah Glovefox, the goddess divine, the pulse of every obsession I’d ever had, was inmyhouse.
I couldn’t help but watch her wander, feasting on every small detail—how she walked, how she talked, how she breathed—like I’d always done. The way her lips quivered when she was holding something back, the fire that ignited behind her eyes when she was pissed, the way she moved through New York like it was her private kingdom. I was addicted to all of it.
I’d spent years under the radar, keeping my profile low, waiting for the exact right moment to step into the light. I needed to be ready.Worthy.I had a penance to pay, after all.
So, I’d stayed in the shadows, watching her toy with countless men and women. Saw how she was starting to create bonds that she didn't intend to, and although something ached deep inside, I couldn't tear myself away.
Being a glutton for punishment, I had even watched her with the vampire and troll, blocking them out by keeping my eyes trainedon her body. It was after my third rewatch that I’d taken a quick break and jumped back to the main video feed. That was when I caught Glen in the elevator with some guy that gavemethe willies, and that was hard to do.
I noticed Glen’s twitchy movements, the way his gaze kept bouncing around. That tickled something in my memory—his file. He was afraid of elevators. That was why he was given a control room job instead of being placed on any of the upper floors.
My instincts lit up like wildfire.
The stranger with him stayed too close, whispering in Glen’s ear as they got off on the sixth floor. Glen kicked a group out of one of the rooms, three doors down the hallway, and when one of them screamed in protest, the stranger raised a gun and shot him in the head, then in the heart. Dead.
The rest of the group ran as soon as the gun came out. The assailant took a step to go after them before he paused, looked down, and started to enter the room instead.
Before they crossed the threshold, the man unzipped his jacket and carefully pulled out a silver rectangular brick with blinking red numbers.
A bomb.
At that moment, everything crystallized. I didn’t care what it cost, whether I got caught, whether everything I’d been working toward got ruined, or even if her family got wind of what I’d done and decided to skin me alive. I’d burn the whole building down before I let a single scratch mar her skin.
Not again. I would not fail her again.
I ran as fast as my legs could carry me, flying down the stairs and through the lobby. I barely paused long enough to toss a half-lie at Randy, something about an emergency server backup. He waved me through, and I bolted straight to her office.
My lungs were burning by the time I got there, chest heaving, and then she turned.
She saw me.
Her eyes locked on mine in full reality, not on the others in the room. Just me.
Being the focus of her gaze in real life, not behind a screen or across a room, was as overwhelming as trying to swallow the sun. Beautiful, impossible, and so blindingly intense you didn’t know if you’d survive it… but damn it all, I’d savor the burn.
It wasn’t like she really knew who I was. To her, I was still just the IT guy her brother had hired, but when she smiled at me, when she gave me that nickname, when she kissed me…fuck, those pillowy lips, every part of me detonated.
I’d fallen in love with her ten times over in the span of days, and now she was in my home.
I’d panicked for a second when the big brute tried to come in with her, but she shut it down.My startrusted me. Even if she didn’t know why, her instincts did. That’s how I knew we were mates. That first night in Vegas, my horns almost broke through my skull trying to reach her.
She wasn’t someone you claimed. Youearnedher. Coaxed her to bloom and shine that brilliance upon you. That bloodsucker couldn’t understand that, but I did.
She was a thorned flower. You had tobleedfor her bloom, but when she did? Radiance. Pure, unfiltered radiance.
I watched her take in my apartment, her head tilting at the abstract paintings, gaze flicking over the couch like she was imagining herself on it. Maybe watching something. Me curled up beside her, head in her lap, her fingers threading through my hair again.
Heaven.
Her gasp broke my daydream, and when I came back to the present, her body was frozen and her eyes wide in shock.
She’d found it—my masterpiece. My sanctuary. The one thing that kept me from tearing people apart.
The mural. My wall ofultimate beauty.
I stepped up behind her, letting the mask drop. No more pretending. No more playing the shy tech guy. I needed her to know me. To see that this was my love letter to her over the years we’d been apart.
“What do you think?” I inhaled her sweet, floral scent with the desperation of a dying man’s last breath. “Isn’t it magnificent?”
