I open my mouth to inform him that I am many things—a liar, a monster, a stone-cold killer, a convict of the Nether, possibly a sociopath—but I am definitelynotcute. Except I forget to say any of that because my eyes drop to his gloriously naked upper half.
The gods might as well have chiseled him from gold.
Is it weird that I want to lick his abs? I'm entirely out of my depth.
Kenzie has way more experience with sexual attraction. She would know if that's an unusual urge. I'll ask her about it once I get her back.
Baelfire's smile grows wicked. "You don't have to limit yourself to just looking, baby. You wanna expose yourself to more touching, and my body is all yours."
Mine.
Gods, I want that.
Part of me wants to plaster myself against this unfairly sexy dragon shifter and ignore what will follow.
But it's hard to forget that I spilled my guts to him and Silas yesterday. They know more about my past than anyone else in the mortal world, and it feels fucking strange. What's even stranger is that they have yet to kick me out of their quintet or report me to the Immortal Quintet.
Maybe...
Maybe they're serious about wanting me despite everything.
But even though that thought makes my chest feel incredibly warm, it would be too selfish of me to keep them. This has to be temporary because they want to break their curses. Hell,Iwant to break their curses.
But that can't happen if I don't have a heart.
"Nope. Stop it. I can tell you're about to try pushing me away again," Baelfire growls, leaning down to catch my eye. "How can I prove that I'm not fucking going anywhere, Maven?"
I look at him. Really look at him, without any of my walls up.
"You shouldn't want me, knowing everything you know. And I assure you, you don't know everything. If my little sob story yesterday made you feel bad for me, don't. I'm not the soft-hearted girl I once was. They took my heart, but Ichoseto become the monster I am now. I'm an extremely all-or-nothing person, and that isn't going to change. You've been warned."
Baelfire examines me for a long moment. "Okay."
"Okay?" I repeat with a frown, feeling like that warranted more of a reply.
He places the softest, warmest kiss on the top of my head. "Yeah. Okay. I've been warned."
I tense when one of his big hands cradles my jaw, tilting my face up toward him. His voice lowers, and his golden eyes burn me.
"Here's my own warning, Maven. You're my keeper. My mate. You could tell me to swallow a fucking grenade, and I'd do it. But the one thing you will never tell me again is that Ishouldn't want you. You don't get a say over that. You're all I want, and that's not changing, so learn to fucking deal with it."
He lets go and steps away, but the tingling heat of his touch lingering on my skin makes me swallow hard.
"Now, you should really eat something before class because my dragon will lose his shit if I hear your stomach growling. He's constantly bitching about me not taking good enough care of you. Come on."
Breakfast is a quick affair—sliced tangy fruit inside another new food substance that Silas explains is yogurt. They both watch as I try it, clearly hoping I'll enjoy it.
I quite literally don't have the heart to tell them that most food I've eaten since coming into the mortal realm has been worlds better than anything I was fed in the Nether. Of course, I like it because it's not the cold porridge with a side of pickled greens I ate most of the time growing up. They served meat sometimes, too, but after a certain sickening incident, I decided to never eat meat again.
"Well?" Baelfire asks, raising his brows.
"It's good."
When I hear Silas groan, I realize his attention is pinned on my tongue as I begin licking the spoon clean. He rubs his face, muttering something about another cold shower as he heads down the hall.
Baelfire winks at me and leans forward to lick the rest of the yogurt from my spoon. "Gotta remember you're surrounded by horny legacies, Mayflower. That poor fucker's already going insane enough without you trying to seduce us."
"Licking a spoon isn't seductive."
