“I already told you. Executing the perfect death of my father—in front of his precious deity and his flock—is more important to me than you are.” I released her and turned my head so she couldn’t see the lie playing behind my eyes. “So, leave while you still can.”
I wanted to take her up on her offer to leave Bishop together so badly that a bone-deep ache spread through my entire body, lacing through me like barbed wire. This wasn’t so much about my father’s death as it was about her acceptance of what I was.
Her stepbrother was a devil.
And I’d claim parts of her over time that I doubted she was willing to give.
“Get the fuck out of here. I’m not asking,” I sneered at her, hoping the facade of anger wouldn’t betray more tender feelings. I couldn’t give her any reason to stay.
She crossed her arms and stood firm, defiance flickering in her eyes. “You’re not scaring me away. Try your fucking worst, Titus. Nothing you can say or do will convince me that you’re even half the monster you think you are. And I don’t believe for a second that you care about your father’s death more than you care about me.”
She was right up in my face, so close I could taste her fury on the tip of my tongue. The peaks of her nipples grazed against my pectorals, and yet again, I had to exercise the greatest amount of self-control I’d ever needed before.
Devil females were never this enticing to me. But her? She called to the feral darkness within me. It lusted for her more than it had for any female before. And that was exactly the ace up my sleeve. The last card I had to play to scare her out of town.
She'd hate me forever.
But if that’s what it took to keep her safe from my father, the Elder One and all of Bishop, it was a price I’d happily pay.
Once we got back to town, she stormed off to her room. I didn’t follow her…yet.
I waited for nightfall.
When the nearly full moon crept high enough in the sky to lurk through my bedroom window and paint everything in silver, I rolled out of bed and made my way to her room.
Her door was, once again, left open. An invitation.
Something she’d regret in the morning.
For a moment, I stood there in the doorway, admiring her and the way the moonlight was interrupted by the dancing shadows of wind-blown branches outside her window.
It was almost funny how much she’d derailed my plans. I’d been planning for so long how to kill the man who’d murdered my mother, and in such a short time some random woman that showed up in my life reprioritized everything for the first time in years.
Her.
I had to protect her. I had to let her know that living here was not safe for her, or anyone like her. She wouldn’t listen to me, no matter how harsh my warnings or how horrible the evidence. She chewed up fear and spat it out like it was nothing.
Steeling myself, I pushed inside her room.
Hurting her in the most heinous way I could stomach was the only way to ensure she left this place for good.
Chapter Eleven
Lore
Byhowcarefullyhemade his way toward my bed, he must have thought I was asleep. I kept my eyes closed as the mattress dipped beneath his weight. The blankets shifted as he crawled under the covers, and he sucked in a breath when he discovered I went to sleep in the buff.
“You’re so damn beautiful, Lore.”
My insides wound tight when he crawled on top of me, his hands skimming over my skin and exploring every inch of me. His fingers teased and tweaked my nipples, then paused to see if I’d wake up. When I didn’t, his hand trailed down my navel and curved to cup my apex.
I whispered his name with a featherlight moan.
He arched over me, his mouth pressing against the shell of my ear. “Are you dreaming of me, little sister?”
A swollen mewl bled from me as his fingers slid through my folds, exploring me, feeling me out. “Fuck me dead. You’re sowet—Christ.”
I was so turned on by what was happening that I could hear his fingers as they stirred my flesh, which was slick and sopping. My thighs trembled, the heat of his touch shocking against my center. When his hand fell away, there was the sound of rustling clothes before his hips settled on top of mine, pushing my legs open further to make room for himself.
