After some time, I was able to shift back. I’d ruined my shirt from the holes my wings had torn, but I didn’t care. All that mattered right now was that I hadn’t hurt her, at least not enough where I couldn’t forgive myself.
I felt her attention hot on my back, almost like she could read every thought going through my mind.
“I like both sides of you, you know,” she said after another stretch of uncomfortable silence.
“You shouldn’t. There’s a part of me that wants to hurt you.” I weighed the wrench in my hand, growling in displeasure. “It wants to crawl inside you and split you open.”
“I want that,” she answered matter-of-factly. Like she knew without a doubt I wouldn’t hurt her.
She trusted me implicitly.
“No, you don’t, Lore.”
“Don’t tell me what I want, asshole.”
I shot her glare full of warning. “I’m telling you what I should want. Because as much as I want to indulge some of the twisted fantasies going through my head right now, my main priority is keeping you alive.”
“Look…” Breathing a sigh, she rose off the bed, crossed over to the table and hopped onto its surface. She shoved against my shoulder, forcing me to collapse into the chair beside it. “You already gave me the warning, remember? So we’ve been through this. ‘I don’t want to do this with you. I’ll devour you until there's nothing left.’ Yada yada yada. I already signed the waiver, okay? So, can we please just accept each other for who we are? You’re a crazy half-devil mechanic who can snap at literally any moment. And I’m the crazy, demon-loving chick who almost ran her mother over with a truck and is still regretting the fact that she missed.”
I lifted my eyes to her, searching her face in the dark.
I’d meant what I’d said about being her God in these woods. What she didn’t know yet was that no matter where we were, she’d always be my Goddess.
I ran my knuckle over her inner thigh, from her knee up to her apex. “I made you a promise. I told you I’d protect you. I might talk a lot of shit—”
She snorted. “Alot.”
I growled, and she clamped her jaw shut so I could continue. “But my vow to keep you safe means I have to keep myself in check too. I know you’re not some fragile waif. You’re stubborn, and you don’t easily break. That doesn’t change the fact that you’re still human.”
Her pulse accelerated, and I didn’t miss the way her eyes centered on my lips. Knowing what was going through her mind, I reached up. My hand curved around the back of her neck and pulled her down until her lips met mine.
She sighed against my mouth, her arms bending around my shoulders. “I think I'm ready to sleep now.”
I carried her to bed, then settled in behind her in the position I knew humans called thebig spoon.
I stroked her hair as she drifted off, her steady breathing pattern confirming that she was asleep. So it came as a surprise when she started to speak. “Can you fly?”
“They don’t work. They’re just an ugly deformity as a result of my mixed breeding.”
She made a sleepy huffing sound. “They’re beautiful…”
I found myself smiling, loving this soft moment with her that I was sure she wouldn't remember come morning. “Can I ask you something in return, little lamb?”
She made a sleepy sound of confirmation.
I thought about not asking it. It was stupid to think someone could love me, considering what I was. But curiosity ate at me like a parasite, pushing words from my mouth before I could take them back. “Do you love me?”
“You’re the only thing that matters…”
My dark heart clenched in my chest. It wasn’t an outright yes, but there was something in her words that told me this was better. It carried a weight to it I didn’t understand. Not yet.
I bent over her, pressing a gentle kiss to her temple. “I look forward to taking you apart so I can figure you out, Lorelei Brooks. Then I’ll put you back together again, just the way I found you. Because you’re perfect as you are.”
She shifted in her sleep, mumbled something unintelligible, then said, “The bookstore’s having a sale on hardcovers. Can we go?”
I chuckled softly, then kissed her again. “Yes, Lore. Just as soon as I get you out of this hellhole.”
Chapter Eight
