“We can go back to them.” I try to keep my voice level, but the suggestion makes my chest tighten, my darkness spike.
I want her.
I don’t want to share.
Not yet.
Let her be mine, let her choose me, just this once.
She studies me carefully, her chest heaving as she considers my words, my tone, surely feeling my desperation.
Then, there’s a soft pull at the corner of her lips. “You want me all to yourself?”
“Yes.” I don’t hesitate. There’s no reason to. No reason to hide, not anymore.
Never again.
Her lips part due to it, at my abruptness, my clear need. I lean in again, slightly hesitant, brushing my mouth over hers with one gentle caress.
“Please,” I murmur, and my darkness echoes it.
She shudders, her fingers slipping back around my neck. “Well, when you beg so nicely—”
I’m kissing her again, hard and desperate, stealing her words, taking her breath, consuming everything she’ll give me.
I feel our darknesses rising, reaching out to one another. Entangling.
We’ve flitted to a room, it could be mine, I don’t know. Don’t care. I’ve spent so little time here since it was built. But it’s a room, with a bed, and right now, that’s all I need.
I lean down with her still in my arms, placing her onto the edge of the mattress, but I never stop kissing her. And she never stops kissing me.
Take her, now. Claim her. She’s ours—
I tear myself away, take several large strides back.
Jasmine’s left panting on the bed, staring up at me. Her eyes wide with confusion as I take another step back, then another, until my back’s against the door.
She frowns, then shifts as if to follow me.
“Stay,” I grit out. I can only manage that.
Her frown deepens, but she must see something that makes her listen. She lowers back down onto the edge.
My hands curl into fists, fingers wrapping tightly around my thumb, making the stones of my ring dig in, trying to ground myself to my physical darkness.
Try to quieten the voice.
There. Take her. Make her ours.
And still… I stare. Because how could I resist? What being could?
None.
I’m fixated on the angelic temptation in my unholy presence.
Her jacket has gone, and she’s just sitting there waiting. Flush, breathless, in that teasing little white dress. The dainty sleeves have fallen off her shoulders, her skin so smooth, kissed by the pale moonlight, and she’s staring at me.
That beguiling look, that enticing body, that pleading silence, and the hints of her emotions. The specks of her excitement, her need and fear.
