“I don’t know,” his lips said against my temple.
“I don’t want to stop,” I whispered.
“Neither do I,” he breathed.
“What if there isn’t a next time? What if we don’t get a chance—”
“Next time, Raine…” He reached up and held my face in both his hands. “Next time, I will take your clothes off, slowly, one piece at a time. Then I’ll start with your lips and kiss every last inch of you until there is nothing but ache and need between us.”
“And then?” My voiced cracked.
“Then you’ll know who you belong to.”
Chapter 11
Iwalked alone back to my room, fingers touching my mouth. My tongue still tasted of him. My fingers still salty from his skin. My underwear soaked from the images that rushed through my head of Mathias’s promise of anext time.
“Does my brother taste good?” The voice startled me, snapping me back to reality—or whatever version of reality Ravenswood was. I jumped back with a yelp, clasping my hands over my chest. Mathias’s brother Liam leaned next to my door, watching me, with curious eyes.
“Liam,” I said, swallowing hard, my mind reeling. The last experience I had with Liam contained him starting a sexual frenzy with two living girls that made me wish I could gouge my eyes out with toothpicks to stop myself from getting aroused. “Stay right there, don’t come any closer.”Creepy, soul-sucking sexual deviant.
Smirking, he took a small step forward and folded his arms across his chest. “Tell me then, what difference is there between Mathias and I?” He turned his head, pursing his lips and stroked a finger over the handle of my bedroom door. “He and I are both the same. Yet, I could smell your arousal for him from where I stand.”
My brain fumbled for an answer. “I…what? What the hell are you talking about?”
“I can smell your soaked undergarments from here.”
I recoiled at his words. “You’re as vile as your father is,” I stammered.
“And just as dead.Just like Mathias.” His words sent spikes of sharp pain across my torso. They were dead. Mathias was dead.I guess I sometimes forgot that part.
My fingertips found their way up to the bottom of my lips.
“You kissed a corpse,” he snorted out a laugh. “Want to kiss another one?”
“No,” I snapped, stepping back quickly.
He took another step forward. “I’m better at it than he is, I promise.”
“Take another step closer and I will—”
“What? Touch a hand to my skin, and what…make me feel exquisitely alive again?” He leaned a little more toward where I stood, his smirk turning into a crooked, arrogant smile. “I was very happy you came back to us, Rainey. There are so many things I want to do with you.To you.”
“Shut up,” I said, balling my fists. “There’s nothing you and I are going to be doing together.”
Liam cocked his head to the side, “Will my brother always be there to guard you?” His eyes flitted around the misty hallway. “Where is he now then? Wait,” he chuckled, “let me guess—Mathias is in the library researching some stupid theory on how we could all live again.”
I stood still, unblinking. That’s exactly what Mathias said he was going to be doing after our kiss in the alleyway. I was to get back to my room and talk to no one, while he…read through books.
Liam smirked at whatever expression he saw on my face, and winked at me. “I’m the fun brother.”
Footfalls quickened in the shadows nearby, and I hurriedly darted my eyes around Liam and the hallway to see who was approaching.
If it was the dead king, I thought I might jump out one of the tower windows just to see what would happen.
“That’s enough, Liam.” Mathias’s dark features stormed out of the shadows, menacing and fierce. His expression was murderous, his voice full of fury. “I warned you to stay away from her.”
“Because she’s yours?” Liam laughed. “Down here we share our toys, Mathias.”
