“Well, this one may be a bit more comfortable than a dark and damp forest, that I know,” I said with a grin. “This place has always helped me reset when I am feeling... overwhelmed.”
I cracked open the book I’d found onFae magic, searching for an answer to what I wasn’t sure, but I knew I’d know when I saw it.
Violet leaned over the arm of the chair.
“Overwhelmed is an understatement,” she said with a sigh as she sat back in her chair, crossing her legs.
I peered at her from behind my book, trailing my gaze along her calves up to her thighs, where they disappeared behind uniform colors and fabric.
She bounced her leg faintly.
“Do you often feel overwhelmed, Bane?” she asked curiously.
I dared to look up from the pages of my book.
“Only when I am in your presence,Violet,”I admitted. A part of me worried I was being too honest. That I was coming off desperate or too nonchalant, but the truth was Iwasdesperate.
I was desperate forher,and not just in the physical sense.
It felt good, seductive even, to be able to just... talk.
To tell Violet the things I kept to myself.
I’d tried to talk to Anne once, tell her about my thoughts. But we’d only ended up tangled in the sheets together as she muffled my words with her tongue. At the time, I’d thought it was romantic, the way she kissed me, touched me, luring me into her welcome warmth.
But now, as I sat with Violet, who focused her gaze on me so intently, waiting for mywordsand not my cock... It was more than apparent that I was desperate. For things I didn’t even know I longed for until I’d met Violet.
I shamelessly wanted whatever she was willing to give me. Like an addict waiting for their next fix.
And because I am a quite cursed, thoughts of Anne tried to destroy the peace I’d found. But I would not let them. Not now. Not ever.
We were not the same. Absolutely not—
“What overwhelms you, Violet?” I asked calmly.
Her shoulders sunk, some bright pink hair falling over her shoulders as she moved. The impulse to reach out and run my fingers through it, knowing how soft it felt against my skin was as loud as my beating heart.
I was notaddictedto Violet McCreanor, I told myself.
“Well...” She breathed a sigh as she looked up at me, debating her words wisely.
“Norman and Wanda asked if you’d fed on me.”
My blood ran cold as I looked up from my book, my jaw clenched.
Those little shits, that is—
“Then Wanda did this thing, where her eyes glowed, and my head got all fuzzy, then Delaney showed up and...” She ran her words together.
Anger flooded me, because I was more than aware of Wanda’s powers and what she was capable of.
Paired with the kraken, they were a formidable pair, I had to admit. With Wanda’s ability to tap into one’s deepest desires, and Norman’s ability to quite literallysuck the lustout of you, they were an incubus’s worst nightmare.
And the fact they’d tried to prey on Violetagain, after she’d refuted their advances, only served to agitate me and my monster further.
The next time I find Norman Chee alone...
“Delaney told me you’re not the only monster who feeds on lust.”
