She placed her hand on top of mine, a patient look in her eyes. “I’m not trying to leave you, Harris, but eventually we are going to have to separate. I have to go to work. Back to my place.”
I wrinkled my nose, not liking that idea. “You’ll move in with me.”
She raised a brow. “You say that like a command, not a request. We talked about this.”
We did, and I could have kicked myself. It was like I couldn’t help it. Still, the thought of letting her spend one night apart from me, alone, with that thing after her, made me sick. “It’s too dangerous right now for you to be alone.”
“And it’s too dangerous for us to be together if that thing wants you dead because of me.”
I growled. “We don’t know that.”
“Yes, but separating will help us find that out. Or maybe I could just deal with it head-on. Open a portal for it to come through and ask him what he wants.”
I’d forgotten how stubborn she was. “You aren’t going through a fucking portal. Not with this threat out there. Understand?”
She leaned back and glared at me. She was pissed with my tone. I sucked in a deep breath and tried to reset. “Look, I don’t care what he wants. If I see him again, I will find a way to kill him. He’s not invincible, and if he’s growing in strength, that means, at some point, he will be solid. I’ve had my people give me a report on these things. They were a menace to society in the past. That’s why they were rounded up and expelled to stay only in their realm. If one is getting through, I need to get rid of it.”
“But what if-”
She was going to give me a heart attack with her reckless thoughts. “Woman!” I shouted, cutting her off. I twisted and moved on top of her, settling my legs outside of hers andlinking her fingers in mine above her head. She yelped, her eyes widening in shock. “We aren’t going to talk to that thing and reason with it. You have no idea what it is capable of. I can give you the file I received on these things. They are not to be fucked with. It will wrap around you and drain you to death. Leave you until you’re nothing more than a husk. And that’s assuming that is all it wants from you. Because they have done other things. They have raped, they have enslaved, they have bred. He could use you up until your mind and body are broken. Is that what you want? Because if that fucking happened, I’d find that realm and annihilate it. I’d start a fucking war for you, baby.”
She shivered under me, despite the heat, her mouth open and eyes filled with tears, face a mix of fear and anger. “I don’t want that,” she whispered in a broken voice.
I relaxed my shoulders, feeling like shit for scaring her. Control through fear. That’s what my father did. I didn’t want to do that to her. “I’m sorry to scare you, baby.”
She closed her eyes, shaking her head. “No, you’re not. You didn’t show me this information you got on these creatures. You shut me out and plan things with your people instead of looping me in. You don’t want me to be by myself, fine. I can go home. I can get protection from a coven. They need to know about this thing anyway. Kaylor could help. Things don’t have to be just your way.”
I wanted to yell. Tell her that I knew all of this and that whatever she was going to suggest couldn’t be better than what I would come up with because I knew this world, not her. I knew violence. She was art and beauty and peace. She didn’t need to fight. I was the darkness, and she was the light. It was the way it should be. I couldn’t have her change because of me. And I was confident that she was in this position because of me, despite what she thought.
I released her hands and hung my head, my loose hair partially blocking my vision. “I’m not trying to keep you out of the loop. I just want to fix this. I don’t want to be the one to taint you with having to be mixed up in this violence, and I don’t want you to leave me.” Shit, I sounded vulnerable, my voice weak. I didn’t like that. I wasn’t supposed to be weak.
She raised her hand, pushing through my hair to find my cheek. “You stubborn jerk.”
She didn’t say more, and I chuckled. “I was expecting you to say something else.”
“I don’t think there’s anything I can say that will matter.”
I moved my head to nuzzle where her neck and collarbone met like a damn cat. She smelled of coconut and vanilla, her skin almost satiny. My dick twitched beneath my pajamas despite the seriousness of our conversation. I was weak for her. I both hated and loved it. She was finally mine, and she’d been worth my patience. “There’s plenty you could say. To start, you could say you’ll never leave me.”
She snorted. “I think I need a ring for that.”
I kissed her neck, and she released a sigh of pleasure that hardened me. I loved that she was so sensitive to me. It drove me wild. “Done.”
She gave my bare back a light slap. “Harris, be serious.”
I moved my hand between her thighs, brushing two fingers over her mound. “I am.”
She squirmed under me, moaning. “You’re trying to distract me again.”
I pushed my fingers inwards, the material of her bikini bottoms going inside her along with my fingers. “Me? Never.”
“Fuck, Harris.”
I trailed a line of kisses to her chest and paused at her left breast before tonguing her covered nipple, bringing it erect. “Yes, my love.”
“You’re not going to get your way,” she said in a breathy voice.
I hummed over a nipple before lightly biting it, and she practically came off the towel just as I knew she would. She seemed to love the slightest pain when I engaged in foreplay with her. Damn, she was perfect. Perfect for me. I hated that I’d waited so long, but didn’t regret it. Despite everything, she was safer now than she was when my father was alive and controlling everything and everyone.
