Go back to the lips!
She takes another step closer, and now I feel her body heat. Chelsea is like a lightbulb full of potential. All she needs is to be flipped on.
“You know my secrets,” she murmurs.
“I know your curse.”
“They’re the same thing.”
“Are they?” It’s my turn to search her eyes, and before she can mask it, her gaze sharpens, her eyes hiding something. “You’ve got more secrets.”
“But not about my curse.”
“Maybe not.”
We stand a foot apart. She’s close enough that all I have to do is lean down and brush my lips over hers. Would she kiss me back or slap me?
She takes one more step in, closing the last remaining distance, and lifts her chin high to look me in the eyes. “So why did you marry me, Eryx?”
The way she says my name, it sounds like a song dripping from her lips. “I married you because we both benefit.”
"That's not an answer." She steps even closer. "Whyyou? Whyme? Why does it have to be us?"
Because Nightmare won't stop. Because when you touched my hand, roses grew and I felt something other than rage for the first time in ten years.
But I can't say any of that.
“Stop circling,” she says when I don’t reply.
She’s showing those teeth again!
She sure is. My gaze drops to her hand. I take it and she jumps. My eyes dart to meet hers and I wait for her to pull away, but she doesn’t.
I turn her hand over, studying it. “There may come a time when I tell you everything, but right now you and I are virtual strangers.”
“Are we?” she challenges as our magics beginning to mingle, feeling each other out.
A shiver skates down my back. “Our magics might not be strangers but we are.”
Why aren’t you telling her about us?Nightmare demands.
Because it will scare her and you’ll spend the next year being miserable. Trust me, I’m doing us a favor.
With our gazes locked, I lift her hand to my mouth and kiss the back of it. Chelsea goes very, very still.
“Dinner is in an hour. I’ll see you then.”
Then I drop her hand and walk away. My heart beats recklessly. It feels like I won’t be able to breathe. It doesn’t loosen until I hear the soft sound of her door closing and the lock being flipped to secure her inside—to keep her safe.
From me. From the man who wants her too much, too fast.
From the man who still has a killer to find.
Chelsea
After Eryx shuts the door, I lean against it and exhale hard. What just happened? My hand still tingles where he kissed it. My heart's still racing from standing that close to him—close enough to?—
No. Stop. We're strangers. This is a business arrangement.
