Page 98 of Lovely Venom

It’s only for tonight, and tonight is about the fantasy.

That’s what I keep telling myself anyway.

“This is bad,” I slur, delirious from what he’s doing to me.

“What?” His chest rumbles beneath me.

“I knew this would be addictive.”

A beat of silence passes, and when he answers, his voice is rougher than it was a moment ago.

“Good. Don’t ever forget who your dealer is.”

19

CHANTEL

I wake to the feeling of warm fingers grazing the length of my arm. A solid, steady presence beneath me drags me back to consciousness, and when I open my eyes, confusion clouds my thoughts.

There are no windows in this room, so the level of darkness hasn’t changed. But judging by how rested I feel, I have to assume I’ve been asleep for hours.

I’m still sprawled across Bran’s chest, and my first instinct is to panic. But when he feels the tension gathering in my body, his grip on me tightens.

“It’s okay, Chantel.”

I release a ragged breath, unsure of what to say.

“You keep calling me that.”

“It’s your name, isn’t it?”

The way he says it makes me paranoid he knows it’s not.

“It’s supposed to be Morrigan when we’re here,” I deflect.

“Morrigan the raven goddess,” he murmurs the words against my throat.

My brows knit together. “Raven?”

It’s been so long since I chose the alias, I only remember her as a dark goddess, which seemed fitting at the time.

Bran hums an acknowledgment, but doesn’t elaborate, so I’ll have to look it up later. For now, I’m more distracted by the naked man beneath me, who at some point must have covered us over.

I’m wondering whether morning still counts as our night together, though I’m not even sure what time it is. At least, not until my phone rings across the room. I set it to Do Not Disturb until ten, so it has to be later than that.

“It’s been doing that for a while,” Bran remarks.

I grimace, realizing I should have set an alarm.

“Do you know what time it is?”

“Have somewhere to be?”

“Unfortunately, yes,” I answer apologetically. “I have a thing with my friends. Not that I don’t want to go, it’s just, I didn’t really think through the timeline.”

Before he can say anything, another flood of notifications comes in, and I groan.

“I should check that.”