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“I thought you were someone else.”

“I thought our first coming together would be easier for you if I inhabited a human.”

“Our first?” I laughed. “You make it sound like there’ll be more.”

He reached for me, and this time there was no way of evading it. I didn’t know what I’d expected. Maybe that his fingers would pass through my skin like smoke. Instead, his hand felt warm and completely solid when it settled against my neck. He didn’t grip me. He simply rested it there.

“Close your eyes.”

For some reason, I obeyed without hesitation. Perhaps it was easier than staring into a face that hovered somewhere between convincingly human and unmistakably not.

“You feel warm,” I said. “I thought you’d feel cold.”

“Why?” He sounded genuinely curious.

“I guess because shadows exist where there’s no sunlight and you’re made of shadows.”

Caligo’s fingers traveled from my neck to my cheek, cupping it gently. I had the absurd urge to lean into his palm, but resisted. I reminded myself that I was supposed to be angry. He’d tricked me into having sex with him by pretending to be the doctor. That wasn’t something a seductive voice and a gentle touch should be able to erase.

“I don’t understand why you did it,” I said, my eyes still squeezed tightly shut.

“Pretty Rowan.” His voice was almost a purr, and my cock responded despite every objection my brain was attempting to raise. “So sad. So wounded by how others have treated you. So tired. But you don’t need to worry anymore. Not about anything.”

“No?” I didn’t like the thread of hope in my voice.

“You have me now, and I’ll look after you. You don’t have to worry about Tyler. Or Remy. They can’t touch you. Only I can touch you.” His warm breath brushed my cheek. “You’re all mine now.”

Then he kissed me.

Too many thoughts and questions clamored for attention at once.

It felt like any other kiss.

I should push him away.

I was supposed to be angry.

He’d declared that I was his, which made no sense whatsoever.

A monster was kissing me.

Was he a monster? What made someone monstrous—their appearance or their actions?

A tongue probed between my lips.

He had a tongue?

I reacted instinctively, doing exactly the opposite of what I should have done by opening my mouth for him.

Curiosity, I told myself as my tongue tangled with his. Nothing else. I’d satisfy my curiosity, then establish some firm boundaries. Boundaries like no touching or kissing without permission. No possessing other people. And absolutely no using their bodies to have penetrative—or any other kind of—sex with me.

What I should probably have done was open my eyes. Seeing exactly who was kissing me would surely dampen my arousal.

At least I assumed it would.

It was a great kiss, though. The kind a person remembered. Not rough, but not gentle either. Possessive, Claiming. A kiss that reinforced his assertion that I belonged to him.

Tyler had never kissed me like this. Not even during those first few months when we couldn’t keep our hands off each other.