Page 83 of Burn for Her

Chapter 27

Dorian leaned against the side of the doorjamb, instantly enthralled with his view.

Lena stood in front of a mirror braiding her hair.

Against his better judgment, he imagined this being their life. Him waiting for her to get dressed for an evening out on the town. Her fussing over her hair and him saying she looks perfect no matter what style she chose to twist it in. He gifted himself the image of running her bubble baths each night and reading to her by candlelight. Making dinners together. Drinking from each other while they made love. Then he’d go off to work, hunt, and chop the heads off Savag-Ri and send their bones to be ground to dust and used as a ward.

Yeah, that last bit wrecked his whole fantasy.

She couldn’t be happy being mated to a killer like Dorian. He took tremendous pleasure in torturing, gutting, and beheading things. His own mother couldn’t stomach being mated to a monster like that. She died to get away from him in the end.

Dorian couldn’t stomach the thought of Lena choosing death over a life with him. Ironic he was making that same decision himself now.

“There you go again.” Lena spoke calmly, her gaze meeting his in the mirror.

“What do you mean?” He covered the distance between them in just a few strides of his long gait. Standing behind her, they looked at each other in the reflection of the mirror.

“You go from having this beautiful face to a nauseous one every time to you stare at me too long. Everyone here seems to have that response to me. Am I that repulsive?”

“It’s not what you think.”

“Oh boy, now we’re going with the ‘it’s not you it’s me’ speech? Save your breath.” She pulled away from him and he hated it.

“I’m sorry.”

“You keep saying that, too.” Lena crossed her arms over her ample chest.

“Only because it’s true.”

“Why did you bring me here, Dorian?”

“To keep you safe.”

“And when you die, am I supposed to live here afterwards? Alone, or should I run to Bane? At least he enjoys spending time with me.”

Dorian hissed and his fangs ached against his gums. “Bane?” Not likely.

“You have no say in my future if you choose to die instead of love me.”

Was she trying to pick a fight with him, or make him feel like utter shit? She was succeeding at both right now.

But she had a point.

“How about this?” Lena dropped her arms and swept one in the direction of the window. “I’ll keep Bane’s bed warm, and you can keep Emily’s nice and cozy.”

That was too far. He backed her up against the wall, pinning her in place. His nostrils flared, and he smelled her lust kick into the air. “What the hell is your problem?”

Her words and body were contradicting each other.

“What’s yours?” She twisted her arms and broke out of his hold with little to no effort. It made his cock hard and blood heat. “Dorian, I’m so twisted over this, I can’t breathe!”

That makes two of us, he thought.

“You act like I’m all that matters to you, yet you’re literally letting yourself die in front of me.” She waved her hand up and down at him.

Dorian looked at himself in the mirror and saw what she meant. His eyes were bloodshot. Tiny capillaries in his cheeks stood out against the scruff of his whiskers. His hair was limp, no longer full-bodied and lush. And his skin looked sallow.

He was disgusting.