Page 104 of Death is My BFF
“Monster?” He reached past me and picked up a clean paintbrush. “A part of you is scared of me, sure, but you always look at me like you want to understand me.” He swept the paintbrush down my nose and skimmed my lips. My nerve endings ignited, even as
I aggressively flinched away. He flattened his palm beside my head with a snicker, leaning into me. “Tell me I’m lying.”
“You took advantage of me,” I said. “You manipulated my emotions—”
“I wore only an illusion,” he said. “There’s an aura about you that limits my power, so I had to affect you in other mundane ways.
Deep down, you know the truth.” His voice was husky, sensual. If he was trying to have an effect on me, it was working. “It wouldn’t be a challenge to seduce you. You want me, and you always have.”
“Sounds like you’re trying to validate something.”
Death laughed, a low sultry sound. “You’re not ready for me to validate anything, Virgin Girl.”
“Do you want to know what I think?” I leaned in closer to his face, daring to touch demise. He pulled back faintly, but his gloved hand remained on the wall, caging us both in. “I think deep down—and I’m talking Grand Canyon deep—you care about me. It scares you.”
“As if I’d care about a girl as prude and inexperienced as you.” I could imagine the nasty, condescending grin he wore.
My gut twisted. “I wasn’t asking you to confirm it for my benefit.
I wanted you to admit it for yourself. You know what your problem is? You’re too much of a control freak to admit it wasn’talla lie. Or maybe it bothers you so much that I outsmarted you, you refuse to see what’s really going on here.”
“Don’t be pathetic, Faith. You fell in love with an idea, and now you’re trying to summon a ghost.”
“I know what you’re trying to do, Death. It’s not working. I know you feel, I know you’re not heartless, or else you wouldn’t have gone out of your way to save me in the alleyway and in the warehouse. You wouldn’t have gone out of your way to be here, with me.”
The room blackened around him until the outline of my room was smothered completely from the moonlight. I remained untouched by the darkness.
“Do you want to know why I kept things from you? Why I’ve lied to you and pretended to be someone I’m not?” He was so close that my bare feet touched the toe of his leather combat boot, and I could taste the trace of cherries and mint lingering on his breath.
“Because Ican. Ever since you entered my mind, I’ve had to put much more effort into guarding myself from you. It was all worth it though. Now I know everything that makes you tick. You think you know yourself? I know you better. I’ve become your worst fear, I’veplaguedyou, and now you will never escape me, unless I show you how. I own you, Faith. Mind, body, and soul. If I wanted you to leave with me right now, you would. If I wanted you to kneel between my legs for the rest of your pathetic mortal life, you would.”
“Then what’s stopping you?” I demanded fiercely.
Our mouths crashed together.
His lips slanted sinfully over mine, stubble scraping against my sensitive skin like delicious thorns. My brain signaled this was a lethal embrace. His kiss held a magnetic decree of night. A claim that would stain my lips forever. If I didn’t stop this now, he would ruin all other valiant attempts.
We tore apart, an afterthought of hesitation. Panting together in silence, the gravity of this moment felt like a sucker punch to the face. This was wrong. Neither of us trusted each other. He scared me; I annoyed him. Predator and prey orbiting around each other in a dangerous push-and-pull dance of forbidden attraction. That’s how we worked. That’s how wecoexisted.
And yet . . .
All the times I avoided going out to parties to hook up, all the dates Marcy set up for me that I was too nervous to attend, and all my insecurities about never being kissed felt like silly hiccups in a path that was destined to lead me here. I thought my first kiss would be unsure, but this I was certain. Death had awoken a piece of my soul that craved the dark. I wanted more. I wanted him.To hell withthe consequences.
Reaching for him again, my fingers traced the sinewy outline of his cloaked arms. He stood surprisingly still, looming over me as I stretched onto my toes. I dragged my hands up his broad shoulders, drew the monster closer like a possessed enchantress. He smelled just like he tasted. Lethal. Intoxicating. Dried cherries from rolled cigarettes, leather, and a masculine cologne bursting with clean citrus, a leafy forest, cedar, and him, in all of his intensity.
When I grasped the edges of his hood, he came to life again as his gloved hands seized my waist to flatten me against the wall. Our bodies molded together seamlessly.
“No touching,” he said coarsely.
My arms rose lazily above my head, his shadows twirling around my wrists like silk and pinning me to the wall. Only then did Death’s mouth finally dip down for slow seconds. I melted, drank in his venomous lips as my own naturally parted in an invitation. Death released a guttural growl, hotly prodding his tongue into my mouth.
The low drone of it vibrated in his throat like a purr, rousing a sense of urgency between us. His kisses became rougher, unrestrained—he knew I wouldn’t break easily. He lifted me up to his height and hooked my legs around his waist. Leather-gloved fingers dug into the backs of my thighs, my heart pounding with a newfangled desire for deadly touches.
I wanted to wrap my hands around his neck, grip his hair, except my wrists remained locked cruelly in place. My teeth had a mind of their own and pulled at his bottom lip. He let out another bestial noise of approval and ground his hips into mine. The swell of my breasts crushed against the solid wall of his chest, his power seeping into my skin like warm oil and sending delicious tremors throughout my body. I drowned in the euphoria of his enticing shadows, submerged in his night.
Faltering against his lips with a hard shudder, an unusual jolt of heat darted down my arms. The sensation was similar to the feeling I had right before I’d unleashed that powerful light onto the demons.
It ignited me to the core, tingles of electricity surging through my veins as warmth seared my palms . . .