Page 28 of His Darkest Desire
He caught the second book, and the third, if only barely. By the fourth, he knew he wouldn’t be able to keep up with only two hands.
Why had he let this escalate? Why was he allowing a human to wreak havoc in his home, to threaten him and his belongings? He advanced toward her, dropping the books onto the bed, just as she hefted a rune-craved crystal pillar.
It was a spell focus, and it happened to be both pointy enough and heavy enough to hurt even Vex.
She threw it without hesitation.
“Enough!” Vex extended an arm, projecting his magic in the shape of a hand. Its translucent green fingers wrapped around the crystal, halting it in midair.
Kinsley stared, wide-eyed, as the hand swept past her and returned the crystal to the desk.
Nostrils flaring with a heavy exhalation, he dispelled the hand. He kept his eyes on the human until he was sure she wouldn’t reach for anything else before surveying the chamber. His eyebrows sank lower with each piece of clothing or sheet of parchment he spied upon the floor.
“Were you trying to destroy my bedchamber, human?”
“Most recently, I was trying to destroy your head.”
“I have killed for less.”
She spread her arms and gestured to herself. “Yet here I stand.”
Despite his irritation, Vex found himself battling back a smile. This defiance, this confidence, this…liveliness, it all seemed so out of place here. And from a human of all things. A human who was utterly powerless here and should have been begging his forgiveness, who should have been cowering in fear.
He’d seen Kinsley many times since removing her from her strange carriage and delivering her from the brink of death. He’d watched, cloaked in magic, as she’d wandered his home, as she’d eaten in his kitchen, as she’d desperately sought a way out of the woods. He’d seen her confusion and frustration as his illusions had repeatedly warped her path and guided her back to the cottage. He’d witnessed her tenacity when she’d trudged into the fog and fought through her pain, only to be returned here by the curse.
And he’d glimpsed her naked form when she’d been beneath him.
Yet this was the first time he’d truly seen her.
Her body was soft and sensuous, with ample curves and yielding flesh. Her pale skin had an appealing pinkness to it, complemented by another color that was a whisper of something forever unattainable to Vex—the kiss of the sun. Though she stood a head shorter than him and was dressed only in a blanket, her feet were planted firmly, and her stance was solid. She was unwilling to back down despite knowing she was outmatched.
And her face… It was heart shaped and gentle, so far removed from the angular perfection of the fae. But there was strength there. It lay in the firmness of her full, pink lips, in the set of her dark, elegant eyebrows, and in the light of her blue-violet eyes, which were framed by lush black lashes.
Kinsley was human. A newly immortal being bearing all those mortal imperfections. Inferior to him in every way.
And yet he was drawn to her. She kindled a heat in his core unlike anything he’d ever felt, already intense enough that he feared it would consume him if its flames were fanned.
Behind him, the wisps drifted into the room. They lingered near the threshold, speaking to each other in hushed tones.
Kinsley looked past him and gasped. “There’s three of them?”
“Indeed,” he replied, glaring at the wisps over his shoulder, “making them thrice as unreliable. I bade you watch her.”
Flare inflated their flames and moved forward. “This one did, magus.”
“So, you watched as she tore my bedchamber apart?”
“This one’s duty was to watch.” Flare lifted their tendrils in a tiny, nonchalant shrug. “This one was not told to intervene.”
“Have I expected too much by assuming you would report to me were she being destructive?” Vex demanded.
“It’s not their fault,” Kinsley said. “If you’re going to blame anyone, blame me.”
Vex returned his attention to the human to find her glaring at him again. He strode toward her. She held his gaze, giving not an inch against his advance, until he was directly before her.
“Though it should come as no comfort, human,” he said, “know that I hold you entirely responsible for this mess.”
She crossed her arms beneath her breasts, which pushed those soft mounds of flesh up and together. His gaze dropped to them, and his cock twitched in response, hardening. The blanket she’d wrapped around herself betrayed only a hint of the body beneath. That such a hint should stir any reaction in him at all…