Page 111 of Alien God

But no, that could not be. Just like she could not be adorable, she could not be flirting. Because that would imply something more than simply wanting me while hating me. Something beyond raw attraction mixed with loathing. Something warmer, something deeper, something that made my brain feel like it was unspooling inside my skull.

Something I’d already begun to notice in myself even as I tried to bury it.

Aiko, who was unnaturally good at knowing exactly when she was needed, re-entered the kitchen at that moment, distracting Torrance and saving me. The two of them finished dinner preparations, and Torrance began ladling stew into bowls.

“Are you eating here?”

It took me a moment to realize my betrothed was addressing me.

“Are you?” I asked.

“I was planning on it,” she said. “I’ve gotten used to eating here with Aiko and the others when you’re away.”

Aiko watched the two of us, reminding me to take up the role of adoring husband. Adoring husband to my adorable bride, skies save me.

“That is fine, beloved.”

Torrance’s eyes got huge in her small face. I was almost as surprised as she looked. I hadn’t intended to say that. But, much the same as her calling me Wylf, it seemed to have just slipped out. Well, I suppose that’s the fake pet name I’ve chosen for her. I’ll just have to go with it. Can’t take it back now.

I cleared my throat and rose, turning away from both of them so Aiko wouldn’t notice the obvious bulge still pressing outward in my trousers.

“I have some small matters to attend to. I wish to fill Ashken in on news from the villages.” I glanced back at my bride over my shoulder and wing, finding her still wide-eyed, clearly struggling to recover. A dark satisfaction rose in me at that. That I’d thrown her and her flirtations so wildly off-kilter. “I will meet you in our room, beloved.”

I said it with relish that time, emphasizing every sound, watching crimson creep up her neck.

Then, I faced forward once more. I walked out of the room, leaving my bride, beloved and reeling, behind.

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

Torrance

I ate slowly and silently in the kitchen while Shoshen and Ashken chatted and occasionally told off Brekken for trying to steal food. Eventually, the alien hound was given a massive sotasha femur to chew on, which he took gleefully over to the space in front of the fire.

I ate my stew in the tiniest spoonfuls possible, trying to delay the inevitable. Delay going up to our room, and being alone with Wylfrael. But even as I tried to stall, my body kept reminding me of the fact that I wanted to go. I wanted to pull away from him and run to him, all at the same time. I wanted to hide from him and undress in front of him. To have him look at me the way he’d looked at me that night when he’d ripped my robe away.

There was something toxic, nearly drugging, about the way Wylfrael wanted me. It robbed me of common sense and spoke to something much deeper, without language and without thought, something carnal and instinctive that told me to go to him, to put my neck in the predator’s jaws and see if he’d bite down.

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