Page 54 of Born for Silk

I look down at her lips as she speaks.

“I am not frightened of birds.” Her hands move down either side of the thick column of my throat, to my shoulders, then fall off as she relaxes backward. “I grew up with birds in the Silk Aviary. Birds of all kinds. People are far more terrifying than birds. Even modified ones like Odio.”

“You used a different word.”

“What word?”

“I am enhanced, but he is modified. Explain.”

“Um.” She blinks, thinking. “Enhanced are new traits we didn’t previously have, like, erm, the membrane on your eyes, the film in your nose, but modified is, like…” She looks at the ceiling in a way that suggests she is picturing the sky. “Well, Odio could already fly and do all the things he does now, only, he’s bigger and better at it than his ancestors.”

I place my finger under her chin, lifting to examine the smooth plane of her porcelain skin, from her throat, across her collarbone…

Fuck me, she is pretty.

She is slim—two clavicles like bird wings open up to frame the top of her chest. I want to lick them, lap my tongue the entire length, and worship the delicate structure I could so easily crush. “You look like a Silk Girl, but you’re too clever to be one. Where did you learn such exact terminology?”

“I have thought about it.” Her eyes flutter under the intensity of my gaze. Unsettled, she shuffles on my lap, her arse slides over my groin, my cock pulses, and I grab her upper arms to hold her still.

“Don’t do that. Don’t move, or I will rip your skirt off and tear you in two, do you understand?”

Her breath catches, and she nods.

“Continue,” I order.

“That’s all, my king. I spend a lot of time thinking about the world. I spent a lot of time thinking and not much time talking… like, now.” She stares up at me dreamily, and it’s ridiculous. Silly little girl with a death wish. “This might be the longest conversation I have ever had. I know I am not meant to ask questions, but there are so many, the echoes have become permanent marks in my mind. I am not meant to think too much. It’s not a virtue—curiosity.” She shakes her head. “But I can’t seem to stop it.”

I look at her lips again, map them. A subtle lower curve holds the weight of a plump and defined heart-shaped upper lip.

Fuck… She will remain pure. It is a kindness on my part, as I have never been a gentle lover.

She will be a little pet that I play with, that tortures me with questions and her body, but that I do not fuck.

I will choose the redhead— the one with the Xin De genetics. “You should go now, little creature.”

I lean backward and ignore the disappointment that flashes in her glossy eyes as she slides from my lap.

Walking toward the double doors, she smooths her hair and then her skirt.

She stills, staring at the pool of blood for a long moment before following the crimson smear painted with a dead body as it was dragged to the doors.

I wait for her to sob or gasp or?—

“My king?” She looks back at me.

I stare deadpan at her. “Yes.”

“Did they deserve it?”

“Never ask me that again.”

“Were you going to shoot me?”

Fuck. This girl. Cairo would have her backside red and raw for such questions… I grit my teeth and force the words past the cage they create. “No more questions.”

Her breathing increases as she tiptoes over the bloody mess and reaches for the door handle.

“Little creature.”

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