Page 22 of Silverproof Damsel

“I think you’re very fucking naïve if you think I cannot reach you right now.” Lips brushed. Teeth grazed. Feverish breath burned against my flesh hungrily. “Are you going to come with me, or are you going to make this much harder than it needs to be?”

A breathy moan escaped my lips as the hand collaring my throat pressed against it harder. I wasn’t even sure of what he said anymore. Rhys’ touch was altering my brain chemistry. I wasn’t sure he fully comprehended the power he held over me. My only thought was of the delicious sensation his handtightening against my throat caused as intense pressure built between my thighs.

“Harder?” What was I asking for right now? Was I really asking him to press harder? Or did I mean something else? “I choose harder, Rhys.” Because when was harder evernotthe right answer? Obviously, I’d go with it as my answer.

“I miss the feeling of you on my lips, Love. Soon enough, you’ll be doing that for me. Won’t you?”

“Sure, whatever,” I whispered while chasing after his mouth with need running violently rampant through my entire system. As if he’d somehow lit a fuse igniting between my thighs. He’d turned my need into a weapon, one he held control of.

The husky laughter escaping from his devilishly wicked lips dusted over my hyper-sensitive flesh. The hand holding my jaw twisted at the same time his fingers threaded through my thick, unruly curls. Rhys used it to force my head exactly where he wanted it.

In the position he’d placed me, it left me entirely at his mercy with my neck held to the side, vulnerable to his ravenous mouth. The way he used my hair to control me was both erotic and intense. But the way his lips continued their dark, wicked dance on my throat, aroused me deeper than I’d thought was ever possible.

“Rhys,” I called his name out as a red-hot heat spread between my thighs. It caused a pulse to start at my apex, one that threatened to erupt without him ever needing to touch methere. Proof of his incubi power. A power he wasn’t currently using against me. “Fucking hell.”

“I warned you that I wouldn’t play fair if you made me your enemy. Didn’t I? If you want to make me into a monster, Love? I’ll gladly play the part. Remember, this is what you asked for. This is the only choice you left me with.”

Pleasure jerked through every inch of my body at once. Painful pleasure that forced an animalistic sound to erupt from my lips. Pain and pleasure warred for dominance over my mind. Rhys’ dark, inky visage flooded my thoughts, savagely forcing me to bend to his will.

“No,” I muttered breathlessly between the urge to come apart and the fear that cut through everything else. “Get the fuck out of my head!” I snarled as flames consumed the oxygen in the room.

Rhys’ sharp intake of breath was the only sign he’d realized I intended to raze the dreamscape to escape him. If it didn’t work, the lack of oxygen within the bedroom would be a failsafe in waking up.

“Have it your way then, my Love. You’ll be the most exquisite prey I’ve ever captured. Fair warning, though. If I catch you, I won’t be the one in control anymore. Don’t expect mercy if you force me to walk into this chateau and take you from them. If I were you, I’d come to your senses and do the right thing before they catch you.”

His warning echoed around my mind as I jerked upright on the settee before the fireplace. Pulling oxygen into my starved lungs, I stared at the coals glowing from what was left of the logs. Patting myself down everywhere he’d touched, I noticed the welts and handprints left behind from the dreamscape.

A violent shudder of need rushed from head to toe as I continually inhaled greedily. A familiar scent flooded my senses, draining the color from my face, leaving me ashen. A breeze within the room issued Rhys’ masculine scent drifting through it. The woodsy, masculine aftershave hovered thickly around me as I scanned the room for any sign of him inside it.

My eyes zeroed in on the window, which I’d left open. It hadn’t been open when I’d drifted off to sleep. Had it? Wouldn’t I have felt the cold in the chamber if it had been? Checking for anything unusual, I paled.

On the bed, perched on a pillow, sat a single red rose. It caused my heartbeat to spike to a dangerous cadence as the realization that he’d been inside my bedroom sank in. The breath in my lungs stalled, unable to exit past the panic constricting my throat.

I stood and walked unsteadily to the bed, picking up the long stem rose. My breath whooshed out on a single word as a thorn pricked my finger.

“Fuck,” I whispered breathlessly.“Fuck!”

With my eyes on the blood flowing from my pale flesh, I shifted my gaze to the window. Slowly ambling closer, I peered out into the cloudless night.

There, between two of the large fire pyres, Rhys stood, no longer dressed in a Tom Ford suit that had hugged his muscular frame like a lover’s embrace. He’d removed the jacket and rolled up the sleeves of the expensive, crisp undershirt. It revealed colorful tattoos from his wrists to his elbow, looking sinister as the firelight kissed the ink.

“Shit—shit—shit,” I said on an exhale as goosebumps pricked over my flesh, spreading until the hair on my nape rose. “Motherfucker!” How in the hell had he breached the wards and runes guarding the house?

A more foreboding thought was, if he’d done so, could the others hunting me breach them as easily? It left a deeply seated fear chiseling at my bones. My hands dropped to cradle the precious being I carried protectively.

Rhys watched me from below, a knowing smile spreading across his handsome mouth. Raising two fingers to his lips, he blew me a kiss before turning on his heel and vanishing in a cloud of shimmering dark smoke. My jaw dropped as my brain tried to compute what my eyes had just seen. Putting that piece of information aside for later, I resumed panicking.

Holyfuckingshit.

Rhys Van Helsing had been inside the Silversmith chateau and no one other than me had even been the wiser of his presence here. That was horrifying on so many levels that I couldn’t begin to count them.

No wonder they’d murdered us so easily before. They were like Puff the Magic Dragon, but instead of being oversized fucking lizards, they were shadow and smoke. Okay, technically, they were just the fumes the dragon blew, which made the entire comparison seem off, but semantics.

I collapsed to the floor in front of the window, pressing my back against it while tears streamed down my face.

Iwas sofucked.

My family couldn’t protect me. Rhys made sure I wasveryaware of that. I’d put all my eggs in the same basket on this being a safe place for me to hide. But if they couldn’t keep one incubus male out, then how would they keep the order of knights who were unquestionably intending to either murder or capture me out?

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