Page 27 of Twisted Desire

His lips quirk. “I asked you first.”

“Seriously?”

He says nothing, holding my gaze.

I bite my lip at the question. It’s not one that is easily answered, and I haven’t thought a lot about it. There hasn’t been much time for daydreaming about a different life with the danger of The Experiment looming. “No,” I finally say. “I’ve lived this life for too long. I wouldn’t know the first thing about being human.”

He laughs softly. “You’re worried you wouldn’t fit in?”

“Hardly,” I mutter, flicking some of the hair away from his face. “Your turn.”

He sighs. “I wouldn’t, either. Not because I don’t think I could or because I think I wouldn’t like it, though.”

I arch a brow. “Then why?”

He cups my cheek and kisses my nose. “If I’m human and you’re not, I’ll lose you. I’m not willing to give you up, Skylar.” He says it as if it’s the simplest thing in the world, not as if he told me he doesn’t want to live without me—or rather, he doesn’t want me to live without him.

My chest all of a sudden feels uncomfortably tight.What am I supposed to say to that?

“Hey,” he murmurs, and I focus my gaze back on him. “I think I lost you there for a sec.”

“Sorry,” I say.

He takes a deep breath and trails his hands down my arms until they reach mine, and he laces his fingers through mine. “I figure it’s clear where I stand when it comes to you.”

My head is spinning. “It is?”

He tilts his head to the side. “Apparently not,” he says mildly. “All the entertaining banter and arguments aside, I care about you. So much it scares me to think about the possibility of losing you.”

“Nikolai Sterling—a romantic. Who knew?” I remark in a dry tone, speaking over the spike in my pulse.

“I didn’t think it was a secret.” He grins. “Now you know, and really, that’s all that matters to me.”

Without overthinking it, I seal my lips over his and kiss him hard. This thing between us—whatever it is—scares the absolute shit out of me, but when he says things like that, I can’t help but want to let him in.What could we be aside from a twisted version of friends with benefits?

Our gazes collide in that moment, and it’s almost as if he heard that thought pass through my head. I allow myself to just stand here with him and find comfort in the softness of his eyes.

Voices buzz through the door, breaking us apart. The fae have started to arrive.

We walk back out to the sanctuary to meet everyone. Allison, Monica, and Oliver take their seats, while Nikolai and I stand near the doors, greeting fae as they come in. We shake their hands and thank them for coming. By the time the line has thinned out, the church pews are almost full. There’s a bit of a light fae dark fae divide in some of the sections, but not enough to be overly concerned about right now. We got them here, and no one is trying to kill each other. That’s all I give a damn about.

We let Jackson lead the meeting like we agreed. He has pull with these people, and we need that. Nik and I sit in the front pew, side by side, ready to speak when we’re needed. Jackson is able to keep the tone of the meeting fairly calm. That or everyone here is doing a damn good job at keeping their emotions locked from view. I can’t feel anything but slight breezes of energy, nothing strong enough to decipher.

Jackson, who traded his ridiculous frog-patterned pants for a decent pair of black jeans, explains the need to come together to protect the fae. His words closely resemble those that Nik and I used at our own meetings back when we were trying to get the fae to play nice under the new authority. It was times like those—and a little bit now, too—that I wish Tristan and Aurora had stayed untilafterwe’ve taken down The Experiment. That, of course, would defeat the entire purpose of them going away, but damn. They’d probably handle these situations a hell of a lot better than me. Sure, we’ve been making do, but every day, I’m getting more and more tired of playing these parts. The sooner we can get this over with, the sooner I can go back to my normal life of kicking ass at the Westbrook Hotel.

I glance over at Nikolai when he nudges my shoulder. “Hmm?”

“Are you ready?” he murmurs. Jackson seems to be wrapping up his speech.

“Sure,” I say.Ready to get this over with.

Jackson passes the meeting over to us, and Nikolai stands, offering me his arm. I take it and walk with him to the front of the room to face everyone.

After clearing my throat, I take a deep breath, applying the most confident expression I can muster. “Hello and thank you for coming. For those of you who haven’t heard of me before today, I’m Skylar Chen. I worked closely with the previous dark fae leader, Tristan Westbrook, in Rockdale before everything went to hell.”

A few people offer nervous laughs, but most of the room remains silent.

“You may recognize this guy,” I jerk my thumb in Nik’s general direction. “Nikolai Sterling.”

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