Page 27 of Knave

“I liked what you did the other night,” he whispered. They were friends—adding benefits could fuck everything up. Especially since heknewfeelings were involved on his end. But damn, he wanted more. He wanted to slip into her heat and fuck her like every single one of those pictures, make love to her so she would be ruined for anyone else, so it was only him tearing orgasm after orgasm from her. “How you kissed me. How youmoved.”

“Ferris,” she breathed.

His pulse sped, his cock stiffening even more at the thought of tasting her again. Of plunging his tongue into her mouth to dance with hers. He wanted to lift her off the ground, wrap her legs around his waist, and fuck her against the broken bookshelves. Feel her quiver around him.Fuck.He was getting ahead of himself, but the idea of it made him crazy.

“If I wanted to kiss you right now, what would you say?” he rasped in her ear.

“N—no.” Mouse spoke in the smallest of voices.

Ferris’s chest tightened and he ripped himself away from her, his desire fading. “Fuck. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”

“It’s not that I don’t want to kiss you. I enjoyed the other night too,” she added quickly, and turned to face the shelves instead of him. Her hand shook as she resumed lining the books up perfectly.

Shit.He’d done something wrong. Was he too forward? Had she wanted the other night to be a once-off? “I’m sorry,” he said again.

This time Mouse shot him a sad smile over her shoulder. “If you had asked me in any other room, I would’ve had a different answer.”

Ferris frowned. So itwasn’thim—it was the library? “I don’t understand.”

“Did Maddie ever tell you about my past? I doubt she did, but maybe…?” She looked slightly hopeful at the idea, yet when Ferris shook his head, she sighed. A long silence filled the room as Ferris watched her fidget with spines. Finally, she whispered, “It happened in a library.”

A crease formed between his brows. He stepped closer and she tensed, so he moved back to his side of the row. “Whathappened?”

“When I was still mortal, my neighbor, Mr. Taylor, courted me.” Her voice was emotionless, dead. “We were friends growing up and got along well. He spoiled me, actually. Buying me trinkets and picking wildflowers for my hair. His family had a lot more money than mine, yet it never mattered to him. Our families were even talking of us getting engaged soon. It wasn’t a love match, but back then, we were lucky to marry someone we genuinely cared for. Maddie had been missing for a while, and they wanted me to be well taken care of in life. Mr. Taylor seemed to check every box.”

Ferris reached unconsciously to play with Ellie’s ring hanging around his neck. He was an idiot to think Mouse had never been in a relationship before—she was hundreds of years old.Of courseshe’d been with men. Maybe even women for all he knew.

“What happened?” he asked gently when she didn’t continue.

Mouse shifted nervously. “Well, we did things together. You know? Kissed and touched. We even used our mouths on each other a few times. None of it was like I’d expected it to be, but no one really talked about sex back then. It was taboo. Something to be done between a man and wife and never spoken about in good company. But he wasn’t my husband yet. Our families hadn’t even come to an actual agreement that he wouldeverbe my husband. It was still being discussed…”

Ferris curled his fist around Ellie’s ring, his chest twisting uncomfortably as he realized where things were likely going with this story. Anger rose, hovering just beneath the surface, waiting for her to confirm the worst. “What did he do to you?” he growled.

Mouse’s body shook slightly as she stopped fussing with the books. “One night after dinner, he wanted to show me something in the library. Our fathers had gone off to smoke cigars and our mothers were distracted, so we snuck off alone. Something told me there wasn’t anything he wanted to show me, but I figured we would do what we’d always done. I told him I wanted to save myself for marriage, but… He demanded more than I wanted to give.”

Ferris’s fangs dropped. “He took you unwillingly?”

Mouse hesitated, then slowly nodded.

“I’ll fucking kill him,” Ferris snarled. His vision went red, his pulse roaring in his ears.How dare that man?Howdarehe take that from her?

“He’s dead, Ferris,” she said matter-of-factly. “Maddie killed him.”

“Then I’ll dig up his grave and kill the fucker again.” He lunged forward and pulled Mouse against his chest in a tight hug. “I’ll grind his bones to dust and scatter them in the sewer.”

Mouse laughed. Actually fucking laughed. How could she be laughing when he was being consumed by rage? His mind was swirling with ways to resurrect a corpse so he could torture the fucking shit out of it. Now he understood why she fed off of and killed those who hurt others.

“Ferris, you’re squishing me.” She patted his arms.

“Sorry,” he snapped without meaning to. His anger wasn’t directed at her in the least bit. “Sorry!”

“It’s fine, but let me breathe,” she said with another small laugh.

Ferris loosened his arms and inhaled her scent. It filled him, calmed him. He held her until his fangs retracted. Until he could see straight again. Then placed a kiss on top of her head.

“I’m sorry that happened to you,” he whispered.

“Me too,” Mouse murmured. “But it was a long time ago and I don’t like to dwell on it. I just wanted you to know, it’s not you. It’s the library. That’s the only time I’m truly bothered by it anymore.”

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