Page 52 of Wicked

I sigh as tears stream from her large blue eyes. I look away and shake my head. As I go to walk away, she grabs me. “Please, Dante. Look at me.What’s wrong with me?What’s fucking wrong with me?”

My heart breaks for the poor girl, and I stop and shake my head. I then look back at her, knowing it’s getting dangerous.

Those perfect blue eyes. And her perfect energy. That sweet young body, and the taste of her.

An image of her coming shoots through me like a drug.

If I walk away now, she will get hurt some. If I stay, claim her and mark her, she will get hurt later. And her heart will be broken because I’ll break it… Somehow.

I’m not a good person and I’ve never known how to love. I’m also broken and only… I know it.

“There’s nothing wrong with you,” I say, low and slow.

“Then please, please help me! Make it stop!”

There is silence, and I start to walk again. I can’t move fast enough, and more words come.

“What if it’s dress-up, so you can imagine me as a real woman and not… not some stupid girl?”

I pause as she sobs loudly. I take another step, and she yells, “Please!”

“Look,” I say with my back to her, getting angry, “You’re already a real woman, and there’s nothing you lack.”

“Then why?” she asks, still crying. “Why? Please… why?”

I walk back towards her, and I stare down at her crying and shaking. I feel like shit, and I lift her chin roughly this time. She has to hear it even if it sounds brutal.

“I cannot take you, because I will ruin you!”

Her eyes look at me, and she double blinks. “Trust me. I… I can handle it.”

I laugh loudly, and I roar into the sky at the madness. She really has no idea what I’ve done in the past.

As the girl leans against me exhausted, soft, and weak, I can’t but help feel sorry for her. As she buries her head in my chest. I pat her back and calm her. It’s wrong anyone feels this much pain, and finally, I cave.

I pull her in and whisper. “Okay… okay!” I kiss the top of her head, and I know I’m playing with fire.

22

DANTE

I step back and hold Raven’s shoulders. She starts to process it, and it will be ten minutes at the most. I will not take her like the others. I will not dominate her.

I will not turn her into putty in my hands, and I will not play with her mind or her body.

As I take her wet chin in my hands, like a little bird, I stare into her big blue eyes. She wraps her arms around my chest, and I kiss her crazy wet nose.

“But…” I say to clarify. “Just friends, only once, and no falling in love, you hear?”

Raven looks up at me with her huge puppy dog eyes. She nods and gulps. “Thanks. I’ll get clothes to disguise the fact it’s you and young, innocent me. Even masks.”

Whatever.

“Okay,” I say, wanting to move on.

“Boot size?” she asks nasally.

I realize she’s serious about the costumes, and I decide to play along. “Twelve,” I say huskily.

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