Page 11 of Can't Bite This Feeling
That voice.
He steps into the light, draped in black, familiar yet terrifying. He looks like my Rapha, but not.
My heart wrenches.“Rapha?”
He goes still, crimson eyes softening as a thousand emotions collide behind them. “It’s me.” His mouth twitches with the smile that never failed to seduce me. “Were you planning to beat me to death with a toilet brush, love?”
My makeshift weapon wobbles dangerously in my grasp. Heat flushes my cheeks as a raw, strangled sob breaks past my lips.
Of course. Of course, I’d greet my one true love with a brush used to clean a toilet.
“Drusilla,” he breathes again, softer this time.
My name on his lips is like a salve on an old wound. I want to run to him, to bury myself in his arms the way I once did.
But my body won’t move.
I can only stare, taking in the impossible sight of him.
Rapha. And yet…not.
He is taller somehow, broader, as if power is woven into his bones. Black horns curve elegantly from his dark hair, catching the light like polished onyx. His eyes, once a cool gray I could drown in, now burn an unholy crimson. And his hands—Gods, those hands that worshiped me so tenderly—end in curved talons.
He is still Rapha.
But he is also something else.
My grip tightens on the ridiculous toilet brush, though the gesture feels foolish even to me.
“Look at you,” I whisper, my voice a wisp of smoke. “What…what have you done?”
His jaw clenches, and a flash of pain crosses his handsome features. “I did what I had to,” he says, the words weighted like chains. “To bring you back.”
I blink hard, swallowing a knot of emotion. “You…you did this for me?”
Rapha nods, stepping closer. His scent hits me, dark spice and earthy musk. It’s so achingly familiar that it almost buckles my knees.
“I made a deal with the devil,” he says roughly, his eyes searching my face like he’s starving for every tiny change. “I became the demon of greed, Drusilla. So I could bring you back.”
My heart twists, and a ragged sob climbs my throat. I lower the brush, which suddenly feels too heavy to hold. “You sold yourself for me.”
His crimson eyes burn, glistening with something that makes them almost human again. “There was never a choice,” he rasps. “It was always you.”
My resistance folds, and I throw myself at him, clinging to the strange, powerful shape of him. The horns, the talons, the heat rolling off his skin—I don’t care.
He wraps his demon-strong arms around me, crushing me to his chest, and for the first time since waking in this strange world, I feel safe.
“Rapha,” I breathe against his throat, the word breaking on a sob. “What have they done to us?”
“Doesn’t matter,” he murmurs, burying his trembling lips in my hair. “I did what it took to get you back. To keep you.”
I close my eyes and let the scent of him anchor me.
He picks me up and carries me to the bedchamber, sitting on the edge of the bed with me in his lap. I curl into him, my body recognizing the man it loves, even if my mind is still struggling to catch up.
“I don’t know where I am. I have so many confusing memories,” I whisper against his neck.
His lips brush my forehead. “It will all make sense soon, love. Just let me hold you for a few minutes. I’ve waited so long to have you in my arms again.”
