Page 16 of Devil's Haunting
“Depending on who you talk to, curses are serious business. I’ve lived in this city long enough to learn that much,” I admit, not that I really believe either.
“Desiree cursed the Landry line where all the men born of women who married into the family would find the same fate as Phillip and Blanche. They would never find happiness, only betrayal and the continued cycle,” her words are monotone and send a shiver down my spine.
Without thinking twice about it, I stand up with my woman in my arms. Her limbs wrap around me as she clings to me, unwilling to let go. I don’t like why she’s feeling this way, but I won’t deny that I want to pound my fucking chest because she’s letting me in and trusting me to be there for her, to be what she needs.
It’s enough; more than enough really.
“What are you doing?” Her lips flutter against my neck with every word she whispers and my cock throbs in response.
“I’m taking you to our room and I’m going to do what I should have done the first night we met,” I growl.
She jerks in my arms and pulls her head away enough to look up into my eyes. The way her eyebrows pull together asks the question without needing to say a word.
“I’m going to push our air mattresses together, strip you down so I can taste every inch of you, and then I’m going to claim you as my woman.” I move closer to her until our noses touch.“Because you are mine, my little Mischief-maker. You are mine,” I growl.
Laiken blinks at me a few times, her grey eyes wide with surprise and something else, something darker and hungrier. Then she tucks her head back against my shoulder and lets her body relax completely, giving herself over to me.
It says everything I need to know.
She’s mine.
After all these weeks of dancing around the truth, of getting to know each other, of living side by side, I’m claiming her and there will be no going back.
CHAPTER 7
LAIKEN
My body melts into Tripp and I give over all my stress and fear because I know he can handle it. The scream that was ripped out of me only a few minutes ago, felt and sounded like pure terror. Because it was.
I was minding my own business painting and thinking about the journal entry I had read about Desiree cursing the women who married into the Landry line. The curse would force them to have the same fate as Blanche. I’m not even at the end of the journal and have no idea how the whole thing ends, but the thought of women unknowingly marrying into a family to be cursed makes my fucking skin crawl.
When I turned slightly to grab some paint for my palette, Desiree was standing there and staring at me with a creepy smile on her face. I don’t even know how I knew it was her. Blanche described her, but it’s not like there was a fucking polaroidbetween the pages of her journal or anything.
But it was her.
Before I even knew how to react, she was reaching for me. Considering I knew, logically at least, she wasn’t real, I wasn’t expecting her to be able to touch me. But she did.
Her fingertips felt like ice against my skin and her touch grated against my senses. That’s when I screamed and jerked away from her. The action sent my easel, canvas, and paint pallet flying. Desiree’s smile widened with my reaction, as if it fueled and amused her.
I dropped down to the ground and curled in on myself, not wanting to see her.
Then Tripp found me.
I hated that I flinched when he reached for me, but all I could see was Desiree and the threat in her eyes. Once I realized it was him, it was as if I couldn’t get close enough to him.
Now in his arms, as he kicks the door of the room we’ve been using as a bedroom behind us, my pussy throbs and the fear which gripped me so tightly floats away. I’m no longer in that room; I’m no longer lost to the fear and the threat.
I only want one thing. I need it.
This man.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve gotten to know Tripp. I’m not sure if he meant to steal pieces of my heart every single fucking day, but he has. He’s made himself a part of my life because he’s just there. He’s there when I wake up and when I go to bed. He’s there all fucking day.
But I haven’t gotten sick of him. Instead, I find myself looking for him throughout the day.
And while he’s been there, he hasn’t hidden anything from me. He’s shown and told me exactly who he is without apology and without remorse. He’s told me all about his brothers and the club along with stories about him while growing up and throughout his life. We know each other’s favorites along with dislikes.
While I didn’t really think it would happen, a small part of me was hoping the more I got to know Tripp, the more our attraction would fizzle out. It would have eliminated my need to take a chance and let him in, but it’s not what has happened.
