Page 29 of The Reveal
I don’t like either one.
His arms are folded, emphasizing all the muscles in those arms, his wide chest, and below. I can see the place where those indentations overhis hips dip below the flowing pants he’s wearing. I think they have a name. The pants, not the indentations. What is it that martial artists wear?Gi pants,I think.
I’m not sure why it seems critical that I remember.
His feet are bare. I tell myself that a barefoot, half-naked man wandering around in a place of business should not be getting to me like this. I should find it all a bit strange and sad, and what I should not do is keep taking in too-deep breaths of that scent of his.
But every time I do, I can feel it everywhere inside of me, like a violent, seductive tide.
As if, at the slightest provocation or maybe no provocation at all, I’m going to fling myself at this man and do whatever I need to do if only he’ll—
I blink again.
“Are you doing that too?”
He allows a small, disastrous curve of that deliciously cruel mouth. “I think that you simply find me attractive.”
“So youaredoing it.”
“My great curse is that mine is a mesmerizing beauty,” he tells me in that same sardonic tone. He lifts a sculpted shoulder. “It is a burden.”
“That’s going to have to be ano, thank youfrom me,” I say, and cross my own arms. Defiantly. I remember myself a moment later and swallow, though that’s tough when my throat is so dry. “Your Majesty.”
He really smiles at that, completely transforming that hard mouth of his into something so sensual that it seems to pour all over me, molten and gold.
I feel an ache inside of me yawn open, so wide and so fast it almost feels like an illness, but I know it’s not. I only wish it was.
More than that, I know that he’s not doing it.
This time, it’s all me. It’s aroar. It’sruinous.
It’s all heat and longing, need and wonder, and a new sort of terror takes me over.
Because it’s one thing for a vampire to play games with me. That’s what vampires do. It’s something else entirely for me to actually find this ...
But the word I want to use to describe this is too scary. Too revealing.
I shove it back down, deep inside, and do my best to bury it with all the other things I refuse to feel.
“I’m surprised you came down to the school tonight,” Ariel says, still wearing a hint of that smile on his face. “It’s very dangerous for humans at night.”
“I was given to understand that an invitation from a vampire king is actually a direct summons.” I have to clear my throat and am certain that makes me look weak—then I remember that no matter what I do, Iamweak. “And that it would be foolish to ignore it.”
“Excellent advice.” He moves away then, and I feel it. As if this whole time I’ve been clenched in a fist—his fist—and he’s finally opened his palm.
I can feel a low, wild sort of throb deep between my legs. I can feel it in different parts of my body, too. My breasts feel heavy. My nipples hurt.
I’m sweating again, but I’m not afraid. Or not afraid of dying. More afraid that I might die before I get to taste—
I frown at his back as he walks across the floor, but now I can’t tell. Did he do that? Or did I?
How is it possible to hunger for another being like this? So quickly and so overwhelmingly, with parts of my body I didn’t know could feel this way?
Even when I know he’s evil.
I blink a few times, then focus on that tattoo that winds its way over the perfect surface of his back. But it’s not the dragon I’m expecting.
It’s a phoenix.
