Page 25 of The Shadow Prince's Ruin
I’m so unused to someonewantingto do nice things for me.
“I need to change out of this,” I take off the flowery top that didn’t help against the sun at all. “I am done being something I’m not.”
Hawk smirks and whistles at my half-naked body. For once, I’m not self-conscious. He’s seen me and told me how much he likes every bit of me. I might not be convinced, but he is and that’s what matters. Just like he might not appreciate how incredible his shadow is. Even now, it seems to yearn for me, reaching out with helpless tendrils.
Not long, my love, not long.
As I pull out a silky, midnight blue shirt out of my trunk, I feel his eyes on me, and I do not resent it. In fact, I may have arched my ass up a bit higher for his viewing pleasure. He sighs, and I can hear him shifting, as if he can’t make up his mind whether he should be a good boy or go with his gut.
“In an ideal world, I’d push you against this car, pull down those pants and rim you until you’re nice and relaxed. And then—”
A flush hits my cheeks, but I’m starting to feel more confident in these matters. I smirk as I crawl back out and put on the shirt. “And then what?” I tease, meeting his gaze head-on even though I amcoveringmy body, not offering it.
In this heat, I won’t wear a tight vest or jacket over the shirt, the way I usually like to, but I still tie the fabric at the collar into a delicate bow around my neck.
He swallows, following my movements with his gaze. I might be inexperienced in the ways of romance, but seeing him this taken with me is awakening new doors, to rooms I didn’t know existed.
“And then, I would slowly, gently drill you open with my cock and make you beg me to never stop,” he tells me in a dark voice that has my balls tingling.
I extend my wrists to him in a silent request for him to close the skull-shaped clasps on there. “And yet, you have to wait.” It’s much easier to be so cool and collectedbeforewe’re actually touching, because last night, the sexual frenzy overpowered me completely. When he crawled on top of me, spread my legs, lifted my shirt… I was his in an instant.
His fingers are thick, so he struggles with the small fastening, but I give him time, and when he succeeds, he offers me a triumphant smile.
“Good things come to those who wait, they say. But I hope we won’t need to wait too long, because I might just go crazy,” he tells me, massaging my hands.
“I intend for you to be my Dark Companion by the next full moon,” I whisper and pull him down for a little kiss. It’s for the better that he’s a killer. He will fit into my world with more ease. I turn to the church. “We can enter? It’s not someone’s property?” I ask, but I get my answer when Hawk grins at me then slams his boot against the rotting door several times.
Finally, the door swings open, inviting us into the embrace of shadows.
“If you don’t tell anyone, I won’t,” he says and holds the door for me, as if he sees worth in serving me. I’m greeted by a cool damp scent, which relieves the burn on my skin as I step inside and face a wooden floor covered by all manner of scattered items, from books to furniture and artificial flowers. At the very end, behind two rows of identical benches, the floor is elevated, and on the stage is a pulpit, and behind it—a kind of piano.
“I used to come here with my ex,” Hawk tells me, taking a deep breath as he rolls out the checkered blanket and places it in the middle of the floor, away from the rays of light streaming through the windows above.
Based on the television shows I’ve seen I decide he means a former lover. “Are we close to where you lived then?”
He shrugs, resting his hands on his hips and offering me a somewhat tight smile. “Yes. It’s not far.”
When I sit down, movement catches my eye in the hollowed back of the pulpit. I lean in when I spot the culprit—a large brown spider with long legs. I reach out to it with a smile and look back at Hawk when it crawls on my hand.
“Look! He’s so cute and fuzzy.”
He blinks, stiffening as he sits on the blanket, but then his face brightens. “I think this is only the second time I’m meeting someone who actually likes them.”
“They’re lovely. With their many eyes, the delicate webs they create, and you can often use their parts or venom in alchemy. Which, I admit might seem grim, but such is life. Death is often just around the corner.” When the spider starts walking faster, I let it back into its shadowed hiding place in the pulpit. “Like over there,” I point to a rabbit carcass in the corner which is now just a pile of bones with mushrooms growing inside it. “Nothing goes to waste. The beast is no more, but it fed a different kind of life.”
Hawk bites his lip and lies down on his side, facing me. The nearest ray of sunshine falls behind his head, its glow a sharp contrast to his dark hair. “You’re really different,” he says after a moment of silence, and reaches out to stroke my shoe.
I sit down, feeling such relief without the sun on my skin. “To understand me, to understand my family, you need to know where I’m from. And where I will take you.” I smile at the thought of bringing him with me, already my Dark Companion, so no one can take him and his shadow away from me. Of course, his presence will put a target on my back as well, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take to finallybe somebody.
He shifts closer and, after a moment’s hesitation, places his head in my lap. “I want to know everything,” he declares, and his forest green eyes peek at me, shining with flecks of gold.
I stroke his long dark hair and watch his lids shut. “What will be most striking to you from the very beginning, is that we don’t have the sun. The day is illuminated by moonlight, and the night is like the darkness under your eyelids. We, the elves of the Nightmare Realm, appreciate the shadows, but it will take you a while to get used to the change. My world is dangerous, filled with unimaginable beasts, ancient plants, and we, at the Nocturne Court, live on the shores of a violent ocean, also knownas the Sea of Sorrows. But the realm is also beautiful. Like that spider.” I point to the pulpit, then grab a pretzel to feed Hawk. “Once you learn to live in its web, you can appreciate how intricate it is, and how to survive within it, instead of struggling against it. And you will have as much time to adjust as you wish, because you will not age.”
“Really? There will be no twink death for you?” Hawk laughs, chewing on the pretzel as he winks at me and pulls one of my hands to his chest.
I stroke him, amazed that I’m invited to touch this gorgeous man and that he seems to want me as if I were as tall and strong as my older brother was. “What is that?”
Hawk clears his throat. “Well… it’s when a guy who’s kind of boyish when it comes to looks grows out of it. Just a joke, babe. I’m sure you’ll always be hot.”
