Page 32 of Monsters Within (The Creatures We Crave 1)
Nodding as I processed her words, my eyes flicked up to the lone gate on the left that we were veering off to and switched directions.
“You need to be gentler on yourself. We have all been through a lot in the past twelve hours,” I reasoned. “You thought we were fictional characters from stories, and we thought we had been alive the whole time, but we’re coming to understand that our reality definitely doesn’t fucking fit this one we’re in now, so it’s left us spiraling as we wait for answers.”
“Yeah,” she muttered as I felt her ribs expand in my hold with a deep inhale. As she exhaled, the world tumbled out of her in a rush. “Do I even have the right to feel territorial and possessive of you three? I just assumed you were the same three monsters who I’d written to fall in love with me, but how is that fair of me when—”
Cutting off her tangent, I came to a stop and shifted her until her legs were wrapped around my waist with her arms around my neck, bringing us face to face. “Stop,” I demanded sharply.
Her lips parted, and her pink tongue darted out to lick them. I felt my cock twitch at the sight, wondering how that tongue would feel on it. A shudder ran through me and I shook my head, clearing it of sinful thoughts.
It was so damn hard to do though, seeing as my palms were splayed under her ass and she fit so snuggly against me.
“Lucien?” she prompted.
“I hate when you do that,” I admitted, going back to my earlier command.
The crease between her brows returned, and I wanted to reach out to smooth it away. “Do what?”
Victoria called out from her spot at the gate ahead of us, with Kylo and Elwin at her side. “Hey! Come on, I don’t have all day.”
As Alexandra went to turn her head towards them, I shuffled her weight to one arm and snapped my hand out to turn her jaw back to me. This was important, and I was damn well going to make this clear to her before I took another step in any direction.
Swallowing hard, I prepared myself to bare my soul and let her see my own insecurities, so that she’d know she wasn’t alone. “I hate when you act like everything we are is because you wrote us that way. It makes me feel like I am not in control of myself—my feelings, my actions, my existence—and that makes it all feel like a fucking sham.”
From the way her eyes widened and her sharp intake of breath, it was clear she hadn’t been expecting those words. “I’m sorry,” she breathed out as her hands threaded into the hair at the nape of my neck. “I can’t seem to say anything right, recently.”
Leaning forward until our foreheads were touching, I took a few deep breaths of her vanilla scent and felt some of the tension leave my tight, coiled muscles. “It isn’t a sham, Alexandra. It isn’t a sham the way we feel for you, or the way that we would do anything to see that beautiful smile of yours, or the way that my blood boils at just the fucking thought of you being hurt.”
I pushed on as she sucked her bottom lip between her teeth, knowing I had to say this. “Have you ever considered the possibility that we influenced your stories? That you felt the depths of our souls while you wrote and that is why we are exactly the same in this version of your reality?”
I knew the answer to that. It was clear from her actions and words so far, so when she opened her mouth to answer, I covered her lips with my own, muffling her response because it didn’t matter. None of us knew the truth–it was all speculation at this point. But I needed her to see that there were other options out there for how we came to be.
I needed her to just let go and feel.
She was so quick to slip her tongue into my mouth, deepening our kiss as her hands tugged lightly on my hair, and I couldn’t help but grind my hips into her.
It was such a heady feeling, like a fucking high, holding her in my arms and devouring her. She was an all-consuming passion that I would never tire of. My grip on her ass tightened as she pressed her breasts against my chest, and a small moan came from her throat as my hand trailed from her jaw to her throat.
“I’m going to leave you both!” Victoria yelled, breaking the spell we found ourselves under with each other’s touch.
A nervous laugh came from Alexandra as she pulled back and dropped her legs from my waist. Deciding it was safe enough to let her walk, I gently set her on the ground but immediately twined her small hand with my own. I needed her touch until we were in a secure location.
Before she turned to walk, she laid a hand on my abdomen and looked up at me with wide eyes full of tender affection pooling in their depths. “You’re right. Nothing about what I feel for all three of you is a sham, and I’m not going to minimize it anymore. You three are real, and you are here with me, and I’m ready to fully accept that and enjoy it.”
Snapping my teeth, I waggled my brows. “Let’s find out where we are staying and I’ll happily test out whether you truly are ready to enjoy it or not.”
A soft blush stained her cheeks, but she winked at me and challenged, “Bring it.”
Fucking hell, her challenge and that blush had my cock hardening to the point of pain, and there was no way I was going to casually stroll around here with it straining against these joggers.
“I’ve changed my mind, you’re no longer walking,” I announced and scooped her into my arms once more as I bolted towards the gate my brothers were walking through.
Laughter floated through the air as Alexandra looked around her. “I officially love my life,” she announced as I passed through the shimmering air in front of us, ready to make her love her life even more with my face buried between her legs as I cemented over and over again just how real we were.
