Page 91 of Silent Stalker

"We're not most people."

"No," she agrees, feeding me another bite. "We're better."

The domesticity of this moment should feel wrong. I'm a killer, a monster who's spent years perfecting the art of death. Yet here I am, letting my fiancée, the word sends a thrill through me, feed me dessert while she's impaled on my cock.

"You're thinking too hard," Clara murmurs, offering another spoonful. "I can see it in your eyes."

"Just appreciating how perfectly twisted we are together."

She smiles that wicked smile I love. "Would you want it any other way?"

"Never." I accept the bite she offers, watching her watch me. "You're the only one who could ever understand this. Understand me."

I cradle Clara closer, marveling at how her body fits perfectly against mine. The firelight catches the black diamonds on her ring finger, sending sparkles dancing across her skin. My chest tightens with an unfamiliar warmth.

For years, I've lived seeing people as objects to manipulate, puzzles to solve, and victims to claim. But Clara changed everything. She peeled back my carefully constructed masks and saw the monster beneath, yet she chose to stay.

Her chest's gentle rise and fall against mine reminds me that this is real. I'm not playing a role or wearing a mask. For the first time in my life, I'm completely exposed and vulnerable, and it doesn't feel like a weakness. Clara's acceptance of my true nature has given me something I never knew I needed: freedom to simply exist as myself.

Love. Such a simple word for such a complex emotion. I never thought I was capable of it until Clara. She awakened something in me that I thought had died long ago or never existed. Now, I can't imagine returning to the cold emptiness of my former existence.

My killer's hands, usually steady and precise in their violence, tremble slightly as they caress her skin. Even now, she draws these unexpected reactions from me. Makes me feel things I never thought possible. The feared Christmas Reaper was brought to his knees by love.

And I wouldn't have it any other way.