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He wasn’t hiding what he was; it was all right there to see.
Still, I pointed to my face. “You don’t find this ugly?”
He said nothing.
“You’re not going to ask?”
His gaze slid to my cheek and back. “What am I asking?”
“Oh, aren’t you sweet.” I smiled, giving him a good look at my lopsided smile. “You’re not bothered by it? My face? How I got it? You’re not the tiniest bit curious?”
He cupped my cheek right over the damaged flesh, surprising me. He sucked in a sharp breath, frowning. He wasn’t expecting it to be cold. No one did.
“Someone tried to kill me,” I said.
A muscle in his cheek jumped.
“I’m not scared of you, Draven.” Not at this moment, anyway. He gritted his teeth when I said his name, and heat, raw and wild, blazed in his eyes—a look that said if I offered myself, he’d take me like an animal on the dirty ground in a heartbeat. I pushed on and pushed him when it was the last thing I should do. “I’m as cold as the dead flesh on my face,” I lied. I’d tried to shut off my emotions, to harden my heart, and had failed miserably. He didn’t need to know that, though.
“Oh, I know that, little witch,” he said and swiped his thumb over my cheek, the rough skin making me shiver when it hit a spot by my ear that wasn’t dead but still very much alive.
I looked up at him. “And yet, you want to kiss me right now, don’t you?”
He dipped his head closer. “Yes,” he said, voice raw and laced with fury.
He hated that, there was no missing it in his voice. Again, he concealed nothing. After Brody’s deception, the way he’d used me, hurt me, tried to break me, I wanted more of this. I craved it. I wanted this male to reveal the twisted truth, the darkness inside him, the thing I saw in his eyes when he looked at me. I wanted him to admit it. “You want to punish me too,” I said.
“Yes.”
“And you want to fuck me while you do it.” What the hell are you doing?
His nostrils flared and he bared his teeth.
My heart thundered in my chest. This whole exchange was strange and dangerous. I didn’t understand what this was, but I also didn’t care. I was chasing an escape, something I realized I desperately needed, and that was all that mattered.
“If you stick around until closing, I’ll let you take me back to your place and maybe we can help each other out?” He was close enough that I could feel the heat of his body against mine. Like most shifters, he ran hot.
“Is that right?” he growled, and I felt it low in my stomach.
“Sure, why not.”
He leaned closer still, and my lips parted in anticipation.
But his mouth bypassed mine, skimmed along my jaw, and touched my ear. “I would rather douse my dick with gasoline and set it on fire than stick it inside you.” I froze as he lifted his head and stared down at me, his expression cold. “You’re right, you are ugly. Inside you are so rotten, so hideous, it can’t be concealed by your beautiful face, not from me.” He tucked my hair behind my ear. “I know you for what you really are, little witch.”
Then he released me, turned, and walked away.
I stood there as a million thoughts and feelings pounded through me.
How was I still standing? I should be nothing but a bloody stump after the way Draven Moreau had just verbally eviscerated me.
Instead, I walked back out and started collecting the empties scattered around the bar, because I was terrified—that he might be right.
CHAPTER 2
Iris
Nia whined and nudged my hand with her wet nose. When I didn’t wake fast enough, she jumped on the bed and licked my face.
