51
EVIE
W hen Princeton had stepped away for a moment to do gods-knew-what in the back of the house, I asked Kylo in Princeton’s kitchen, “Would you still love me if all I did for the rest of my life was grow herbs, arrange flowers, and do quaint spells for everyday people and their everyday problems?”
Kylo was handsy as ever lately, refusing to break contact unless absolutely necessary. He bent to kiss my neck, sending pleasurable tingles through my whole system.
“You know the answer to that already, baby. You’re not a pawn on my board.” He reached over my shoulder to steal my tea and take a sip. “You’re the very good girl in my lap.”
I turned to face him. He set the mug down to place a hand on either side of me, boxing me in.
“But you’d prefer if I integrated all parts of myself. You like my darkness.”
“Yes, and yes. Because that’s what’s best for you, and because you’re so fucking cute when you’re violent,” he said.
I let out an indignant exhale. I sunk my teeth into his arm, and Kylo pulled me back by my hair.
“I’m going to start biting you back, angel,” he growled, showing me those sharpened canines.
My eyes grew hooded, my core tightening.
“I’m proud of you for meeting with someone like you, for being so brave and open,” he said, softer now. “I know it’s not easy, believe me.”
It didn’t feel right to accept his praise. “I didn’t make any progress. I chickened out. I’m not any closer to controlling my power than I was before.”
“Not true,” Princeton said from behind me, reentering the space and slowly moving into my line of sight. “Most healing isn’t neat or pretty or linear. Sometimes progress is just showing up.”
Healing . Ugh.
“Why the face?” Kylo asked, noticing everything about me as usual. He poked my cheek.
I glared at him until his dimple appeared. “Because I wanted to talk about magick—to do magick. Not get a psychological assessment.”
Princeton tapped his forehead. “Magick starts in here, witchling. Brain no good? Magick no good.”
My gaze narrowed. “Brain fine. ”
Kylo shrugged, his dimple growing more pronounced. “I have my doubts.”
I channeled light, shocking the hell out of his hands.
Kylo hissed. His eyes darkened as he grinned. Shadows bound my arms against the counter behind me. His hand gripped my throat.
“Look what you’ve done,” Kylo said as he shook his head at Princeton. “You’ve gotten her all riled up and misbehaving. Undoing all my careful work.” He locked back on my eyes with a wicked smirk. “Tired of being my good girl, are we, angel? You want to play?”
I felt raw power tentatively poke its head out, curious. I channeled just a spark to send a frying pan flying toward Kylo’s head.
He released my throat and caught it before it struck. His biceps absorbed the force as his eyes narrowed on me like a predator.
“Does this foreplay truly need to happen at the expense of my kitchenware?” Princeton asked dryly. “Carry on, of course. I am curious.”
Kylo’s shadows released me. He shot Princeton a glare of utter death, shadows leaking out of his pores. “Absolutely not.”
He grabbed me roughly and threw me over his shoulder before carrying me through the house.
The warm, fresh air caressed my skin as Kylo stepped outside.
“You can put me down now,” I hissed, wondering how much of my ass was currently exposed for any passersby. “Kylo!”
He gripped me tighter and continued forward.
When I heard him acknowledge someone walking by, I thought for sure I was going to perish from humiliation.
Kylo only laughed, of course.
When a palm came down on my ass, I squealed.
“Ornery enough to attack, but not brave enough to face the consequences?” he teased. “Are you embarrassed, baby? Don’t want my clan to see me discipline you for being naughty?”
I wanted to harm him again, now more than ever, but doing so would likely cause him to drop me. And I had no interest in being squished by Kylo’s large, muscular form.
Well, not like that.
“No. I’m not embarrassed at all.” He’d like that too much.
“Very convincing.”
Inside his house, Kylo manhandled me all the way to a couch, where he forced me into an ass-up position over his lap. What he’d been promising me since we met.
I swallowed.
“We have family dinner in two hours,” Kylo murmured.
“No, I have family dinner in two hours.”
He gripped one of my ass cheeks hard enough to draw out a whimper.
“I believe I was invited, angel,” he said.
I could already feel his cock harden and swell beneath me. I was finding it more difficult by the second to remember why he wasn’t allowed to be near Idris or Mena at this point. I mean, he was already overwhelmingly a part of my life. And I didn’t want him to stop being in my life.
His hand came down on my ass, ruining my thought process as the slap sent a sharp sting across my skin.
And, because she had no common sense, my pussy reacted with a dull ache and gathering wetness.
“We’re not there yet,” I mumbled.
Kylo paused for a moment before bursting into laughter. When I attempted to wiggle free, he grabbed my legs tight.
I twisted my head to glare up at him.
Kylo yanked my panties to the side and slid two fingers inside my slick core. “Oh yeah? How much closer might we need to be?” he asked, low and mocking.
He ran a finger over my neck, where a healing salve had removed all evidence of his bites. But I remembered exactly where they had been. I shuddered at his gentle touch, his reminder of the way I’d claimed him exactly as he’d claimed me.
“You know that you’re safe. You know that your brother is safe, that I’d never break my word. And your—grandmother?”
“Close enough,” I said. To me, Mena was just Mena. But adoptive grandmother was a label that fit.
“She adores me,” he said, fisting my hair.
I rolled my eyes. It took Kylo a fraction of a second to pull his fingers out of me, deliver three spanks, and then plunge them back inside me as I squirmed and cried out. The fingers pumped rougher than ever before, angling to hit the most sensitive, pleasure-seeking part of me until my moans turned loud and needy.
“So why am I not permitted at family dinner?”
He didn’t relent, fucking me with those fingers as I arched and lost all train of thought.
This wasn’t fair at all.
“It’s the—” I managed through the desperate moans and building wave of pleasure. “The principle.”
Kylo chuckled, his cock twitching underneath me. “What principle, angel?” He stopped fucking me, leaving his fingers buried inside. He stared into my eyes, still smirking and gripping my hair at the scalp.
“That you don’t get to do whatever you want just because you—” I made an irritated noise, not even sure what my principle was anymore.
Kylo’s grin widened.
“I don’t know!”
He let go of my hair, softly stroking through my tresses now instead. “Relax, baby. Let me think for you.”
“Condescending ass?—”
This time, Kylo didn’t spank me. He merely lifted my ass and bit down hard into the curve of my flesh.
I screamed.
Kylo was quick to run his tongue over the mark, both clotting my blood and serving me a small dose of venom.
When he let me relax back down on his lap, I was considerably less resistant.
“I’ll wait till after dinner to properly feed, little one,” he assured me. “You didn’t get nearly enough to affect your mental state for too long.”
I made a disgruntled noise, but it was hard to be mad at him when I was engulfed in pleasurable tingles.
He made a low hum of approval as his fingers traced his handiwork on my heated skin. “I do love seeing your disrespectful little ass red and bitten. Were lessons learned, baby?”
“That if I use telekinesis to throw a frying pan at your head, you’re going to finger-fuck me?”
Kylo stopped his caressing with a sigh. “I’ll take that as a no. ”
He gripped my hair again, and I giggled. Though his features were ruthless, his deep blue eyes shone with the gentlest adoration.
Idris and Mena sat across from Kylo and me at the long dining room table. White pillar candles were lit between us, with one of my flower arrangements as the centerpiece—a gentle mix of lavender, pink roses, and violets.
Irritatingly, I realized halfway through dinner that I loved having Kylo there. His hand was always reaching for mine under the table, or to rest on my thigh. When he looked over at me as I spoke or laughed, my stomach did somersaults. Not only because of the pure, undeniable devotion in his blue depths—but also because of the way Idris and Mena saw it too.
It was real.
This man who treated me the way I’d always wanted—the way I’d always feared was too much, too unrealistic to yearn for. Especially after Jacob had explained to me, over and over, that my desires and expectations were completely ruined by romance novels.
I couldn’t believe there was a time I considered settling for less, if only to not be so alone. Or perhaps because I feared there was something wrong with me that made Jacob treat me poorly, like I wasn’t worthy enough for his affection. I thought I just had to try harder.
But not with Kylo.
I sat there, gooey and emotional, devoid of that paranoid, bitter anger from before.
And he only made it worse with the way he spoke to Idris and Mena, with the utmost respect and genuine interest.
“That’s the third time you’ve yawned in the past ten minutes,” Mena said to Idris with a side-eye. “There are remedies, you know. If you’re not sleeping well.”
I tensed, and Kylo’s thumb stopped his gentle stroke of my lower thigh.
“I could make you something,” I offered Idris.
He smiled and shrugged dismissively. “You all worry too much. Summer will be over soon.”
Idris suddenly glanced at Kylo bashfully. As if he hadn’t meant to reveal anything vulnerable in front of a stranger. Even if what he’d revealed wasn’t entirely obvious.
“I couldn’t sleep at your age either,” Kylo said casually, taking a bite of steak before sipping his water. He glanced at Idris as he kept his tone nonchalant. “I had insomnia, night terrors. Made it hard to focus on my coursework.”
I watched Kylo carefully, discomfort in my stomach. But when I studied Idris, I noticed that he didn’t seem nervous at all. He wasn’t shutting down. He was actually listening .
“Anyway, the campus healers were helpful, despite my initial skepticism and oppositional attitude,” Kylo said with a charming, self-deprecating smile.
Mena and I exchanged a glance before we both moved our eyes to Idris.
Idris only nodded. “I’ll check it out.” His eyes were slightly wider than before, as if surprised by Kylo’s admissions, the way he was so candid about his struggles and seeking help for them.
Kylo was scary-looking even in his palatable human glamour, all muscle and tall build and confident, masculine aura. It made sense that anyone who didn’t know him might be taken aback by his emotional maturity.
And gods, it did something to my heart—to see Idris opening up, even if his words were just a polite placation. Because the respect in his eyes was real. I refused to be selfish when it came to my brother, to be annoyed that Kylo could get through to him in a way I couldn’t.
I only wanted Idris to feel better. I hated that we were both plagued by these nightmares, the tight grip of a past that wouldn’t let go. At least Idris couldn’t remember anything about the night we ran. For that, I would be forever grateful.
Idris waved a fork full of asparagus as he narrowed his eyes at me. “Are you on drugs?”
I straightened. “What? No. Why?”
He blinked. “Why are you so damn relaxed? No interrogation about how many hours of sleep on average I’m getting each night? The contents of my dreams? The evil propaganda I’m being spoon-fed by my self-defense instructors?” He smirked, but in his eyes was a genuine incredulousness.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Mena said, as satisfied as a cheshire cat as she sipped her red wine and eyed Kylo and me.
Kylo smiled softly, gazing my way. “Happy to help.”
I glared back.
“It’s a compliment,” Idris said. “I like this Evie.”
“I’m the same Evie,” I snapped.
Idris smiled, warming my heart. “Whatever you say.”