Chapter 15
AERIN
After her reaction at the bakery, Aerin wants to see Malice snap. She wants him to unravel at her hands. To see what lies underneath the hard facade. To get her way. Aerin always gets what she wants, one way or another.
Malice’s eyes are on a book he holds open with one hand.
They flicker up, likely expecting her to be in sweatpants with her hair piled on top of her head, searching for a snack, like usual.
His eyes flicker down and then immediately up again before he startles into a standing position, letting the book fall to the couch.
A ripple of movement goes through his wings.
“I—You—” He snaps his mouth shut, his blue eyes carefully assessing her.
She is not wearing sweatpants but rather a tiny, tight, black dress.
Malice has a hard time pulling his eyes from the swells of her breasts spilling from the neckline.
He drags his gaze down her bare legs to her heels before panning back up to the curve of her hips.
Finally, his eyes make it back to hers. He flinches when he finds her looking directly back at him. Aerin doesn’t allow their gaze to remain locked for long, lest those searing blue eyes see something she doesn’t want him to.
She says nothing as she moves to the door and walks out of it, listening as he scrambles off behind her. She manages to get half a block away before Malice’s wing beats move the air around her, landing just behind her on the sidewalk.
Aerin lured him out, now it’s time to play.
She doesn’t acknowledge Malice. Not when she meets up with Vyx and Quinn outside of Tower 77.
Not when they bypass the line, get their first drinks, or disappear to do their first lines of Pixie Dust. Not when Aerin wipes her nose as she passes him, being painfully obvious about her drug use.
Not after her second drink. Or her third. Or her second line of Pixie Dust.
She taunts him with her inattention. Malice barely refrains, his control a frayed string, ready to snap.
Through it all, Aerin feels his gaze, so palpable it’s like a touch, a caress against her skin.
If she’s honest with herself, his gaze drives her a little crazy.
Like an itch she can’t scratch, a chill she can’t shake.
A weight against her body day in and day out.
She can hardly bear it. Under the haze of the drugs and booze, it feels particularly heavy.
Or maybe it’s his annoyance making it heavier.
He looms against a wall about twenty feet from her, arms folded over his chest, jaw clenched.
Clearly, she’s under his skin. All those mornings he spent frustrated he hadn’t caught her on her nights out, and now that he’s here, he hates every second of it.
Every second of Aerin being exactly what she claims to be, exactly what Novhelm thinks she is.
Though the booze, the drugs, and the dancing, is not enough. Aerin knows the thing that truly crawls under Malice’s skin, that constantly tests his carefully crafted control, is that want.
Aerin has caught a Tiger Shifter looking at her hungrily multiple times. He keeps his distance until Aerin beckons him with a finger. Sending a shit eating grin back to his friends, he puts down his drink before striding across the dance floor.
“Do you want to dance?” Aerin asks. Her words are more slurred than she’d like. Gods, the second line of Pixie Dust is hitting her hard.
“Fuck yes,” he replies, sliding in behind her. His hands find her hips. They are massive, matching his body. Tiger Shifters are both the largest and the rarest of the Big Cats. He stands a good three inches taller than Aerin, despite her heels.
When Aerin starts rubbing her ass against him, she lets her eyes find Malice’s again. When they lock, he goes stiff.
Aerin gives him one of those ‘I’m so fucked up’ grins. She raises her hand, running her fingers through the Tiger’s hair.
“You feel so fucking good,” Aerin encourages him without breaking her gaze from Malice against the wall.
Malice’s wings twitch, a surefire sign that it’s working.
The Tiger likes her praise; his lips find her bare shoulder, her neck.
She watches Malice, whose fists open and close, open and close.
Aerin turns, her mouth finding the Tiger’s and he purrs.
A part of Aerin is supremely disappointed that, if all goes to plan, she won’t actually get to fuck this Tiger tonight.
The Tiger’s hands find her ass as his tongue moves with hers. Aerin manages to turn them just enough that she can see Malice again. Fire blazes in his ice-cold eyes. She hums into the Tiger’s mouth, satisfied with how well this is working.
Pulling back, Aerin’s hands rest on the Tiger’s massive biceps, his grip tight on her waist.
“Want to find someplace quieter?” Aerin asks, with a coy smile.
The Tiger grins his shit eating grin again.
“Absolutely.”
Taking his hand, Aerin leads them off the dance floor towards the stairs for VIP. Malice shifts foot to foot, still clenching his hands open, closed, open, closed. His wings twitch. Aerin can tell he’s using every bit of that precious control to hold himself back from interfering.
So close to snapping.
Aerin winks at him as they pass, and she swears she sees murder in his eyes.
When they approach Marcus, Aerin winks at him too. “Sorry, bigger Cat in the club tonight,” Aerin coos, dragging the Tiger along.
Marcus blushes, which she finds adorable. “That’s alright, Princess. I’ll be here next time.”
The Tiger lets out a low growl of possession, but Aerin only laughs, squeezing his hand and pulling him up the stairs. The second the lock is flipped on the bathroom door, Aerin jumps into the Tiger’s arms. He catches her easily, slamming his mouth to hers.
“I want you to fuck me hard and fast. Make me feel it tomorrow,” Aerin says between kisses. He growls in response, his predatory possession kicking in. Shifters are always a little closer to their base instincts than Fae and Mer.
Aerin runs her nails down his neck. In response, he grips her harder, kissing her more aggressively. He moves to her chest, kissing and biting those swells she so carefully put on display.
“Bet you have a big cock to match that big body, don’t you?
” Aerin coos, scratching his scalp. He places her on the counter and Aerin immediately lifts a heel up against his thigh, making him pause before he unbuttons his jeans.
“Are you going to fuck me like I asked?” Aerin leans back on her hands, giving him fuck me eyes and a fuck me grin.
“Yes, I’m going to make you scream so loud the whole club hears you,” he says back, his eyes glimmering with excitement.
“Good.” Aerin smiles, dropping her foot.
Aerin is focused on her plan, she is, but she drunkenly wonders if she can convince him to show her his claws. Cut off her panties with them. She wonders how big they are, wonders how big he is when he shifts. She’d bet he’s massive. Gods, any other night this would be an amazing lay.
As if on cue, the door handle to the private bathroom quite literally melts. Red hot and dripping onto the floor. As the door swings open, the Tiger growls, loud and harsh.
Malice is a sight to behold. Despite being Fae, he appears as a shifter would, half in his Dragon form.
Another one of those well-kept Dragon-Fae secrets.
His eyes are no longer blue, but a glowing orange, flames dancing inside of them.
Gorgeous iridescent black scales run up his neck, his wings changed in color to match.
His hands end in talons so large that Aerin has to cross her legs to ease the sudden ache that blooms inside of her. She bites her lip.
The Tiger half-shifts in response to Malice’s interruption. Orange and black stripes pop up over half his face and neck, his own claws forming at the tips of his fingers. Aerin was right—they are massive. But not as big as the Dragon’s talons.
Aerin looks back to Malice. He is the apex predator. He is so stunningly beautiful in his loss of control.
Gods, she’d let herself get slightly too inebriated for this. She needs to get a handle on them before someone gets hurt. The males are exchanging growls, beyond words now in a fight for dominance.
Silly males. They never understand Aerin will always win a fight like this.
“Don’t hurt him, Malice,” Aerin snaps.
Malice does not listen. He lunges for the Tiger and the Tiger meets him blow for blow. They slam into one wall, then the other, before finding the floor, Malice with the upper hand.
“Enough!” Irritation burns in Aerin, her magic flaring. She relishes in them a little too much, the way she can wrap invisible binds around the males and keep them still. They way her magic is so much more than simply changing her appearance for thirty minutes at a time.
Using those binds to pull them both to their feet, Aerin keeps their hands, and wings, pressed to their bodies. Both males snarl at each other.
“Enough. Shift back. Now,” Aerin demands.
She reaches inside of them and pulls their Fae forms forward.
Both are ripped from their half-shifts, transforming before her, shirts torn, chests heaving.
She doesn’t mean to, not really, but she’s inebriated and hasn’t accessed this much magic in so long it just happens.
“How the…” the Tiger mumbles, squirming against the invisible chains of Aerin’s magic, but it’s Malice who has her attention. He slides back to his Fae-like form slowly, as if his Dragon form is clinging to the shift. Once settled, he’s still as stone.
Aerin watches them both closely from her position on the counter, legs crossed, heel dangling. Aerin opens her mouth to dismiss the Tiger, but Malice beats her to it.
“Get. Out.” His growl is low and menacing. The Tiger, no longer blind with animal-like possession, looks between Aerin and Malice for a moment. Aerin lets her magic fall off the males.
“We could do a threesome,” he suggests, smiling that shit-eating grin again.
“Out!” Malice roars. The Tiger looks sheepish but still winks at Aerin as he passes, slipping out of the damaged bathroom door without another word.
“You’re jealous,” Aerin accuses.
Malice whirls on her, affronted. “I am not jealous.”
Aerin’s indignation swirls. Annoyed she shouts, “You just chased my date out!” while thrusting her arm towards the door.
“I’m. Not. Jealous.” he repeats. His eyes are blue once more, furious.
“Then why are you being a territorial asshole?!” Aerin uncrosses her legs, leaning forward, towards him. Like he’s got her on a fishing line, always dragging her closer with his anger, with his resistance.
“Because!” he snaps, “You—you—” He inhales sharply. “Fuck it,” he breathes out.
Malice closes the distance between them in one long stride, his mouth slamming into Aerin’s. Aerin rocks back, wrapping her arms around his neck, fingers digging into his messy hair, loose from the fight. His arms bracket her in, hands on the countertop.
The smug satisfaction Aerin usually feels when she gets her way is forgotten with Malice consuming her.
Biting. Demanding. And Aerin meets him in turn, yanking on his hair, scoring her nails down his back, shredding his already ruined shirt.
Tongues and teeth and a fire deep inside of her being ignited.
Malice groans into their kiss and Aerin eats up the noise.
His hands find each of Aerin’s hips, forcefully gripping her.
He yanks her forward, driving her body up against his.
Malice is all muscle, bulky and broad, heavy against Aerin in the best way.
Aerin presses herself into him further, breasts pushing against his chest, panties against the front of his pants.
Her dampness spreading, begging for attention.
Aerin wants him: his fire, his anger, his stubbornness, his loss of control.
She wants him to use every bit of it to make her come undone too.
Instead, like he’s been zapped with electricity, Malice jerks back. Everywhere his body had been touching her turns cold with the loss of him. His lips are swollen, face flushed, chest rising. He looks shocked.
And then he looks pissed. Lust in his eyes turns to fury in an instant.
“No.” Malice says the word harshly, with a finality Aerin immediately wants to rebel against. Before she can protest, Malice storms out of the bathroom, leaving Aerin on her own.