pulls back, confusion in his eyes. “Daphne?”
I feel my cheeks flame and duck my head. “Is it that obvious I haven’t done it before?”
He suddenly grabs my face with both hands and forces me to look him in the eyes. “Are you seriously telling me that was your first kiss?”
I blink and try to look down again but he won’t let me. “Tell me the truth,” he demands.
“I— I mean, I just never— I never had a boyfriend or anything.” Is he really going to make me explain this? “I just work. That’s all I do.”
His jaw clenches so tight I think it might shatter but he manages to get out, “What about Archer?”
“It wasn’t— I mean, he’d just told me he wanted more at the ball, but before that we’d always just been friends and—”
His lips are on mine before I can say another word.
And oh, kissing. Kissing is marvelous. In spite of his dominant nature, he doesn’t just shove his tongue down my throat.
He teases. He teases like a proper devil, dancing along the tip of my own tongue in a way that lights up every single nerve ending in my whole freaking body.
He breaks away only long enough to murmur, “You sweet, innocent girl. You’ve let me debauch you in so many ways when you hadn’t even ever been properly kissed?”
He kisses me again, sweet and soft, his hands creeping into my hair. Finally, long minutes later, he presses his forehead to mine. “You’re impossible. You shouldn’t be real.”
I giggle at that. “Of course I’m real. And I have to say, kissing is amazing.”
He growls low in his throat. “Let’s rephrase that. Kissing me is amazing.”
I laugh again, so fucking happy. He only wants me kissing him? Fine with me. “As long as it’s a two-way street, buddy. Kissing me better be the only amazing kissing you’re doing, too.”
He pulls back and looks at me like I’m an alien. “You’re definitely not real.” He shakes his head. “Now eat up.”
He puts another forkful of food to my lips.
I obey, all the kissing having excited me more than ever. I’m more than curious to see what he might have in store for us after dinner.
But when I’m full and can’t eat anymore, he grabs my hand and doesn’t lead me up the main staircase.
Instead, we head to the servant’s stairs that head down.
Nineteen
Beast
She’d never been fucking kissed.
I have claimed all of her firsts.
She’s mine completely.
But when she finds out all my secrets? When she finally sees beneath the mask? What then?
I’m not proud of the abject fear that clenches my chest at the thought. I clasp her hand as we head downstairs simply because I need the contact with her skin. Me, wanting human contact. That alone should tell me how fucked sideways I am.
We arrive downstairs and I don’t turn on the lights. I know this place so well that navigating in the dark past my gym equipment is easy. I could flip the switch…but I want her trust. Need her trust.
And she doesn’t balk but only holds tighter to my hand as I lead her forward. The small demonstration of her faith in me makes my balls tighten.
She’s so trusting.
But she’s never trusted anyone else with her kiss or with her body.
I want to press her against the wall right here and thrust inside her, bury myself so deep that I don’t know where I end and she begins.
But no, I can’t. Not when I’ve only just found out how very innocent she is.
Soon. Soon, but not right now.
She deserves the smallest slice of normal. She never had a childhood. And now I know there were no first dates, no fumbles with boys in the dark…
I have to bite back a growl even at the thought but I just give her hand a slight squeeze as I lead her forward.
I can give her everything she never had.
Starting with a first date.
I flip on the lights and she curls into me, blinking against the light. Every time she does that, naturally turns into me, fuck, but it kills me.
When she finally realizes where we are, her eyebrows scrunch in confusion but she also smiles up at me. “Bowling?”
“Bowling.”
She laughs, still looking confused.
“You ever been?”
She shakes her head.
Of course she hasn’t. Did she ever take a day off in her life from studying and working to ever do anything fun, just for herself? I can already guess the answer is no. Her bastard father forced her to grow