Queen of Quarantine (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep #4) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,40

making a deep tremor resound through my bones. “I don’t pity you, Tatum, I fucking worship you. Your pain makes me want to sin, but your strength makes me want to repent. I’m a demon trying to grow wings by standing in the blinding light of you.”

“I don’t want wings from you.” I wrapped my hands around him, scoring my thumbs over his shoulder blades. “I love you just as you are. Every sharp claw, every dark shadow on your heart, and all the sweetness in between that you can’t even see.”

“Why do you love me?” he asked in a boyish voice that made my heart shatter. I looked him dead in the eyes, needing him to know. How could he not already know?

“Because your soul is made to fit mine. I love you with all I am and all I will ever be, Kyan. And I’ll spend every day at your side making you see why you’re worthy of everything the world has to give.”

“Even you?” he asked, pulling me closer by the waist. “Am I worthy of you, baby?” There was a desperate plea to his voice like he needed to know this above anything else and it hurt me that he could doubt it. But I understood him. The life he’d led had moulded him this way. So I would make it my mission to ensure he felt worthy of the whole universe and every atom in it.

“Especially me,” I growled and he closed his eyes as he soaked in those words, his hands tightening on me to the point of pain.

He hoisted me up, carrying me to the bath and laying me in the water. The bubbles foamed up around me and I tipped my head under the surface to wash away the feel of that horrid place on my flesh. And when I arose from the water, I felt like a phoenix rising from the ashes. I had two pieces of myself back. And in a couple of weeks, I would reunite with the final three pieces of my soul and be whole once more.

D espite my best intentions, I couldn't sleep. Midnight had come and gone and that fucking clock just kept tick, tick, ticking until it threatened to burn the sanity from my mind and leave me as nothing but a monstrous wreck of a man.

I pushed myself upright, hating the disruption to my routine and yet knowing that I wouldn't be able to claim sleep now. It was a difficult beast for me to wrangle at the best of times and tonight there was no chance.

It had been two weeks. Two weeks precisely since we'd made our way into my father's secret lab and stolen his most precious commodity and ours in one fell swoop. The vaccination I'd taken would be in full effect now and Tatum's period of isolation would end at four minutes past one. The exact time it happened to be now as I stood from my bed and stalked towards the edge of the balcony to look out over the sleeping Temple below.

There was an ache in my chest. A desperate, selfish need to go to her, to rouse her from sleep, pull her into my arms and reassure myself that she was here, wholly and fully herself once more. Recovered after her time of rest and the rigorous recovery schedule I'd set for her. Replenished and vibrant and once again ready to take her place as master of my soul.

My obsession with her was dangerous. My need for her unfathomable. And in all the time we'd spent apart, all I'd been able to think of was the sweetness of her kisses and the unavoidable fact that I wasn't worthy of them. But I was her creature now. And I wasn't certain I could continue to avoid the call of her.

The distant click of a door opening reached me in the silence and my breath caught in my chest as she emerged. Tatum walked out into the open space below in a white tee that must have been Kyan's with her bare feet padding across the flagstones.

I glanced at Monroe where he lay sleeping on the couch as had become his routine, but he didn’t stir and I gave my focus back to her.

My heart ceased to beat as I watched her, waiting for permission to go on as I just stared down at this siren who had thoroughly enthralled me.

Her gaze lifted suddenly to meet mine and