Siren Awakened - C.R. Jane Page 0,29

sat on the other end of the couch. “It’s all yours, pet. I’m worried I might get my fingers bitten off if I get too close.”

“Seriously, I have never been happier to see chocolate.” Two mouthfuls later, I set it down on the coffee table beside me and opened up my soda, then took a long sip. The sweetness flooded me, the best taste in the world.

“I’m glad I could bring you some joy. What you went through recently is horrific, and I am here for you, gorgeous. For anything.”

Swallowing another mouthful of drink, I watched the way he pulled up a bent leg between us, how relaxed he looked. I reminded myself who I dealt with. An incubus. A warlord. A powerful man who was used to always getting his way. But it was still strange to have a normal conversation with this man who I’d had sex with and who melted my insides each time he so much as looked at me. I still remembered the first time he took me in the kitchen, the moment a savage explosion of arousal, heady and full of desperation. But I learned there was so much more to Alaric than maybe most realized in the penitentiary.

I set my drink down and turned to face him, leaning into the softness of the couch. It took every ounce of strength I had to not crawl over into his lap and taste his lips. Instead, I took a deep breath to calm myself.

He studied my face.

“What are you staring at?” I asked.

“Trying to read your expression. You’ve gone through so much trauma lately, and I’m worried about you.” He reached over, his hand laying on top of mine in my lap. There was only tenderness, which was different to his usual possessiveness.

I tilted my head to the side. “And what do you see?”

“Someone brave. Someone hiding their fear. Someone so beautiful inside and out that it breaks me to know of your suffering.”

A tinge of surprise struck me. That wasn’t the response I expected, nor did I expect my body to tremble slightly at how close to the truth he skirted, except I had to keep reminding myself of who I dealt with. I saw him first hand with the warden, talking about the scepter after he’d grilled me about it.

“You’re a real sweet talker, you know,” I teased him. “But you don’t owe me anything to hand out such compliments.”

His fingers brushed across my arm, causing goosebumps to race up my skin, awakening a deep desire, a reminder of the pleasure he brought out in me. “But I do owe you. I should have been there when Keon went AWOL.”

I frowned at his words. “What happened wasn’t on you.”

“I can’t sleep at night, thinking about how badly things turned out.”

He shuffled close across the couch, the side of his thigh touching my bent knee, and a smile flickered across his face. “Thanks for talking with me. For a while there, I feared you’d push me away as you had Keon.”

Emotions welled inside me, squeezing my chest at his sincerity. I was dwarfed by his size, yet he stared at me with such affection. Was he truly moved by nearly losing me, or was this another game?

“When I was young, I almost died. Maybe I did die, no one really knows,” he admitted.

I stiffened and eyed him with shock. “What happened?”

“My father had a horrible temper, and one day, I pushed him too far. He left me beaten so badly, I passed out. The servant who found me insisted I had been dead, but my father wouldn’t hear a word of it. He is a real asshole.”

I leaned in closer, torn to hear his father abused him so severely. “I’m so sorry.” I placed my hand on his, and the earlier spark ignited through my veins like it always did in his presence. “Do you remember anything after passing out?”

“Stars.”

I wrinkled my brow and pulled back. “Like stars in the sky?”

He shrugged. “They were all around me. So maybe. A psychic once told me death followed me, since I had crossed over at a young age.”

His eyes lifted to mine, and with each passing second, the vulnerability painted on his face hardened back to the man who was always strong and unmoved. His story pained me, as it seemed it wasn’t just me who grew up with terrible parents.

To change the topic, I asked, “How do you get away with so much in this