Chapter 9: The Ghost in My Veins (Silas's POV)
I watched the navy silk pool at her feet like a dying wave.
She stood before me, clad in nothing but moonlight and that blood-red ruby choker, and for the first time in my life, my hands trembled. It was a microscopic movement, one I hoped to God she didn't see, but it was there.
I had waited three years for this. Three years of watching her from the edges of gala ballrooms, of tracking her father's failures so I could swoop in and claim the only prize that mattered. I thought that having her here, in my room, under my roof, would satiate the hunger.
I was wrong. Having her here only made the hunger evolve into a living, breathing thing that threatened to swallow us both.
"Satisfied?" she whispered. Her voice was a jagged glass edge, but her eyes... her eyes were searching mine, looking for the man beneath the Reaper.
"Not even close," I rasped.
I stepped into her space, my hands finding the small of her back. Her skin was like heated velvet, a sensory overload that made my vision blur. I leaned down, my forehead resting against hers.
"You think this is about a debt, Seraphina," I murmured, my breath hitching as she instinctively leaned into my heat. "You think I want to punish you for what your father did. But the truth is much worse."
"Then tell me," she challenged, her fingers ghosting over the lapels of my suit. "Stop hiding behind the checkbook and the threats. Tell me why I'm the only person you've ever looked at like you wanted to devour."
"Because you're the only person who looks at me and doesn't see a billionaire," I confessed, the words tearing out of my chest like a secret I didn't want to keep. "You see the monster. And tonight, Seraphina, the monster is tired of being alone."
I didn't wait for her to respond. I swept her up into my arms and carried her to the bed, the black silk sheets waiting to swallow her whole. I pinned her down, my body a heavy, suffocating weight over hers, and for the first time, I didn't see fear in her eyes. I saw a fire that mirrored my own.