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“I angered the little human,” Kaos said, ready to change the subject.

He gave a low chuckle. “And you want to say sorry with food?”

No, he wanted to say sorry with pleasure. “She has to eat.”

“And she can’t cook?”

Kaos grinned a little as he stood, angling his head toward the patio. “She locked herself out of her apartment and burned her food.”

A long, dramatic sigh. “We could rotate jobs, I guess,” he suggested.

The genuine offer translated as pure threat that required crushing. “I surely can’t be trusted around things I’m allowed to kill,” Kaos considered. “But… it’s difficult to guard an asset when you don’t really know the asset.”

“You’ll have to make do with a general shield,” he warned lightly.

“I am.”

The silence spread then thickened. “What do you want to say to me, Kohl? I’m still burdened with certainknowingabilities.”

Kaos figured as much, but to what degree? Not mind reading, fortunately.

“Ignorance isn’t always bliss,” he said, deciding not to share more.

“Well don’t I fucking know it,” he assured. “See you soon.”

Kaos stared at the phone when he hung up, turning his focus to his forbidden dilemma of soft silk. It would help if he knew more about humans. He’d only known his Queen.

TheQueen. No longer his. And yet… he was still hers. Shattered pieces of a vengeful being. Orbiting the one who’d breathed life into his soul. The one from which he’d tasted humanity. It was just enough to make him crave it with every fiber of his heart.

And loathe it with every ounce of his Rage.

****

Jaxi stared in a love-struck daze at the clothes she’d yanked from her suitcase in her blind anger. She was staring into his eyes again in her mind. She’d known they werespecialand had triedsomany times toseewhy and how they were.But she’d only gotten a few seconds here and there, enough to make her need to see so muchmore!

She held her hand against her chest, recalling the feeling of his warm, strong fingers, imprisoning it like a helpless bird. While hestared right into her eyes!Her breath slowly left her as her heart pounded in her chest. Pools of passion and fury. And hismouth. Glory in heaven his beautiful, perfect, mouth.She’d almost kissed him.Kissed him!

She returned to the memory of his decadent gaze and how itburnedright through her.“You push for conversation like it doesn’t come with a price—so maybe I’ll shove my fingers past your lips, drag them along your tongue like a promise, and fuck your mouth until even your silence knows who it belongs to.”

She wanted those words tattooed across every inch of her body in invisible ink only she could see. But… had hemeantit? Honestly… even if he didn’t mean it, he’d said it. And those words were alive and breathing in her soul. They were hers to do whatever she wished and she wished to hallucinate that hedidmean them. That he lusted for every inch of her the way she did him.

She pressed her fingers to her smiling lips. He was so very cold and walled off and angry. Furious. Her joy ebbed with careful curiosity. Why was he? That’s what she desperately wanted to know. His rage acted like a hook in her chest, pulling her to him. Making her want to excavate and discover this dark, terrible secret he harbored. He was like a madman. A murderer. A psychopath. And shewantedhim more than she’d ever wanted anything. To unwrap the layers of pitch black until she reached the colors that hid beneath.

She sucked in a huge breath, remembering.He had her panties! Oh God! Oh God, what did he do with them? How would he return them?

She escaped her fantasy, breathless, focusing on the clothes then snatched them up. Maybe she’d picked them on purpose. Maybe she was still at that cliff, thinking of jumping. She grinned at imagining it.Jumpingright on her horribly mean, beautiful bodyguard.

He would probably insult her or… smack her. Or worse—quit!

Treachery. She’d rather be smacked.

She should cook him something for… fortryingto be nice. That’s what he’d done at the end. He’d come to his delicious senses.

Miss Juniper.

Yes, silly Miss Juniper. That’s how he saw her.

Once he got to know her, he’d see she was not silly, not even a little. She was something else. Something he’d never imagined before. The exception to the rules, the special occasion. She was aragingphenomenon. That’s what she was. She was not silly.