Page 111 of Dreadful

“Good,” I murmur as I stroke her back. “I’ve been tested, and I haven’t been with anyone in a long-ass time.”

“Same,” she replies. “But you’re…you’re okay with me not being on birth control?”

“I don’t want it any other way.” I tilt her chin. “You’re mine, Tallie. I want everything that comes with that.”

She swallows and nods before I let her go to lay against my pecs again. She strokes her fingers down my abs and her breaths even as she gets lost in thought. I think she’s fallen asleep when her hand stops.

“Those are real, aren’t they?”

I lift my head to see what she’s talking about, and my heart stutters as I realize her gaze is fixed on the shrine in the corner of the room.

A pyramid of skulls grins back at us from my macabre sculpture. Several are stacked on top of a purpleheart wood table. Its rich, deep purple color is in beautiful contrast with the pearl white and gray bones sitting on top of the surface. Each one nestles in between the head of another. Their hollow eyes stare at nothing, their gruesome smiles can’t confess how they met their untimely death. The stack is evidence that those men will never screw over or hurt anyone else, and they’ll never come back to haunt me.

I wrap my arms tighter around her.

“Yes. They’re real. But I assure you, every single one of them deserved it.”

My grip is tight, and she has to know that she’d have to fight me if she wants to flee. But she relaxes in my hold instead.

“That doesn’t scare me.”

“No? It should,” I whisper, fluttering one of her curls.

“Are the capo and Percy in there?”

“At the top.”

I can feel her smile against my chest. “Good. I want…I want the rest there, too.”

Excitement buzzes through me. “Then we’ll make it happen.”

“When?” She looks up at me, and that small smile I felt deepens the dimples in her cheeks. I’m tempted to kiss them, roll her over, and keep her in bed for the rest of the day, but I have something for her I don’t want to miss.

“Sooner than you think,vipera.” I kiss her chastely on the lips. “In fact, I have plans for you today.”

My phone lights up on my bedside table right on cue, and I glance at the text message’s preview on the screen.

Raze

First shave of the day is on its way.

“Your present should be here in about fifteen minutes. Give me a moment to set it all up, and then come downstairs.”

“Go downstairs? For what?”

I wink at her and grin. “It’s a surprise to die for.”

Scene 31

ONLY WORTHY OF REVENGE

Talia

Less than twenty-four hours ago, I wanted to kill Severino Luciano for betraying me. Now I’m perusing his apartment in one of his black zip-up sweatsuits after he thoroughly fucked and sated me. Before he left, he claimed the “gift” he’s giving me somehow rivals all the orgasms I had combined. I highlydoubt it, but anticipation still buzzes in my veins as I wait the ten minutes that he asked.

Sever’s apartment is huge, so I have plenty of room to snoop around while he’s gone. It may technically be a studio, but it takes up the entire top floor of the building. He’s obviously knocked down all the walls to make the space wide and spacious. Or because he’s paranoid and afraid someone will get the jump on him if there are different rooms. I’m betting both.

The room is dark and masculine, with a color palette of black, gray, silver, and purples that are so deep they’re almost black. The four corners consist of an industrial-style kitchen, a sectioned-off bathroom, his bed, and the shrine of skulls. In the center is a living room with a TV, and a wall of computer monitors takes up most of the windows. Everything is quiet, but for the hum of the electronics.