Page 12 of Gods and Graves

CHAPTER TWELVE

RAFAEL

T he reaper intrigues me.

Entices me.

Excites me.

When she’s around, I feel things I’ve never experienced before.

Any emotion aside from bloodlust is new and foreign to me.

I’m not sure I’ve ever been attracted to anyone before—male or female. When Aphrodite put on her little show for me and my brothers, I didn’t feel even an inkling of lust.

Only annoyance that the bitch was making a mess of my bedsheets.

But now, with Thea, I can’t think of anything else.

I want to know every thought in her pretty head.

Every desire.

Every wish and fear and hope.

My need for her is borderline obsessive.

I bite down on my lower lip as the sound of the shower starts up.

Fuck, I’m hard as steel. All I can think about is her standing beneath the spray of water, soap bubbling on her golden skin as she cleans herself.

Everett glances towards the bathroom with a pained expression, his cock tenting his loose basketball pants.

“Fuck.” He scrubs a hand through his sandy hair. “I’m going to do a perimeter sweep. Can you watch her?”

I wonder if he would ask such a thing if he knew my thoughts. Every one of them is dark and depraved, and they’re all centered around her.

But of course, he doesn’t suspect the true extent of my obsession. How could he, when I’ve never behaved like this with anyone before?

I can tell Krystian and Zaid are wary of me and my intentions, and they would be right to worry.

I’m goddamn insane, and everything about Thea—from her scent, to her voice, to her lilting laugh, to her sweet giggles—makes me lose my mind even more.

Why her?

Is it because she’s beautiful?

Is it because her story calls to the fucked-up, broken part of me?

I know what it’s like to feel trapped and isolated. To feel alone and misunderstood.

My little bird has been trapped in a cage for an eternity, and now that she’s free, I want to trap her again.

To me.

Once she’s mine, I’ll never let her go.

A cry erupts from the bathroom, and I’m moving before my brain can catch up, kicking the door open.

I freeze, every coherent thought—and there are not a lot to begin with—leaving me.

Fuck.

Thea stands in the shower, the curtain wide open, as if she didn’t know she was supposed to shut it ahead of time. Water seeps onto the floor in a steady stream, flooding the room.

Fire scorches my throat as I take in the beauty standing before me.

She’s naked. Of course she is. Who would take a shower fully clothed?

I know I should look away, should grant her privacy, but I’m not like my brothers. I can’t peel my eyes off the perfection of her flesh.

Her breasts are perky, each one easily a handful, her nipples a light, dusky pink and currently beaded.

As I watch, transfixed, she pinches her nipple and cries out again.

Her free hand plays with her perfect pussy, her fingers disappearing into her folds.

She hasn’t seemed to have noticed me yet, so I take the moment to study her unencumbered.

Perfection.

She’s fucking perfection.

Mine.

She’s mine.

A growl rattles my chest, and her hands freeze. She snaps her head up.

“Rafael?” She doesn’t look embarrassed at being caught touching herself. Confusion creases her brows and draws down her lips. “What…?”

“Keep playing with your pretty pussy, little bird,” I growl, my lust blossoming, tinged with desperation.

Impulse demands I charge forward. Replace her hands with mine—or my cock.

But I stand perfectly still, my hands fisted by my sides.

“W-what?” She cocks her head to the side.

“Play. With. Your. Pussy.”

She swallows, and one of her fingers swirls through her folds in a way I can tell she likes. Her chest flushes, and her eyelids flutter.

“Add another finger,” I instruct, my gaze riveted to the show she’s unintentionally putting on.

Does she have any idea how sexy she is? How perfect?

A whimper catches in her throat as a second finger joins the first, the two of them scissoring in her tight cunt.

“Leave your hand in your pussy, but play with your tits.” My nails dig into my palms with the restraint it takes not to cup myself, not to stroke my throbbing cock in tandem to her fingers pistoning in and out of her pussy.

Thea grips her nipple between her thumb and pointer finger and begins to tug and twist at it.

“Yes, just like that.” I lick my lips. “Does that feel good, little bird?”

“Yes,” she pants out, her eyes snapping open, tears filling them. “So fucking good.”

“Did you masturbate often before you arrived here?” I keep my tone impassive. Conversational, almost.

Only someone who knows me well could hear the heat underneath it.

“It doesn’t…” She breaks off, a gasp escaping her.

“Yes?” I arch an eyebrow, encouraging her to continue.

“It doesn’t… I mean, it didn’t feel as good then as it does now.”

A smile curls up my lips.

“Is it because I’m watching?” I ask. “You’re such a good little slut, putting on a show for me.”

She cries out, tightening her grip on her puckered nipple. Fuck, I want to taste it, want to flick it with my tongue. Then I want to kiss down her belly until I can reach the ambrosia between her legs.

A tight rubber band constricts around my chest, hellbent on suffocating me.

Not yet.

She’s not ready for that yet.

Not ready for me .

“Strum your clit, little bird. Yes. Just like that. Such a good little slut. Do you want to come?”

“Yes. Please, Rafe. Please.” Tears continually cascade down her cheeks, and the use of my nickname leaving her plump, kissable lips causes my heart to stutter.

“Good girl. Come for me, Thea. Come all over your hand.”

Thea shakes and convulses, then she comes with a scream I wouldn’t be surprised my brothers could hear in the room next door.

She throws her head against the tiled wall, trembling from the aftershocks, and I can’t help but think she looks like a goddess.

She deserves to be on a throne somewhere, worshipped and revered.

She’s a beautiful poison, deadly and enticing. Unhealthily intoxicating. I can’t get enough of her, even knowing it’ll kill me.

She’ll kill me.

While she comes down from her high, I slip out of the bathroom. I need a second to collect myself, to get my thoughts in some semblance of a working order.

What I did was stupid. Dangerous. Idiotic.

If I wasn’t obsessed before, I certainly am now.

Thea is mine.

And no one will take her away from me.