Page 29 of Grotesque

“Oh don’t worry, Sorcha. The only feast I’ll partake of you is that delicious cunt between your legs.” I tweaked one of her hardened nipples. Fresh sweat burst across her skin, glistening like morning dew. She was an absolute treasure.

Her back arched. “Are there more of you?”

“Plenty.” Gods I could watch her squirm for hours and not grow bored. I was going to give her body the chance to rest after how long we had fucked last night, but the way she writhed beneath me tempted me to do otherwise.

“Are you…from here?” One of her hands slinked its way across my chest.

My head tipped back as I savored the way her fingers trembled. Now was as good of a time as any to tell her about my world. It might make it easier for me to bring her over that final threshold. If she was prepared, she would be less likely to be rejected by the gateway. Hopefully.

I’d hate to have it deny her the way it had Rosaline.

When it became apparent Under would not accept her, she had snapped.

The gate remained sealed no matter how hard she raged her fists against it.

As if the mirror would break through sheer will alone.

If she’d only known how many times I had done the same.

I’d had no use for her after that. I’d needed to get rid of her so someone new could take her place and I’d have the opportunity to try again.

Sweet, foolish Rosaline. She hadn’t listened. She had given me almost everything, but some corner of her heart still loved her husband. Of course, I couldn’t let her lack of faith in the angel go unpunished.

At the barest hint of my suggestion, she’d killed him. Poor thing hadn’t understood what she was doing until she’d slipped the noose around her own neck afterwards.

As much as I had fumed, I was glad it hadn’t been Rosaline that saved me. I wouldn’t have Sorcha. Sorcha, with her glorious perfume of fear and desire. Of possibility and opportunity.

“No,” I said carefully, looking down at her. “Are you familiar with fae?”

She sat up abruptly, her eyes wide with– not fear. Oh, silly Sorcha. A shudder of laughter ran through me as a broad smile touched her lips.It took everything in me not to grab her face and kiss her thoroughly.

“Like High Lords and faeries?”

I shook my head slowly as anticipation wrapped around my heart. Curious Sorcha still had a lot to learn. “Don’t believe everything you read in books, my dear.” How sweet that the gods had finally shown me favor.

“Oh.” Her face dropped slightly, then lit up again. “So you’re fae? I’ve never heard of a grotesque. Are gargoyles fae too?”

As question after question tumbled out of her pretty lips, I couldn’t help falling more in love with her.

That’s what this was, wasn’t it? This glorious feeling of being wanted, of having someone adore and fawn over you with such rapture they would overlook the monster and its sins.

Her innocence, bubbling up and obscuring the darkness I knew lurked beneath, was going to be her end.

I was her end. Her inquisitive eyes darted back and forth between mine.

“There are many creatures like and unlike me in the Realm of Underland,” I said. “A place few mortals have the privilege of ever laying eyes on.”

She slapped a hand over her mouth. “This is going to sound ridiculous, but I’ve always had a thing for fae.

I read about them in books, fantasy books, but those are fiction of course.

I didn’t think fae were real. And well, they don’t mention anything like you.

Actually, no they got the wings right.” Her eyes darted down to my hips, to what lay hidden beneath the sheets.

Did she darken yet another shade? “Yeah, they definitely got the wings right.”

“What about my wings?” I flexed them, lifting them high so that they shadowed her.

“Well, um.” Her tongue darted between her lips. “They say the bigger the wingspan the bigger, the….” She cleared her throat. She was bright red now, her skin flaming with embarrassment.

“Tell me,” I pressed. Keep squirming for me.

Her eyes flicked down again. “Corban,” she hissed.

I traced my claw over the curve of her stomach to the hair-dusted mound at her center. “Don’t get shy on me now. Say it. The bigger the wingspan the bigger the, what, Sorcha?” I forced my hand between her thighs. I slid my middle finger down her slit. Gods she was wet.

“Dick,” she choked out.

I threw my head back and laughed. “Well that, you can believe.” Slowly I eased my finger inside of her and tipped my head down. “Do I surpass your books’ expectations? Is my dick big enough for you?”

She grabbed hold of my wrist when I stroked the ridge of her cunt slowly, gently. Her other hand wound its way around my neck as I nudged her to her side so that I could slide in behind her. My hard cock pressed against the swell of her ass.

“Yes,” she breathed.

My control was paper-thin as I continued to play with her wetness. I pressed my nose against her hair, breathing her in. “How does it feel knowing this it what you do to me?”

Her breath hitched; her body tightening. “Corban,” she hissed. “Please.”

I pulled my hand away, smoothing it over her hip as I kissed her shoulder. “Don’t worry,” I crooned. “I’m not going to fuck you right now. You need to hydrate, and eat.” I gave her hip a squeeze. “That way you’ll have plenty of energy to play tonight.”

What sounded like a groan of complaint came from her throat. “You’re going to be the death of me.”

I flashed my fangs.

She kept her body pressed to mine as she craned her head back. “If you’re not going to torture me, then what do you plan on doing?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, now that you’re free to be in the light,” she started tentatively, “is there something you’d like to do?”

I stared at her. Such a simple question and yet I don’t think she understood the weight of it. The last time I had been asked what I wanted, I’d been fooled. But I knew there was no trickery in her inquiry. There was nothing but open curiosity and the desire to please. Sorcha wanted to please me.

I leaned forward and kissed her, stroking the edge of her jaw as I did so.

“I want to see what you do during the day when I cannot see you. How do you spend your time beneath my roof?”

Her brows furrowed. “That’s it? That’s really boring. I mean… I just…”

“Just what?”

“I read. I cook too, but there isn’t anything I do around the house that will entertain you.”

I sat up, pulling her with me. “Everything you do demands my attention, Sorcha. Allow me to savor you in the sunlight.”

I relished the precious minutes we spent lying tangled in the sheets, one creature of many limbs, before I rose, dragging Sorcha into the shower.

The water carved pathways across her body, crisscrossing in rivulets that I followed with my tongue.

Soft sighs fled her lips as I kneaded her skin with soap and ran my claws across her scalp and through her hair.

The simple act of washing together gave me a sense of intimate pleasure not even sex could provide.

As she stepped out into the morning light to dry off, a ray of light cut across her shoulder, obscuring a bite mark I had left there, and I stared. Her soft skin was luminescent, her eyes flashing like cut gems.

I tipped her chin up as I leaned down to kiss her.

Sweet, sweet Sorcha would be coming home with me.