Page 25 of Scales and Seduction (Monster Match #1)
M y heart races against Gideon’s palm that’s nestled on my throat. “Are you alright?” His voice feels so far away; even now, I feel as if I’m floating.
The pheromones make my mind foggy, but my body feels like someone poured pure sex and joy into my veins. Even the feeling of his palm makes my pussy throb. I still want him, just as much as I did minutes ago. “Still so horny…” My voice comes out as a whiny mewl. “I hate how much I still want you even though my body hurts.”
“I know, I promise once we wash it off, it’ll end.” Gideon takes a piece of my hair that’s fallen from the braid to tuck behind my ear. “Let’s clean these up and take care of that first.”
“Do we have to?” The way I sound is pitiful, almost like a feral animal in heat. My body arches, searching for anything to grind on, but when it comes up empty, the thought of putting my hand between my thighs crosses my mind. “I really want to wash this off.”
It’s as if Gideon sees the thought flit across my features. He grabs my hands, stilling them with a short glare. “Be a good girl, Ruby,” he demands, pressing a kiss to my lips. “We’re cleaning this up first, okay?”
God, I hate the dominant tone in his voice, and how little it does to stop my dripping pussy from begging for his attention. Deep in my rational mind, I know he’s right.
Gideon shifts to the side, his hands falling away from mine, but I hear the way his body nudges a pile of the fallen books on the floor. One catches my eye, a thick leatherbound book with burned pages and smattered with soot. The contents are hardly legible, and it’s written in script I can’t read.
“Why is that one burned?” I point to it on the floor.
He’s beside it in a second, reaching down and snatching it with his hands. His long, elegant fingers brush the pages, flipping through them until he halts on one that causes his lips to curl into a frown.
“In his grief over the death of his beloved human consort, Eliza, King Kithrall begged Morvyn for a remedy from the pain of human mortality.” Gideon pauses as if thinking through what the line means, looking into my eyes briefly as his brow furrows. An emotion lingers behind his eyes as he takes me in, almost as if it just dawned on him that maybe humans are more fragile than he thought.
“Did the king want her to live forever?” I ask. “That’s not possible for your kind, right?”
Gideon clears his throat, giving a solemn shake of his head. “No, only vampires and the undead could live forever, but most choose not to. It’s hard to see everyone you love pass away.” Slowly, his eyes drop back down to the book, skimming again to find where he’d just read. “But Morvyn’s promise to help was a lie.” Gideon continues to scan the pages. “Kithrall’s sorrow was manipulated. Morvyn used his fear and grief to poison the king against the humans he once loved. Tensions were already high, as the humans were fighting their own wars. Morvyn created a curse that slowly sealed the two realms. He led his campaign of hatred by showing how humans were not to be trusted. The curse grew stronger as the hate grew, feeding the barriers as more and more violence broke out between our kind. The more division, the stronger the barrier.”
As Gideon turns another page, a loose piece of paper falls from between some of the pages. With his quick reflexes, he catches it before it hits the floor. It’s something handwritten, though the ink is smudged.
“It’s Atticus’s handwriting,” he mumbles as he slowly looks at what’s written there. “‘Love started the curse, but what if love ends it? Strings of fate…’The ink is smudged…” Gideon sighs heavily, tightening his jaw and muttering under his breath, “He was onto something. He must have learned about the app prior to his disappearance.” He folds the paper, placing it back into the book, and snaps it closed.
“Do you think your stepbrother’s disappearance is part of this?” I ask, fighting back the desire to touch his scales. The pheromones continue their assault on me even now, tempting me with every sensation like a drug addict looking for a hit. My fingers toy at my dress instead.
“I think it’s possible he knew something,” Gideon replies tightly, though he doesn’t let go of the book and continues to look at it instead of me.
The lights in the room suddenly flicker. The golden glowing lamps hum, and at first, it seems like nothing. It’s a heartbeat before the lights surge back to life, though weaker this time, until the lights along the walls blink out like dying stars.
Then, all at once, the lights go out
Gideon grabs hold of my arms, pulling me toward him protectively. “Something’s wrong.”
Gideon…you both need to come downstairs. Now , a familiar voice urgently pierces my mind. It’s Silas, and he sounds more than just concerned that we’ve been gone so long. There’s been an attack!
“Here, take this.” He removes the note from the book, pressing it into my palm urgently. “We can’t risk anyone seeing the book, so we need to leave it. We can take this, and maybe Loran can use it as a means of uncovering my brother’s plan.”
Reluctantly, I take the paper and place it between my cleavage. The touch of my hand to my skin sends my body into overdrive. Goose-flesh breaks out over my arms, and it’s hard not to close my eyes and moan at the feeling. “Could we maybe wash this off before we go down?”
“We have to hurry,” Gideon says, giving me a terse smile, grabbing hold of my hand. “Besides, now Silas’s cloaking has been dispelled, we will need you in complete control.”