Page 19 of Sire

She mirrors me, leaning against the island countertop, crossing her arms and ankles.

“So,” she grins. “Here we are.”

“Here we are.” I grin, too.

“So, now what?”

“Now.What?”

Her eyes narrow. “Who are youreally, Sire?”

“Who are you really, Wren?”

“My lips are sealed.”

“Teach that to your mouth. It needs a filter.”

The way she twists those plump lips, half amused, half annoyed with me…

Damn, if she weren’t so young, I’d claim that gorgeous, fucking mouth. I’d take every virgin inch of her, inside and out, and never give them back.

She’d be mine.

All mine.

To show off.

To fill.

To breed.

These are not the thoughts of a holy man. But there’s been a hole in my dark heart for as long as I can remember, and my evil father is the one who dug it so fucking deep.

I’ve prayed for a way to fill it.

That man, with his dark heart, thanks to his evil father, wants to deflower and defile this young woman in every filthy way possible. He’s a beast. He shouldn’t be let out of his cage. He shouldn’t be near her.

Butthis man?

The one who prayed and found another father in God? The one whose mother taught him how to love and protect, how tenderness is strength? The one whose brothers give him a family he fights for?

This mancan see that he’s staring down at the most stunning woman he’s ever seen. Poems and proverbs are written for the way he feels looking at her.

She rips his breath away.

Long, thick, dark, curly hair, sweeping to her tiny waist. Deep olive, or is it tawny brown skin? Thick, striking brows. A button nose. Her light freckles, a constellation across her high cheekbones. Pink pillow lips and an elfin chin.

Wren’s beauty belongs in an ancient century, a testament to a sacred world long ago, her thick eyelashes shrouding an old soul.

Sure, there’s a wounded child in her topaz eyes, but he has one too.

Maybe we all do.

So, this man?

He uncrosses his arms and ankles, closing the distance between them.

She’s so small, gazing up at his approach, her lips parting, unsure of what he’ll do, but her eyes staring, unafraid of him.