Page 25 of Temptation Unleashed (Talaenian Fae #3)

Rori tugged at her arm, but he refused to release her.

She stopped the futile fight, stepped into him, chin raised, and drilled every ounce of loathing into his startling blue eyes.

“Don’t take me as a fool, beast. I may be a weak little mortal to you, but I’m not daft or blind.

I’m not obsessed with torturing people beneath me to pet my ego and make me feel better about myself.

You should really reconsider who is truly the weaker between us. ”

As she stepped back, he tugged her into him, hand cupping the base of her skull, fingers tangling in her hair.

She caught him by the shoulder to keep a modicum of space between them, but she’d already been dealt the blow of her body slamming flush against his.

The full-length contact shook her mind and made her crave everything she knew she shouldn’t want.

Him.

“Mm.” He pressed his thumb beneath her jaw, tipping her head to the side. His gaze slid beneath hers, burning a fiery path along her cheek to come and linger at her mouth. As he angled her head how he wanted it, those glacial eyes skimmed lower, to her neck. “You impress me, little human.”

Was she supposed to take that as a compliment coming from the arrogant monster? She didn’t care if she impressed him. He wasn’t worth her efforts, her time, or her thoughts.

But he fills your head and keeps you hoping for encounters like these, as degrading as they may be.

“I don’t care,” she hissed.

As his gaze slid back to hers, the corner of his mouth lifted.

A haughty half-grin that dried her mouth and made the room around them fade.

A cruel gesture that transformed him from a cold, unreadable monster to a creature who possessed another layer beneath his marble facade, an unbearable sensuality and godforsaken sexiness, even if it was condescending.

Her fingers bit deeper into his shoulder, her grip turning desperate as her knees warmed and weakened.

The silky strands of hair not captured in the braid caressed her knuckles as he tilted his head and took a slow, deep breath.

“Nor do I. Pity, aye? Alas.”

Thaddeus twisted her around, slipping his hand from her biceps to her wrist, pulled her back to his front, and held her tight against him.

She swallowed a shriek before it had a chance to escape her lips as a new wash of horror poured over her from head to toe.

She was completely encompassed by the Fae at her back, his arm a steel bar pinning her to him from shoulder to hip.

He splayed the fingers of his free hand in front of her, palm up, the manila folder containing her assault pictures and reports from that night a month and a half ago fanning out for her to see in midair.

Thaddeus’s mouth brushed her ear, sparking a rainfall of tingles down her body to pool heavily in her belly. His scent suffused her to her soul. She clenched her teeth, fighting the lightheadedness his nearness caused. The rising anxiety facing those photos stoked.

“The one responsible for this deserves not a tear you shed, nor the fear I can smell on you. Lie all you want to me, little human. I know the truth.” He closed his fist. The papers and pictures dropped to the floor in a scattered heap.

“Lying to yourself will cause naught more than suffering in solitude. Such miserable torture.”

“What would you know about suffering?” His proximity stole her fight down to the defiance in her voice.

The strength that surrounded her came as false security, a sense of comfort she would be foolish to indulge.

He would destroy her before he protected her.

Destroy her down to her last will to fight. “Isn’t torturing others your forte?”

He lifted his head. A quiet chuckle fanned across her hair.

“Would you care to find out?”

Rori twisted against his grip to face him.

She stumbled at the unexpected release of his restricting embrace and the loss of his support at her back.

The bedroom door flew open. Cael came to a halt half a step in, his keen eyes scanning the room, lowering to the mess of pictures and papers around her feet. When his attention cut up to her, his eyes narrowed. Rori hugged herself, only then realizing the tremors that consumed her.

“He was here,” Cael said quietly. “He didn’t hurt you, did he?”

Rori blinked several times, glancing around at the now Thaddeus-less room.

Only the scent of his cologne lingered. She shook her head, drawing her lower lip between her teeth.

Cael glanced over his shoulder before he crossed the bedroom, taking her elbows in a gentle grip.

His eyes dropped to her arm, the same arm Thaddeus had held until his sudden disappearance. She followed his gaze.

Healed.

The bruises from Rich’s attack were gone.

Cael snickered and shook his head. “I’ll be damned.”

Rori pulled her arm back and pushed up the sleeve of her scrub top, the furrow between her brows deepening as she examined her unmarred skin. Not even a hint of a bruise, redness, nothing. Speechless, she looked up at Cael. Lost. She couldn’t make sense of it.

You don’t want to make sense of it.

No. She wouldn’t because it would open up a sliver of vulnerability she refused to allow Thaddeus to exploit.