Page 54 of The Blood we Crave: Part Two

I don’t care.

He deserved what I did. It had only been a matter of time before Conner got what was coming to him.

“How’d you know I was in there? That I needed help?”

“I followed you from class. I thought you were in there far too long. I suppose I just have great timing.”

“You shouldn’t have done that.” The floorboards creak beneath Lyra’s feet. “Why did you?”

I watch her take steps towards me, her small body stopping when her feet rest between my own. Lyra cranes her neck to look up at me, tucking herself into my body.

“Asking the question you already know the answer to?” I lift an eyebrow, peering down with curiosity. I want her against me, pressed into me so that I can erase every inch of Conner’s touch from her body.

“I want to hear you say it.” The smell of her brushes against my nose, and the softness of her hands brings heat to my skin as they rest against my abdomen. “I want you to hear it for yourself.”

I lift my hand, cupping her cheek, rubbing my thumb across the bridge of her nose. It feels impractical to experience this. The way I was so hungry for violence seconds ago, and now…

Now I want to submerge myself in her softness.

I can’t give her love, care for her in the way someone should, but I’m tired of not giving her me. Not when she’s the only person capable of having me. The distance I’d created between us had been to protect her. But today, that distance is the reason she was alone with Conner.

“No one is allowed to touch you,” I say honestly.

My chest tightens as her finger drags lower, rubbing against the material of my belt, fiddling with the clasp.

“Except you?”

A smirk pulls across my lips. “Except me.”

I’m tired of fighting her. Fighting myself.

I’d never once indulged myself in something, never once allowed myself to give in to my wants.

Despite all the evil I’ve committed, how wicked I am, maybe I deserve to have one thing. This one good thing in all the bad.

Her.

“Darling phantom.” I glance down at her nimble hands pulling my belt free, the purple nail polish on her nails contrasting against my black clothes. “What are you doing?”

The sound of my zipper being dragged down echoes.

“Thanking you for coming for me,” she whispers. “For saving me, again.”

I feel the world slow down. Everything outside the door in front of me no longer exists. It’s just us in this storage closet. My teeth sink into my bottom lip as she drops to her knees.

Nothing has been as beautiful.

I tuck a few stray curls away from her face, cupping her chin, making her look into my eyes. Her breathing is uneven, and her nails dig into the sides of my waist, pulling at the waistband of my slacks.

My thumb brushes her plump bottom lip, aching to feel it wrapped around my dick. The air crackles, and my skin buzzes as she pulls my pants and briefs down, just enough to free my cock. It slaps against my stomach, and her breath fans across my shaft, making me suck in a breath.

“Do you know what I’m about to do, pet?” I ask, shoving my thumb through the seam of her lips. She sucks on it, and the sensation shoots straight to my cock. “I’m going to fuck the taste of him out of this needy mouth.”

The light flickers across her hand as it roams upward, pushing my bloody shirt up and exposing my abs. It glows, showing the way they flex as she wraps a timid hand around the base of my length.

Her smooth fingers don’t meet as they curl around me, a few inches of space between them, and I see the moment she realizes when her eyes widen. Lyra looks so sinfully innocent, unsure of herself, but the desire pooling in her eyes makes one thing very clear.

She wants me.