Page 59 of The Chains You Defy

He towered over me, his predatory gaze roaming unashamedly over my bare form, starting at my lips and moving lower and lower. “Gods, Nayana, you have no idea what you do to a male, do you?”

“Why…don’t you tell me?”

His eyes darkened, and he lowered himself, kneeling on the mattress. Even like that, he loomed over me. “You make it hard for me to hold back and notravish you. Especially when you lie there, naked, like a present for me.”

His voice sounded rough, and his words held so much rawness that they stole my breath.

But when his shadow obscured my vision, a bolt of panic shot through me. I clamped my eyes shut and forgot all about the special words, but Dion stopped moving in an instant. How he was so attuned to my well-being was a mystery to me.

“Sorry,” I whispered, and defeat accompanied my utterance. “It’s not—easy.”

“If it were easy, we wouldn’t have to do this. There’s no need to apologize.”

“Can you just hold me for a moment?”

“Of course, Nayana.” With slow movements, he lowered his ludicrously tall body and lay down next to me. He was still fully dressed and had only lost his hair tie somewhere. As if I were highly breakable, he engulfed me in his embrace and tucked me into his chest. Deep inside me, the panic dissolved and left only a dull aftertaste behind.

But just for a moment. The flames under my skin detonated once more when Dion’s larger-than-life presence assimilated me. He was all around me—body, mind, and soul—and he was everything.

“We can attempt this again another time, Naya.” His words were a gentle caress, and one of his hands was painting circles on my back, intending to calm me but instead leaving a fiery trail in its wake.

“Only a minor setback, and it’s better already. I want this. Truly.”

“Are you sure?”

My eyes widened as an idea crossed my mind. Mulling over my theory for a moment, I bit into my lower lip, then nodded. “Dion.”

“Naya.”

“Maybe we can try something?”

His hand stilled on my lower back and burned itself into my skin. “What do you have in mind?”

“What if you drop your Glamour and stop pretending to be something you’re not?”

A small, confused frown appeared on his forehead.

Yes, out loud, my train of thought made little sense, but something humming inside my chest confirmed my suspicion. “Or do you prefer not to?”

Dion stared at me, but then his mouth curled up into a feline smile, and he was radiating approval. “You want the real me.”

“So, will you?”

He nodded, and only one second later, his features changed in front of me. While his human form was so familiar to me, I’d been exposed to his true self only a handful of times. Still, the male was undeniably the same as the one with whom I’d made history with over the past few months.

Taking my time to study his face, I memorized every inch. And when purely observing wasn’t enough anymore, I lifted my hand and placed it on his cheek. The cool, smooth skin under the pads of my fingers was as silky as the finest fabric.

He definitely wasn’t human, but in the end, underneath the exterior, he was a creature of flesh and blood, just like me. “You’re still the same.”

His amethyst eyes glowed as he observed me. Their slightly different angle gave his face an exotic vibe,especially in connection with his sharp cheekbones. Somehow, his appearance emphasized the dangerous vibes that were tangible around him all the time.

He leaned into my hand like a kitten in need of belly rubs, and hunger returned to his gaze. His eyes radiated light and seared into mine, his hand on my back tightening possessively.

My breath accelerated, and my curiosity won. Brushing my hand over his cheek, I allowed my fingers to ghost over the tip of Dion’s pointed ear. With fascination, I observed how the peak slightly twitched, like the last time I’d explored his alien features.

A low growl caught my attention as I repeated my experiment.

For a second, I wanted to pull my hand away, but I changed my mind. This sound hadn’t been a warning, not in the traditional sense, and I caressed his ear with full intention again.