Page 6 of Little Music of Night

The ghost.

I ran.

2 /NO RETURN

Ray

The date had been a disaster. Possibly the worst situation that could have happened.

Erik, of course, had not taken it well. We’d been so close. So painfully close to our mate. The woman we’d been haunting for the last year had been right there within our grasp—but then she’d run away.

And all chaos had broken loose. Bell and Dante had to pin Erik down, and it had taken me almost ten minutes to tame him. This darkness inside him intensified in her presence, and by her turning away, it’d gone berserk.

My mate was difficult. I loved him so, even these shattered parts of him.

But my heart hurt too.

We’d been so close, and now she felt even further away. Even as I sat here, watching her sleep, it felt like she wasn’t real.

I stroked my cock. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. She was completely oblivious to me, her breaths even. Moonlight streamed through her bedroom window, brushing over her nipples.

I just wanted to kiss them. Worship them. I wanted to feel her pulsing around me as Erik thrust inside me, our bodies becoming one. I wanted to hear her voice—her glorious, beautiful voice—chanting our names as we bred her.

At this point, I wasn’t sure that would ever happen. It’d been nice of the Barista to help us escape our confines for a small amount of time, but the date had been wasted. Christy couldn’t see us.

Was this going to be my fate? Stalking the woman we craved at the very core of our corrupt souls? The woman who could possibly break our curse?

I gasped as pleasure licked up my spine. This was wrong. I knew it was wrong, but I couldn’t stop myself as I went to the foot of her bed. My groan floated through the bedroom, and she let out the softest gasp, turning over onto her back.

“Fuck,” I gasped.

I felt Erik’s presence enter the room and turned, not even ashamed that my cock was in my hand. His dark mask gleamed, his gaze falling to her.

His pain rippled through our bond and I swallowed hard, drifting toward him. “Take your clothes off,” I whispered.

“No,” he said hoarsely. “We should leave her, shouldn’t we?”

“We should,” I whispered, drawing his hand toward my cock. His body shuddered, his sharp fangs glinting as his eyes fluttered closed. “But we won’t. Even if the reaper failed us. Even if the first date was a disaster. We won’t ever leave her.”

His hand closed around my cock, the ridges vibrating against his palm. “I just want her to see us,” he whispered. “That’s all I want, Ray. It’s driving me mad. The curse . . .”

“Will kill us,” I said, thrusting my cock further into his grip. “It will be the end of us if our mate does not accept us soon. But we have done what we can. We care for her, even though she does not realize it. She is ours, even if she never knows.”

Erik pressed his forehead to mine.

This was the side of him no one else knew. They saw a raging, furious, violent phantom.

But I saw the man who’d been by my side for two centuries.

The man whose soul was trapped and bound with mine, but still loved me. Loved me through the years of pain and suffering.

They feared him, but I loved him.

“I still trust that she will see us,” I said. “Eventually.”

Erik shook his head. “I’ve lost all hope. There’s only one thing that will soothe me. Turn around and bend over her bed.”

Fuck. I hesitated, glancing back at her. It was wrong to even be in her room, but Erik’s grip on me tightened. I did as he asked, bending over her bed, watching Christy dream as Erik undressed.