Page 28 of Venomous Desires

I stood there, staring back at her. I watched suspicion bloom across her face. She wanted to test me. To see if I’d move. Flinch. Bleed like everyone else.Clever little bird.

It should’ve pleased me. Instead, it annoyed me. I could almost hear her mind working, searching for the safest way out. She was wasting her time. If she swung that vase, she’d get exactly one chance. She wouldn’t live long enough to regret it.

Girls like her always let their hearts interfere. Mine had died a long time ago.

I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from smiling like a complete psychopath. When I didn’t so much as flinch, she slowly lowered the vase, her eyes still wide with alarm.

She was so small I could toss her across the room without breaking a sweat. Snap those fragile little wings she tried so hard to hide and add them to my collection. That... would beentertaining.

It had been a while since anything was.

“Read it.”

I held the book out to her.

She froze for a beat before carefully setting the vase back on the table. Then those tiny hands reached for the book as if expecting me to bite.

Her nails were short. Neatly trimmed.

I almost smiled.

My little bird had no claws.

Her fingers trembled around the cover.

She swallowed, her pale throat working up and down the other motion until I almost saw the saliva travelling downthrough her transparent skin. “It’s....its’s...”

“Read it,Ptichka.” I stepped forward, crowding the little space she had created between us.

“O-okay.” Her lips dry, and I let my tongue dart and moist mine. Interesting. She could be my muse until I decide what to do with her next.

She opened the book, and I watched as she swallowed hard. And then raised her head to look at me. Then she again looked down, turned the pages, confused, baffled, and then realisation washed over her.

Yet she didn’t say anything, and I let my eyes rake down her body.

“Are you sure this is the one you want me to read?”

“Why? Is it not to your taste?”

As she struggled to find words, I noticed she was dressed differently today.Overdressed. I wasn’t sure why, but fuck me if that shade of red didn’t make her look even more feminine. The thin cardigan hugged her figure, drawing my attention in ways I didn’t appreciate. Something primal stirred beneath my skin.

Then there were the jeans. Tight enough to make a man’s imagination his worst enemy.

I caught myself wondering how quickly she’d cry if I sank my teeth into those soft thighs.

I hated that thought because she was the one putting it there. She’d ignored me all week, and ignorance had always irritated me.

“I—”

She cleared her throat, every nervous movement betraying her. A cornered little bird, too frightened to fly and too sensible to attack. I almost smiled as her grip tightened around the book until her knuckles turned pale.

Then she swallowed.

Fuck.

My body chose the worst possible moment to betray me as heat rushed to my cock. Was it concerning? Maybe. It wasn’t the first concerning thing about me. Nor would it be the last.

I stretched out in the chair, loving the soft voice as she started reading, “…fingers digging into her hips… hard… enough… to leave bruises. She gasped,” She took a shaky breath, and I grinned. “Teeth scraping along her… throat, marking her, claiming her… owning her.”