Page 16 of Knight’s Seduction

Didn’t want him anywhere near her.

“She wants you as well, she just doesn’t understand it.”

Silas’s words filtered through his head. Could that really be true?

Buttery yellow glowed from the room upstairs. And Kryos was drawn to it like a moth desperate for light. Pulling off his shirt, he extended his wings and flew up to the window. He hovered there, looking through the lace curtains of her shadowed and cozy room. Her bed was in the middle, a small white dresser to the right of it. There was a couch and a radio, a bookshelf full of books. This was where she spent her time.

The door opened—

Kryos bit out a low curse as she walked in. She’d just had a shower, going by her damp hair, and she was wearing silky-looking sleep shorts and a matching camisole. Her body was soft and curved, legs smooth and long. Bending forward, she rubbed a towel over her hair, then draped it across the back of a chair.

He was mesmerized, unable to move from his spot at her window as she rubbed lotion over her arms and legs, then dragged a brush through her long blond hair. A vision of her in his lap while he did that for her, brushing her long wavy hair, filled his mind, and his stomach muscles clenched.

Taking care of her would be a privilege. Making sure her every need and desire was fulfilled would be an honor. One he never knew he had coming, but one he wanted more than anything in this world.

She puttered around the room, putting stuff away, hanging up clothes, before she finally headed for the bed—

But then she paused, and her brow scrunched up before she grabbed her robe off the end of the bed, pulled it on, and walked back out of her room.

The sound of the garage’s side door opening came a moment later. He flew around to the front. She was standing on the front yard.

Kryos landed a little down the street. If he was going to talk to her, it had to be now. He couldn’t wait another moment. The driving need to make her his was like nothing he’d ever experienced, but before he could even think like that, he needed to get her to talk to him.

His wings vanished and he pulled his shirt back on, then headed up the street as if he hadn’t been hanging around her yard the last few hours because he couldn’t bear to be parted from her a moment more.

Maybe showing up out of the blue late at night would send her running in the other direction. But if he didn’t breathe in her scent, look into her eyes, right fucking now, he would lose his mind.

She was standing by a rose garden, the warm summer breeze ruffling her still damp hair, and there was a frown on her face, as if something had drawn her out here and she wasn’t sure what it was.

He knew what it was.

Fucking hell.

She felt him as well.

Kryos let his boots thump on the pavement so she would hear him coming. He didn’t want to frighten her. Her head shot up as he neared, and she stared out into the dimly lit street. “Kryos?”

He shoved his hands into his pockets and dropped his shoulders, trying to look smaller, less intimidating. “Hey, Meredith.”

“What are you doing here? How did you find me?” she whispered as she rushed toward him. “You can’t be here.” She grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the front of the house into the shadows down the side. “If my parents see you—”

“I didn’t come to cause trouble for you, Merri. I just wanted to talk to you.”

She took a step back, hugging herself. “So you thought you’d just show up late at night and what? What were you going to do?”

He shoved his fingers through his hair. “Honestly, I wasn’t sure. I just…I wanted to see you. To apologize for the way I acted the other night.”

Her frown deepened. “I don’t know what you want from me. I asked you to stay away, and instead of respecting my wishes, you show up at my house? An apology is supposed to make things better, not worse.”

Desperation filled him, because she was right. His behavior was messed up. Right now, she thought he was human, was judging his actions through human eyes. She didn’t have any idea what was going on inside him, the roar of his instincts to make her his, the scream of his demon for the same.

Which meant, to her, he was probably acting like a goddamn serial killer.

If she called the cops, he wouldn’t be surprised. “Meredith, I’m so sorry. You’re right. I shouldn’t have come. I just…I can’t stop thinking about you, and I have this, Christ, this ache, right here…” He rubbed his chest, unable to stop the shit coming out of his mouth because the roaring, the screaming for her, wouldn’t let up. No, it grew stronger by the second. “You’re so fucking beautiful, and sweet, and I—”

“You can’t… Kryos, you can’t say stuff to me like that,” she said, but instead of retreating, she took a step closer.

He searched her wide-eyed stare, and what he saw made it clear he wasn’t the only one feeling the connection between them. “Tell me you don’t want me, that the kiss we shared meant nothing, and I’ll go.” And he would. Somehow, he’d make himself walk away.