Chapter 15
Hugh stands beside me, gazing at me with heated curiosity from behind a mask of black feathers. He’s wearing a sharp black tuxedo, the lapels covered in matching feathers that though black, shimmer with color under the light. A broach of a golden crow is pinned to
his breast.
“There you are,” he says, a devilish smirk on his lips. “My brothers and I have been searching everywhere for you. How lucky for me to find you here, a lovely feathered package just for me.” His gaze drags down the front of me and I shiver at the attention. “Tell me, why would a woman as gorgeous as you want to run from her fated mates?”
Never before has he spoken to me like this, his voice pitched low, his tone sultry. At once, I
can see why he is known as the playboy of the family. With those bedroom eyes of his gazing at my body so intently, I already feel undressed before him.
It would be no great leap to allow him under my gown.
Yet I quickly steel myself, reminding myself that none of this is what I want. Hugh may look like he can see beneath my dress and mask, but he truly has no idea who he is talking
- to. If he did, he would not be speaking with such honeyed words.
I’d be nothing more than a prisoner to him and his brothers.
I take too long to respond. He lifts a hand and traces a line over my bare shoulder. He stops at the base of my neck, where his feather–light fingers tease my clavicle.
“You’re blushing. I can see it even here,” Hugh says. “How cute. You are shy, aren’t you?”
Everything in me wants to lean into his touch. Instead, I force myself to stand very still.
It’s a blissful kind of torture to be touched so gently. To be touched at all.
“I don’t like showing my face,” I tell him, my mind grasping at the first excuse I can think
- of.
1/3
Chapter 15
+25 Bonus
“How could that be?” he asks. His gaze lifts to my face and I see him searching, as if he’s trying to see through the mask that hides my identity.
“I think I’m ugly,” I say. “I’m ashamed for you to see.”
Hugh’s
enough.
eyes go a bit wide, like he didn’t expect that answer. Yet he recovers quickly
His grin widens, adding teeth, and he looks for all the world like the cat that caught the canary. “I don’t mind if you keep the mask on. You are gorgeous like this. What do you say?”
He seems to be waiting for me to reply, but I don’t understand.
“To what?” I ask.
2
He inches closer to me. His fingertips move to the base of my throat. There, he drops his
touch down, between the valley between my breasts.
Closing my eyes, I bite back a moan.
“I’ve heard fucking your fated mate is unlike anything else in the world. There’s no other pleasure like it,” he says. “Don’t you want to find out?”
I swallow hard, my tongue suddenly too big for my mouth.
Desire swells hot and fast within me, making me press my chest forward, as if wanting to offer my breasts for his attention.
Yet this sudden jolt of lust also scares me. It feels too much, too hot, too soon.
rightened, I turn on my heel and start to bolt.
Before I can take more than two steps, Hugh’s strong arm circles around my waist, holding me back.
His lips at my ear, his breath hot on my skin, he says, “At least give me your number. I don’t want to lose you a second time.”
2/3
Chapter 15
+25 Bonus
“O–okay,” I start to say, thinking that will be enough for him to go. But when I reach for my phone in my pocket, I remember with horror that my lock screen wallpaper is a photo
of Ella and me.
I can’t let him see!
Comments
Support
Share
3/3
