You Can't Run From The Dark

{Part 29}

~Dessa~

At some point while Dessa was eating, the Fae man rose to his feet and stretched. His muscular body rippled as he did, and his wings seemed to stretch as well. Dessa's breath caught in her throat, and if she hadn't just swallowed a bite of bread, she would have choked. Another action that seemed way  too human, and yet, everything about him was so far from it. Her body quaked from the sight, and she was upset by the fact that she found him so attractive that it almost hurt to look at him. He was a living, breathing piece of art. No being that dangerous had any right to possess such cruel beauty. She could imagine that the females of his kind would give a fang, a horn, a wing, or their left foot to climb into his bed. How many had he easily enticed to join him between the same sheets that she had slept in?

Why, oh, why  did that idea fill her with envy? Imagining the sordid depravity that Fae women far more beautiful than her had most likely gifted him in this very room had her chest searing with a nearly violent rage. As if he could hear her outrageously stupid inward turmoil, the Fae man stiffened and his piercing, mismatched eyes found hers. He lifted an eyebrow at her with an expression of surprise that quickly settled into one that appeared to be hardly-veiled amusement.

"Can you read my thoughts?" Dessa couldn't help but blurt out the question, her cheeks burning profusely. 

A chuckle rumbled from deep in his chest, and Dessa shivered at the sound. Instead of his mirth at her expense furthering her embarrassment - as it should have - it sent a wicked thrill through her, burrowing all the way down to her bones. She had only ever heard Fae creatures cackle at her like hyenas, but his chuckle was nothing like those awful sounds. It was quite possibly the sexiest sound she had ever heard in her life, and it felt as if it had skated across her skin, and drizzled down her spine like honey. 

He moved with that inhuman grace, and he reminded her of a skulking black panther as he did. Smooth, dark, and lethal, he took a seat in his chair, his eyes never leaving hers, so she had no choice but to gaze back at him with rapt focus. He bit his bottom lip, as if mulling over how he would answer her, and a sharp fang caught her attention, drawing her eyes downward so that they fixated on his mouth. Regrettably, because for some goddamn reason, she once more imagined things that she had no business imagining! Had he given those Fae women pleasure with that mouth as well? Why did the idea of such a thing make her want to commit murder? She had never so much as felt the urge to punch  someone, but the thought of this beast using his sensuous, deadly mouth on a random, hypothetical female in the past was enough to turn her into a different person altogether! She clapped her hands over her own mouth, revolted by her imagination and the hostile impulses that had been the result, her eyes going wide. What is happening to me!?  

"Dark Fae can taste emotions."

Dessa's hands muffled her startled gasp, and she shook her head at his admission, and at herself for her transparency. He might as well be able to read her fucking thoughts, then! Oh, God, no! No, no, no!  Would he be able to surmise why  she had suddenly been overcome by jealous rage? Could she think of some sort of excuse? The truth hardly made sense at all! How could she explain it away?

"Please, eat."

There was a mixture of enjoyment and frustration in his tone. Dessa felt like she could die from how mortified she was, but hurriedly turned away from him the second that he glanced toward the fireplace. She tried her best to shove down all her idiotic feelings, and focus only on the food, though she had no way of knowing if she was successful enough. Tasting emotions? How the hell will I be able to hide anything from him?