Marked By Lies: A Reverse Harem Series (The Marked Series Book 1) by Paige Orr (the red fox clan TXT) 📗

“You really are an amazing person, little songbird. Thank you for not fearing me after my magic reacted that way.”

A heat blooms in my chest at the soft smile that graces her lips, and I know that I’ll never be able to let her go. Even if she never sees me the same way as I do her, she has a friend for life. She tilts her head to the side, looking at me curiously, a question on the tip of her tongue.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you, why do you call me little songbird?”

A laugh rips its way free from me, and I feel the darkness receding a little more. I don’t know why I’m so surprised at how quick she switches between subjects, but I’m glad that she can so easily distract me from what’s going on in my head.

“Probably because from the minute I laid my eyes on you, I hoped to one day have you singing in pleasure below me.”

An endearing blush spread across her cheeks as she averts her gaze, shuffling on her feet. Her reactions to me are so refreshing, and they sure as hell will never grow old. She bites her bottom lip, drawing my eyes to them, and I bring my thumb to them, gently pulling her lip free. I don’t think she even realizes how entrancing she truly is.

“May I kiss you, little songbird?”

She shivers in my arms, her grip on me becoming tighter while I patiently wait on her answer. The last thing I want to do is make her feel pressured in any way. I’ve been alive for a long time, which has taught me patience. I can wait for as long as she needs. She seems to come to a decision as she squares her shoulders, looking at me with determination in her eyes, and nods her head at me in consent.

That’s all the permission I need, as I lean down, capturing her plump lips in a gentle kiss. I take my time to explore her mouth, not wanting to scare her away with being too intense. When I do slightly deepen the kiss though, getting lost in her essence, she lets out a low moan against my lips, causing me to smile into the kiss.

I’ve never been with a woman before who I could glady just enjoy a kiss with. Usually I avoid it at all costs, but Melissa makes me softer. Any other time I would be thinking about how to get away from the women as quickly as possible, but with her time seems to stand still. I break the kiss, both of us panting, and gently stroke the pad of my thumb across her glistening lips. I close my eyes, leaning my forehead against hers, as our hot breath mingles until Melissa breaks the easy silence between us by clearing her throat.

“I hate to break this up, since I’m rather enjoying myself, but we should probably update the others and head back to the house. Maybe Annika could help us locate these bastards.”

I know that she’s right, but I can’t help wanting to stay lost in this moment in our quiet little bubble. Especially since I know as soon as we walk out of this clearing, I have to be a leader once more. It was nice to take a few minutes away from all the chaos, I just wish it could have lasted longer.

I pull away from Melissa with a tired sigh, feeling the loss of her heat down to my bones.hopefully we will get to enjoy more moments like this in the future, because I can already tell that she will be like a drug to me, and I will never be able to have enough of her. I hold my hand out to her, entwining my fingers through hers when she takes it, and begin to guide her back to the car.

Chapter Twenty-One

Melissa

I can’t believe I let myself become so distracted, not that I didn’t enjoy every touch from Zaphyr, but people are relying on me to figure all this shit out. I don’t want to be the reason that we don’t find them on time, but everything about these men sets my blood on fire. I’m not exactly a nun, but no man has ever evoked such strong feelings in me before, and I’m not too scared to admit that it’s kind of frightening.

I seem to lose all sense of myself when they are close to me, and right now, none of us can afford to let that happen. In another life, I would be giddy with excitement over the heat that is building between us all, but there are so many things in our way. You never know though, maybe, just maybe, after all of thithis is figured out, we could try to see what's between us.

We reach the edge of the woods and are about to step out to go to the car, when Zaphyr holds his hand out, stopping me in place. He gently pulls me into his arms, and the surrounding shadows gather around us. I look up at him confused, not wanting to say something to spook him, and notice the grim expression on his face.

Automatically, I reach inside my jacket, placing one hand on Justice, as I wait with bated breath to see what he does next. He holds a finger up to his mouth to ask me to keep silent, as he pulls me along the edges of the woods. I try to look around for whatever has got him so on edge, but I can’t notice anything out of place.

Deciding that it must be something supernatural, I switch to my sight, and thankfully Zaphyr’s magic doesn’t blind me the same way Morpheus’s did. I suppose that it must