Page 53 of Once Upon a Fable

Clearing my throat, I tore my gaze away and shoved a handful of sticky fries into my mouth.

She shifted on the cold concrete, picking up a spinach leaf with her fingers.

She didn’t try to speak again, and I despised conversation. I much preferred silence. That was where secrets lay. Stay silent around someone, and either they filled it with confessions or you could hear what they tried to hide.

The problem with listening in my past was I’d learned far too many dangerous things. Things I wished I could forget but always rememberedin my dreams. Silence could backfire, I’d learned that the hard way—but I needed to know more about her.

Needed to know how far I could push, how much she’d give...before she broke.

We ate most of our meal in strained quietness. The crunch of salad on her teeth made my heart race. The vision of fries slipping past her lips made my cock throb. I had indigestion by the time I’d finished, thanks to my lust tangling me into knots.

“I appreciate you feeding me again.” She kept her green and brown swirling eyes on my legs. Flecks of gold shimmered there too, reminding me of fantastical heroines from the books I’d consumed in the library. She was pretty enough to be some otherworldly creature. Someone whose origins I didn’t know about. Someone who’d just magically appeared to serve me in whatever way I saw fit.

I stared at her with a new intensity, suffocating beneath the wash of heaviness and heat that made my body tight and achy.

Her shoulders tensed. Her back shot ramrod straight. She balled her hands as if she knew where my thoughts had strayed, waiting for a command that she didn’t want.

Did she expect me to order her to suck me again?

I’d fed her, so I was fully within my right to claim something in return.

My cock swelled past bearable. Desire billowed thicker. I was a slave to the rampant need she’d conjured.

I stood slowly.

Taking her empty plate, I stacked it with mine and the discarded breakfast dishes before reaching for my fly.

She swallowed hard and shifted gingerly to her knees.

A flash of power shot down my legs.

I didn’t even have to ask. Didn’t even have to hint. She’d obeyed wordlessly and completely.

Fuck, if that wasn’t the headiest trip she could gift.

I wanted to bask in that. To prove to myself how far I’d come. To imprint this moment so the darkness and its nightmares could never find me.

Dropping my hands from my crotch, keeping my fingers far away from my disgusting cock, I toyed with her. I dragged out the anticipation. I made her frown in confusion and rock back on her heels in worry.

“You...you don’t want me?”

I tilted my head. “Pretty sure you can see for yourself that I do.” My trousers hadn’t dropped their tent since I’d walked into this damn basement.

She bit her bottom lip, her gaze skating over my erection before swooping back to my face. “Then...I don’t understand. We had a deal. You said you wouldn’t kill me if—”

“A little chat is in order before any other favors are granted.”

She crossed her arms, protecting herself. “What chat?”

“Will others show up here?”

Her eyes flared. “Why? Have you seen someone?” She glanced at the ugly, bulky cell phone beside her. Hope blazed over her face, hinting that maybe it wasn’t a useless piece of technology, after all.

Stupid girl.

Darting forward, I scooped it off the ground and clutched it in my fist.

“No!” She launched to her feet, her nails digging into my fingers and trying to pry it free. “It’s pointless. It just has...sentimental value. I have photos and things—”