More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Read between
January 11 - January 11, 2024
He was getting turned on by a man he’d only just met in a crowded room after talking about their dead families.
No one had ever made him feel like his mouth was their favorite meal and they’d gone months starving in the desert.
“I thought you couldn’t read me.” He’d been mostly joking, but Apollo’s next words had him going still. “I never said that. You can’t read me, and I told you I’d noticed.” “Wait…” Shade’s stomach clenched uncomfortably. “Can you read me?” “Like an open book, baby. Why?” This time when he tilted his head, there was an edge to the movement. “Got something you want to hide from me?”
“Don’t worry about that,” Apollo told him, voice dropping to a low whisper, “there’s a great chance I’ll end up hurting you on purpose.”
It’d been cute, but the appeal had lost its luster and both Apollo and his neglected dick were no longer amused by the other man’s mulishness.
He should have tossed the detective off the roof that day, but it was too late to turn back the clock and what was done was done. Apollo had given in to his base desires and now he had to pay the price. Or, really, Shadow did.
He clicked his tongue and shook his head. “You’re not the only one who doesn’t like taking orders, Detective. Although, something important I should note you’ll need to keep in mind for future reference,” Apollo stopped a few feet away, expression morphing into one of intensity, “I enjoy giving them. And I expect them to be followed.”
He’d been enraptured, unable to look away, taking in every movement, every reaction Shade had to the scene Apollo had left there only hours before. He’d even found himself wishing he’d taken more time with this one, done it up nice and pretty for the detective. Sort of a welcome to the neighborhood gift as a prequel to the much bigger present Apollo had in mind.
Instead of pinning the detective down and slicing him open, he wanted to tie him up in his bedroom and keep him there.
“I told you,” he repeated, “you’re different.” “Different how?” “I stalked you. I hunted them. There’s a difference.”
It made him want to cut the other man open and crawl inside of him. He wanted to see and touch and feel everything. Wanted to pick him apart and figure him out like a pure white thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle. And then he wanted to take that finished puzzle and paint over it in blood.
“Not my fault you look so delectable, Detective. I could just eat you up.” He grunted when that had the other man tensing. “Not literally. Even I have my limits. Cannibalism isn’t one of my kinks, thankfully for the both of us.” “Fine with slicing and dicing but draw the line at actually doing a taste test?”
“I’ve realized something, Detective. Well, actually, I’ve known it for a while now. I like watching you choke. Doesn’t matter on what, and I’m looking forward to trying it with my fingers and my cock. Bet you’ll be so pretty.
“Do it,” the Devil said, back full force, the rumble in his chest vibrating through their shirts and skittering up Shade’s spine, “and I’ll drag you kicking and screaming to the warehouse, slash open Gunther’s bloated stomach, and fuck you in his entrails. He’ll be awake for the start of it before dying, which means there will be an audience. Someone else will know how secretly depraved you are, Detective Yor.”
“Let’s be insane together then. You can be right or you can be happy. You’ve tried the first, is that really the life you want? Is that really what you’re struggling so hard to go back to? Anyone who looks at you and doesn’t see how fucking gorgeous you are is the crazy one.”
“If I can’t convince you you’re not a monster, baby, that’s okay. You can be a monster.” Apollo latched onto the side of his neck and sucked, sending electrical tingles sparking throughout Shade’s entire body. Then he brought his mouth to his ear and growled, “The Devil always embraces the wicked.”
When I’m with you, I don’t have to hate myself. I can pretend to hate you instead.”
“I don’t think you’re rubbing off on me,” he mused, tone flat, “I think this is who I’ve always been.”
Shade should care that this man manipulated him into wanting him with this sort of fervor. But he didn’t. He should care that Apollo was a wanted criminal capable of horrible crimes. But he didn’t. And if nothing else, he should, at the very least, care that he was about to be taken on the ground in a pool of blood. But that didn’t matter either.
He was the detective assigned to Apollo’s case and yet he fully intended to do everything in his power to ensure that Apollo was never caught. They couldn’t have him. He belonged to Shade.
“You’re going to be mine until we’re both old and gray and then even after that. When we die, I’ll find you in the next life. I’ll hunt you down and make you mine all over again, baby. I’ll never let you go. You’ll always have me. You’ll always be my perfect little Shadow.”

