Igniting Cinder (The Lost Girls, #3)

by Holly Roberds

“Wh-what are you doing?” Her eyes turn round as the ‘O’ of her lips. She’s dazed from my about-face. The gown strap dips, revealing a pert, pierced nipple. I swallow hard, ignoring her state of undress and my raging needs. “I’ll tell you what I’m not doing,” I say with a cold stiffness that sets up in the core of my being. “I’m not going to let you think you are just some blood bag to me.” Cinder’s eyes narrow and I know before she even opens her mouth she’s about to hit below the belt. “You’re afraid of yourself. Your own power. So instead you throw away all your real power and pretend you are this shallow well. That you’ve never had a real thought and you are only good for a fuck and a good time. Prove me wrong. Show me you can do this.” I try to laugh it off, but my face is tight and a weight presses down on my chest. “I’m afraid of myself? Well, you’re afraid of everyone else. You don’t even trust your close personal friends. I can see that, so I bet they can too. How can they miss that you always hold a part of yourself back? No matter how much you love them, you are always waiting, expecting them to turn on you. You’re waiting for them to let you down, betray you, leave you.” “You don’t know anything about me,” she hisses. “No? I know you suffered inhuman torment and pain at the hands of monsters after your father died. That even before that you were so lonely you feared you’d cave in on yourself from the hollowness that loneliness carved out of your soul.” Was I tal...