All Chapters of IN BED WITH THE DEVIL AS HIS SURROGATE : Chapter 61 - Chapter 66

KING SEBASTIANDarkness again. I knew it well by now.It never came as silence. It came as noise, a thousand voices layered over each other until I could not tell which were memories and which were the things that lived beneath my skin.You stood there.The beast said it first, low and patient, circling me in the black like it had all the time in the world.‘She looked at you, and you stood there.’I tried to turn away from it. There was nowhere to turn. Instead the darkness shifted, and I was back in the council hall, my palms flat against the table, the wood biting into my skin. I watched the guards drag her backward across the doors, her feet scrambling, her eyes locked on mine.Her eyes. Goddess, her eyes.She had not screamed at me. She had not begged. She had simply looked, the way you look at someone you are still hoping will prove you wrong.I had proved her right.‘Say something,’ I told the man in that memory. ‘Move. Break the table in half. Burn the whole hall down. Anythin

SEBASTIANThe door closed behind her, and the warmth went out of my hand.Her scent was still on my palm. Iron and honey and the faint, sharp trace of fear, so close I could have followed it through any corridor in the palace.Somewhere beneath my ribs, my Lycan lifted its head and turned toward the door.‘I feel nothing for the King.’I had heard the words. I had also heard her pulse, stumbling and too fast beneath them, a Lycan's cruelty I had never once been able to switch off. She had lied to protect us both, and I had let her, and the knowledge sat heavy in my chest.But what if she was right? What if she truly didn't feel anything for me? What if all of this, she was doing against her own will, because she was scared for her life?Did she even have a choice?Sadness filled my heart as I forced my gaze away from the door.Aurora did not move.She stood at the foot of the bed with her back rigid, staring at the place where Kathleen had been, and I watched her fingers curl into

AURORA The moment his arms lifted me, my stomach turned. I told myself it was nerves. I told myself it was only the shock of being held after so long. But the fur along his forearm brushed my wrist, coarse and warm, and the scent of him rolled over me, wild and heavy, nothing like the cedar and sweet mint I had once buried my face in. ‘Hold on,’ Aurora. You promised you would try.’ He laid me on the bed with a care that made my throat ache. His eyes searched mine, gold and hopeful, and I forced my mouth into something like a smile. The kiss had been brave. I had thought that if I could only get through the kiss, the rest would come. Then his hands went to the ties of my gown . Claws. Those were claws, curling at the edges of his fingertips, dark and curved and gentle only because he was holding them back. A cold shudder tore through me, and before I could stop it, my head was shaking. "No." My hands flew up and shoved at his. "No. Stop." He froze. I saw it happ