I stared down at her. “You can’t keep pretending that you don’t want to be with me.”
She stared back with a look of fierceness I found incredibly sexy and…and yeah, I respected her for that, too. But then that look faded as she pressed her lips together. Sadness had crept in her eyes. “I’m not pretending.”
Bull. Shit.
There had been hesitation before she had said that. There had been so much more that powered her words other than anger or frustration. She was afraid and she was sad. I got that. I had been a dick to her. There really wasn’t an excuse in the world to make up for that, and like I’d realized when I’d been holding her in my arms in the field, I didn’t—couldn’t—let her go. “You’re lying.”
“Daemon.”
I placed my hands on her hips and tugged her forward. The warmth of her body cascaded over mine, and I closed my eyes briefly, taking in a deep breath that tasted of Kat. “If I wanted to be with…” My hands tightened on her hips, and she swayed a little closer, until our legs brushed once more, proving that her words were at odds with what she wanted. I dipped my head and she shivered. “If I wanted to be with you, you’d make it hard, wouldn’t you?”
Kat lifted her head. “You don’t want to be with me.”
Oh, I had to disagree with that. My lips spread into a smile. “I’m thinking I kind of do.”
A pretty flush moved down her neck, and I wanted to chase it with my lips “Thinking and kind of aren’t the same thing as knowing.”
“No, it’s not, but it’s something.” It was more than anything. “Isn’t it?”
Shaking her head, she pulled away. “It’s not enough.”
I met her stare and sighed. Her stubbornness was something I loathed and was incredibly attracted to, which I guess made me sort of twisted. “You are going to make this hard.”
She didn’t say anything as she sidestepped me, and I let her get to the door this time.
“Kat?”
She faced me. “What?”
I smiled, and saw her gray eyes light up. “You do realize I love a challenge?”
Kat laughed softly and turned back to the door, giving me the middle finger. “So do I, Daemon. So do I.”
Watching her leave, I had to admit that she looked just as good walking toward me as she did walking away.
I did love a challenge. And I never lose.
Acknowledgments
When I was first approached about writing Oblivion, I thought it was a great opportunity to give the Lux fans a little bit more of Daemon. I didn’t plan on actually writing Obsidian, Onyx, and Opal (which is available in the digital version of Oblivion), but that was what happened. So you don’t get just a taste of what it’s like in Daemon’s head. You get a whole heaping of it.
It really does take a village to finish a book. A huge thank-you to the following people for making it possible—Kevan Lyon, Liz Pelletier, Meredith Johnson, Rebecca Mancini, Stacy Abrams, and the team at Entangled Publishing. Thank you to K.P. Simmon and my assistant/BFF, Stacey Morgan. A special thank-you to Vilma Gonzalez for helping me work through Oblivion.
None of this would be possible without you, the reader. Because of you, this book happened. There aren’t enough thank-yous in the world.
Bonus Content
Continue reading on for Onyx and Opal as told from Daemon’s point of view.
Onyx
Book 2 of the Lux series, as told from Daemon’s point of view.
Chapter 1
Kat was ignoring me.
No big surprise there. She had done the same thing during school. As if pretending Homecoming night hadn’t ended with her almost dying and me saving her. Like if she tried hard enough, she could pretend that everything was normal and it would make it all go away.
Make me go away.
That wasn’t going to happen anytime soon, and it had nothing to do with the fact that Kat was glowing like a Hummer-sized streetlamp. It had everything to do with the fact that I was so freaking done fighting what I wanted. Over the whole forbidden-fruit shit. Moving on from the mentality that I couldn’t go after what I wanted because of what I was—what Kat was. Damn, I knew what I wanted wasn’t going to be easy. Nothing in life ever was, but that didn’t change how I felt.
I wanted her.
And I knew that under all the frustration and all the fighting, Kat wanted me. I just had to prove it, but right now I wanted to throw her over my shoulder, carry her home, and lock her ass in a room.
Kat coasted her Camry into a parking spot outside the post office, and I pulled in next to her, facing the opposite direction. Rolling down my window, I pinned her with a glare. “What part of going straight to the house did you not understand? I feel like we’ve had this conversation before.”
Her lips pursed as she returned the glare. “There might be books in there waiting for me.”
I sighed. “There might be Arum hanging around ready to eat you.”