Page 69

“I stopped pretending hours ago.”

“You may not like what you see.”

“This isn’t Beauty and the fucking Beast, Callum.”

Dante snorts. Callum ignores him.

“You don’t know me.”

“You know where I live. What I want in bed. What scares me. What I need afterward. You know more about me than men I dated for years.”

“That doesn’t mean you know what I am.”

“No.” I place his hand over my pulse. “So show me.”

He stares at me. Then Callum kneels. The gesture steals my breath. The Scarecrow lowers himself before the woman he hunted. His knees meet the stone. His head bows. He gives me control over the one thing he kept hidden. I place both hands against the burlap.

“May I?”

“Yes.”

I remove the Scarecrow’s face. Callum keeps his eyes lowered. Dark hair falls over his forehead. Stubble shadows his jaw. A small scar rests near the corner of his mouth, interrupting the hard lines of a face built for silence. Without the mask, I see everything. Possession.

Fear. A year of waiting. The dangerous hope that I might want the man as much as I wanted the monster. I touch the scar beside his mouth. Callum closes his eyes. I lift his chin.

“Look at me.”

His eyes open. They are the same eyes that watched me through the corn last Halloween. I recognize them now. Not physically. Somewhere deeper.

“You,” I whisper.

His brow tightens.

“What?”

“I felt you watching me that night.”

His hands curl against his thighs.

“You couldn’t see me.”

“No.” I trace his mouth. “But I knew something was there.”

“Were you afraid?”

“I was disappointed when it didn’t follow me home.”

The confession changes him. Callum’s restraint doesn’t merely break. It vanishes. His arms close around my waist and pull me against him. The blanket slips as he buries his face against my stomach. Not kissing. Holding. As if he survived something simply because I removed his mask and remained. I run my fingers through his hair. Behind us, Dante clears his throat.

“I’m having an emotion. Someone insult me.”

Rhys says, “Your face is disappointing.”

“Thank you.”

I smile down at Callum.

“Stand up.”