Girl, I Dream of You

“You’ll have to play by my rules if you want to stay in this house.”

“What do you want me to do?” she asked quietly, realizing that I was completely in control of the situation.

“Kiss me.”

“What—what?” the girl widened her eyes and recoiled from me, bumping her hip into the table.

I followed the kitten and trapped her, putting both hands on the buffet’s tabletop on either side of her.

“Kiss me,” I said. Are you deaf, red-haired?”

She stayed still. And I was already dying of anticipation—I wanted to feel the sweetness and softness of her lips, which no one had ever kissed.

I’ll be the first.

“Do you know how?”

“No…” she answered almost in a whisper, like a mouse cornered.

“Now you’ll learn.”

The first volume of the duology. The continuation—“You don’t know about the daughter.”