Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 109033 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 363(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109033 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 363(@300wpm)
“No, I did stay away from her.”
“Temporarily. That wasn’t what I ordered you to do, was it? Was it?”
Iain squeezed his eyes shut. “No.”
“No. What did I instruct you to do?”
Exhaling a low sigh, he met Luka’s gaze. “Leave Naomi be.”
“Leave her be. Make no attempt to contact her. Stay out of her life.” Luka arched a brow. “Did you obey me?”
“No. But it’s not as if I hurt her.”
“So I should just overlook your behavior? I should excuse your actions?”
Iain mashed his lips together for a long moment. “You would understand if you’d ever felt for anyone what I feel for her,” he burst out.
“Maybe. But you would still be punished. Because you disregarded not only my orders but Naomi’s wishes.” Luka should have made it public that he and Naomi were involved. Announcing his private business wasn’t something he generally did. If he had, if his claim to her had been common knowledge, just maybe Iain would have done as ordered.
Or maybe it would have provoked the psi-demon to do exactly what he’d already done.
“I just want her to listen to me,” Iain claimed. “Nobody is listening.”
“It’s you who’s failing to hear people. I mentioned that already.” And Luka was fucking tired of repeating himself. “It’s going to take you a few days to recover both mentally and physically from what I’m about to do. I won’t be releasing you right away, though. I think it might be best to keep you here until Naomi’s song has worn off.”
Iain’s eyes went wide. “What? No.” He let go of the cell bars and backed up.
“If you don’t get better, the situation will escalate. You could harm her in your frustration at being unable to own her. I can’t have that. I won’t have that. Naomi’s mine.”
Iain’s head jerked back. “What do you mean, yours?”
“Exactly what I said.” It was time Luka made it clear. His entities were in firm agreement on that.
The psi-demon shook his head hard and fast in denial. “No. No, she’s not—”
“In my metaphorical bed? Oh, she is.”
Lines of jealousy creased Iain’s face.
“And I will never allow any harm to come to what’s mine,” Luka added. “You . . . you’re a threat to her.”
“I would never hurt her.”
“Says every stalker ever. That’s what you’ve become, Iain. Part of why you went to see her today is that you can’t cope with the idea that you might not be on her mind.”
“That’s not true.”
Deep inside Luka, Dagon hissed at the lie. “You want to be center-stage in her thoughts, just as she is in yours—consequences be damned,” accused Luka. “Well, those consequences are going to involve an agony that’s beyond your imagining.”
Belial grinned, eager to begin. It would relish the slap of a whip lashing skin, the crunches and cracks of bone, the whimpers and screams of fear and pain.
Neither Abraxas nor Dagon got any real kick out of such things, but it pleased them that this male would pay for refusing to leave Naomi alone.
Iain backed up even further, his breaths coming fast.
“There’s nowhere to go. Nowhere you can hide. No way for you to escape. And you have no one to blame for what’s coming but yourself.”
*
Seated at one of the pizzeria’s breakroom tables, Naomi narrowed her eyes on her anchor. “Stop it.”
Leaning against the wall looking deceptively casual, Tobe widened his eyes. Eyes that gleamed with hot anger. “What?” he asked, all innocence. “I’m not doing anything.”
“You’re planning to fuck with Iain in some way—likely by setting his house on fire.”
“It really is an effective way to get a message across,” Lachlan cut in, standing a few feet away with Alfie. “I can personally attest to that.”
Beside Naomi, her mother threw the imp a frustrated look. “Don’t encourage him.”
“I really don’t think he needs encouragement,” Lachlan told her. “His mind is all made up.”
Naomi gave her psi-mate a beseeching look. “Tobe, let’s not reward his behavior with attention; it does no good. And it’ll only give him another reason to contact me or mine.” That was what Iain would do, in his current frame of mind—use Tobe’s retaliation as an excuse to reach out to her. Not that the idiot appeared to need excuses, but it seemed better for Tobe not to interfere anyway. Especially since Luka would be mad at him for getting involved and causing whatever damage Tobe had in mind. That was the last thing she wanted.
Her inner demon didn’t care so much what “seemed better”. It wanted Iain to suffer, so it would be behind any plan that ensured that.
Tobe pushed away from the wall. “I agreed to handle this in non-violent ways, Nome, but none have worked. He ain’t listening. Someone needs to make him listen.”
“Luka will,” Tia interjected. “I have no doubt that Iain is going to be punished severely for ignoring his Prime’s directives.”