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)
“And what do those messages say?”
“The classics, really. ‘I miss you’, ‘I love you’, ‘We’re not over’, ‘You’re meant to be mine.’ That sort of thing.” It was beyond tiring.
“Jolene said he comes by your house.”
“At least once a week.” It pissed off her demon something fierce. “In the beginning, I would open the door and tell him to leave. Now I just ignore that he’s there.”
“He also sends you gifts, yes?”
She nodded. “Mostly flowers. Sometimes chocolates. The occasional plush bear. Clichéd stuff. He leaves them on my doorstep while I’m at work.”
Something dark moved behind Luka’s eyes. “How often?”
“Two or three times a month. In sum, he’s been a busy boy.”
“And this has been going on for three months now?” he double-checked.
“Yup.”
“And yet he hasn’t been beaten to a pulp by any of your relatives. Odd. Imps aren’t the type to overlook such things.”
No, they definitely weren’t. “I managed to convince them to stay out of this.”
“Really?” Luka asked, skepticism coloring his words.
“Okay, correction, I managed to talk them out of attacking him. But they’ve retaliated in other ways, as have I.” Messed with his finances, slashed his tires, had him declared dead in several states. “Nothing helped.”
Luka drummed his fingers on the table. “I wouldn’t have pegged him for someone who would be swept under by a siren song.”
“Me neither, or I wouldn’t have agreed to date him.” Sometimes people who came across as tough and confident were hiding a fragile ego—even from themselves. Not the demon in front of her, though. Luka Belinsky was not a guy who’d get caught up in a siren song. Too powerful. Too steady. Too much his own man.
“Look, I know it’s not his fault that he’s in the throes of a siren-induced obsession,” she continued. “But much as he can’t control how it’s messing with his mind, he can control how he reacts to that. An obsession doesn’t steal your will or dictate your actions. He could stop if he wanted. He just won’t.”
“Has he at any point threatened you?”
Naomi’s nape tingled at the overly casual question—a hint of danger was threaded through it. “No, but I can sense he’s becoming impatient with me. He truly feels that I’m being unreasonable. It only seems like a matter of time before this gets ugly.”
Luka’s eyelids lowered slightly. “You sound as though you have experience with things becoming ugly. Other men in your past were violent?”
Her skin pebbled at his dark tone. Her demon, on the other hand, wanted to roll around in all that menace. It had a weakness for danger and power. Oh, and diamonds. “There were threats. Only one guy followed through with it—he tried to scar my cheeks and forehead with a knife so that I’d forever be marked as his.”
Luka muttered a Russian curse. Asshole, she knew—one of her demonic abilities was to understand and speak every possible language. “What happened to him?” he asked.
“Many things,” she replied vaguely. “He did apologize after the obsession lost its hold on him. He was in fact deeply ashamed of his words and actions. Iain may feel equally ashamed when he’s back to his usual self. The sooner that happens, the better, because things can escalate to a point where someone gets hurt.” And that someone would never be her.
Right then, the door swung open and Jolene walked in with a tray balanced on her hand. “I caught Donna heading here, so I thought I’d bring our food myself.”
Probably a good thing, given how nervous Donna felt around Luka.
“I hope you two are done talking. I don’t want our pizza getting cold.”
“Naomi has brought me up to speed on everything,” Luka replied. “I will speak with Iain and ensure that he doesn’t bother her again.”
Jolene grinned, satisfied. “Just what I wanted to hear.”
“Thank you,” Naomi said to him as she stood, grateful for the excuse to escape being the focal point of his attention. “I’ll let the two of you enjoy your meal.” She walked out of the room and began making her way back to the hostess station.
As she reached it, Donna approached and asked, “Well, how’d it go?”
“Luka has agreed to step in,” Naomi told her.
Relief washed over the waitress’s elfin face. “Good. Maybe he’ll have better luck getting through to Iain.”
“Let’s hope so.”
The front door opened once more, and a cute couple entered. Focusing on them, Naomi gave them her warmest smile. Over the next hour, she greeted several patrons and showed them to tables or booths.
She was tidying the pile of menus when her skin prickled as the weight of someone’s attention settled over her. She instinctively looked over her shoulder, her stomach clenching as she saw Luka striding down the aisle with his guards in tow.
His gaze flitted over her face. “I’ll speak with Iain tomorrow morning. Be assured that he will stay away from you in future.”