Page 16 of Hate Me

Give me a break. “I was the one who helped you tame it last time and I’ve just helped you let it back in now.”

“When I came to you I was afraid of it, so I never showed you it. It was all about burying it as quickly as possible. And right now, we’re biding time. You haven’t seen it, Cal. Take me at my word—you don’t want to be its target.”

“And what about me?”

I jolted at the sound of Jonah’s voice, and Ash pulled away from me and looked out at Jonah striding into the room. He was wearing only a pair of boxers, sweat dripping down over all that mammoth powerhouse muscle, all that delicious ink covering pretty much every inch of him. He’d been working out again, trying to get out his frustrations with the state of Ash right now putting them at a distance.

Hell, I was right there with him there.

“I’ll hold back,” Ash told him.

“I don’t want that, Asher.”

“Too bad.”

Jonah got up in his space. “I want you raw.”

“Not like this.”

Jonah blew out a breath of obvious frustration. “I get that you’re shutdown now, but if that’s the way you can express something—sexually and hardcore—I’m here for it. I’ll take whatever you can give until you’re out of this mentality and back to yourself.” He stepped back. “Although, that being said, we’re gonna have to give it time first. You’re still injured and I also don’t think you’re ready yet to go to a sexual—”

“End of discussion,” Ash commanded, holding up his hand. “Our plan worked. Lance is bringing Aurora here.”

“What? Seriously?”

Ash gave a nod. “He just contacted me. She’ll be back with us in seventy-two hours and he also wants to work with us to end this shitshow.”

“Holy shit. Princess is coming. Fuck, yes.”

Good. This was very good. For Ash and the rest of them. She brought balance to them.

But the other part? Him working with her father, Revenant, after it had been discovered that he’d been responsible for pushing Ash into the clutches of the Infidels wherein he’d been brutally tortured… that didn’t bode well at all.

Neither did his apparent non-reaction to it.

It had me pushing to my feet and approaching them. “Work with Revenant? Are you going to be able to do that?”

“He’s an asset.”

“But after what he did to you, setting you up the way he did, isn’t that going to be a little hard to overlook?”

“A major fucking understatement there,” Jonah growled.

“The mission is what matters.”

Jonah and I exchanged a very concerned look.

“Asher—” Jonah started.

“I need to inform Killian and Aaron.”

With that, he just took off, pulling his phone out, leaving me and Jonah staring after him.

“Fuck, this isn’t good,” Jonah grunted.

“I don’t disagree.”

He glared for a moment, then focused on me, his eyes dipping to the noticeable hard-on through my sweatpants.

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