Page 112 of Stone Temptation

“I—”

He held up a finger. “Don’t speak. Don’t say another word. I understand you’re angry with me, but you have no right to be. You should be grateful I spared you a stay in prison, that I always keep you safe.” He took a step closer. “That I always make you feel so good.” He licked his lips.

The moisture left my mouth. “Seth, I?—”

“I told you not to speak, Luke. Why are you so disobedient? Because of that mark on your neck?” He put his hand on his chest, his index finger tapping his skin. “Do you want me to help alleviate some of the confusion? I know marks can muddy the brain.”

“No,” I answered, eyeing the door.

“My lips can fix any confusion, Luke. You know they can.”

“What’s happening?” Asher asked.

I didn’t answer, a magnet for anxiety.

Calm down. Count backward from fifty.

Fifty. Forty-nine. Forty-eight. Forty-seven.

Seth grinned, picking up on my unease. “Your fear gets me hard.” He stroked the rising bulge in his trousers.

Forty-one. Forty. Thirty-nine.

“How about a game of chess?”

Shameful twinges rocked my balls.

Thirty-three…

“Oh, Luke,” he purred. “Come and play some chess with me.”

Thirty-three…

Thirty-three…

Thirty-three…

My fear crushed my lungs, throwing me off my countdown. “I?—”

The gargoyle rushed me, backhanding me in the face so hard I spun through the air, hitting the floor on my side. The pain cut off a yelp, screaming through my entire right side.

My cheek throbbed, setting off a jackhammer in my skull.

First the tail, now this slap.

“You ungrateful cunt!” he barked, stomping over to me, his face twisted by hate. “After everything I’ve done for you, you act like I’m a monster? You favor that knight outside over me?”

The door crashed off its hinges. Asher charged Seth, grabbing him by the throat and lifting him into the air.

My breath caught in my own thickening throat as I sat up.

“Don’t you ever fucking touch him.” Asher’s eyes were blazing fires, his fury making the room quake.

Seth choked out a sound, kicking hard at my bodyguard. So weak, so reduced compared to the nuclear power of Asher.

Unbothered by the blows to his stomach, Asher tossed Seth into a wall. The impact cracked the gray stone, pieces breaking off to rain down on him when he hit the floor.

Asher growled, coming over to me. “You alright?” The switch from violence to sweetness shocked me, his soft touch startling after that.

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