Page 143 of Stone Temptation

No reaction in his expression. “I saved your life.”

“As you love to remind me.”

“Isn’t that good enough for you?” He tapped ash onto the floor. “Why are you so disappointing of late?”

Seriously? He wanted to go there? He wanted to use that word after hurting me, using me, bringing so much drama into my life to drag me off my one true path?

The bastard.

The absolute bastard.

I tried not to lose it. My pulse raced like a bullet train, the brakes failing.

Countdown from two-hundred. Don’t lose it.

“It’s so disappointing.”

Seth’s words unleashed a tirade of rage, a switch flipped in my brain. He’d betrayed me, messed with me, and broken our strange relationship beyond repair.

“Who do you think you are? Who the fuck do you think you are?” Deadly tremors rocked me. “Get away from me. Get away from me. Get away from me!” I screamed, throat on fire.

“Easy, Luke. Easy.”

I drew a deep breath in response to Asher, as tight as a coiled spring.

Seth stared at me.

Oh, God. My head pounded again, chest in agony from screaming my lungs out.

Asher stroked my spine. “Take your time.”

Seth couldn’t have my rage. He just couldn’t.

Countdown from?—

The sounds of water flowed through my mind. A stream at first, becoming more violent. An ocean of churning anger on the edges of my being, cracks spidering across my mind.

Walls to keep it out.

Walls to keep it weak.

“What the hell?” I muttered, rubbing at my temples.

“Come sit down,” Asher said softly.

But I struggled to move, the metaphysical water overpowering me. I progressed from anger to confusion, unsure of my next move.

“Luke?”

Waves slammed into the walls inside me, furious at the audacity of their existence.

How dare it be subdued, even if I didn’t know what it was?

“Luke?” Asher tried again. “Take a deep breath.”

But fury leaked out of me, directed at Seth. “You don’t do anything for me other than haunt my life. And I’m to blame. I come here for what? Out of loneliness? Seeking satisfaction? Because I’m a twisted bastard like you?”

He didn’t react. Carried on smoking and staring, which only infuriated me harder.

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