Page 13 of Their Demon

“You aren’t going to die,” Keir muttered.I won’t let that happen, he said in my head.

I looked at him.Oh? And here I thought you had too much on your plate to worry about some girl.

Keir’s jaw twitched.Watch it, princess. You’ll be training with me twice a day. Don’t make it harder on yourself.

I swallowed hard as he stared me down with so much intensity, I swore my chest was going to explode.

You’re not the only one who can make things difficult.

That so?

I pushed images of me on my knees, mouth open—practically begging for his cock—into his head.

Keir looked like a lion waiting for the cage to open so he could get a piece of his zookeeper. He was breathing deeply through his nose, fists clenched at his sides. I was winning this game, getting under his skin as easily as he got under mine.

Don’t test me, princess.

I swiped my tongue across my lips.Or what?

He just looked at me, a spine-tingling gleam in his eyes.

Or what?I repeated myself, wanting to know what was happening in his head.

He didn’t answer—just stared. It fucking pissed me off.

Keir let out a breathy snort and looked down at my plate. “Eat up. You need to be hitting the weights with Aiden before the end of the hour.”

And an hour later, I followed Aiden as he led me back to the gym. We went into one of the smaller rooms in the back corner. The walls were covered with mirrors, and the space was filled with all sorts of gym-looking equipment.

“Let’s get started,” he said, clapping and rubbing his hands together.

Aiden walked over to a weight rack and picked up two palm-sized weights. When he handed them to me, I saw they were five-pounds each. They were not as heavy as I anticipated, and I actually giggled a bit after lifting them a couple of times.

“These aren’t that heavy. I could handle more.”

He snickered back at me and grabbed weights that were several times the size of mine for himself. “Take it slow, little one. You’ve never lifted weights before. We don’t want you getting so sore you can’t do anything. You’ll be busy the next couple weeks, with no breaks, so we’ve got to take care of your body.”

I nodded, suddenly feeling like the weights were on my chest instead of in my hands.

“Hey,” Aiden’s deep, feathery voice distracted me from the heaviness that had set in. “Everything’s going to be fine. You are more than capable of taking this on andwinning, Lilly. I believe in you. We all do, and we will do everything we can to help you. We’ll be here through it all.”

“What if I can’t do it?” I asked, fear creeping in and squeezing my heart.

“We aren’t going to even think about that, because it’s not an option.” He gave me a stern look when I opened my mouth to respond. “Positive thoughts only.”

I smiled at my fiery prince, feeling the weight lift a little.

“Do what I do,” he instructed. “Lift them like this. We’ll do twenty reps to start.” He lifted his weight-filled hands, his arms bending at the elbow.

We did many different ‘reps’ in many different ways for what felt like forever, but when he took the weights from my numb, noodle arms, I looked at the clock to find it had only been forty-five minutes.

“My arms are going to fall off,” I grumbled, wiping the sweat from my forehead with my shirt.

“And you wanted heavier weights,” Aiden teased.

“Shut up.” I pushed against him with my hands as he passed me, heading toward the door. He turned to face me, his nose nearly brushing mine. He was so close, all I could smell was his musky, post-workout scent and his familiar smell of spices and leather.

“Be careful, little one. My brother wants you after this, and I’d hate to break our little toy. He’d be very upset with me.” His eyes brightened, and he seemed to start transforming, but we heard a throat clear and turned to see Keir casually leaning against the doorframe, as if he’d been there for a while.

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