Page 65 of Their Demon

Her attention left me long enough to locate the vibrator before giving me a curious look as she huffed. “So you can get a free peep show?” Her head gestured down to her nakedness.

“Nothing I haven’t seen before, princess,” I threw back at her. “That’s fine, though… I’ll grab it.”

“No!” she shouted as she bent down to scoop up the toy, giving me the peep show she’d been hoping to avoid and turning it off before returning her hands to form makeshift clothes.

I grabbed a towel from the hook and handed it to her, which she grabbed with way too much force as she wrapped it around herself.

I rolled my eyes as she attempted to hide the little toy beneath her towel. “Again, nothing I haven’t seen before. Where did you even get that thing?”

“The twins got it for me in case you tried to cockblock again.” She sized me up.Me. “They clearly know you well.”

I put my hands on my chest and held an imaginary wound. “That’s the thanks I get for trying to help you?”

She narrowed her eyes. “I don’t remember asking for your help inthatdepartment.”

My lips curled up in a smirk. “Maybe that’s where you’ve gone wrong, princess. Perhaps you should ask me for help inthatdepartment.”

She blushed even harder, and I tried to reel the flirting in, needing to repair my quickly depleting self-control.

“I assure you, I really was just trying to help,” I pleaded my case, throwing my hands up in surrender to further prove my point.

“I can assure you, I need no help, especially from you.”

“You’re clearly frustrated.”

“I wonder why…”

She was so fucking snarky. She wouldn’t dare speak to me like that if she felt my hand across her ass, punishing her for her attitude.

“I’m sorry.” She gave me a sideways glance. “I mean—okay, I’m not actually sorry for the alleged ‘cockblocking’.” She rolled her eyes, another item on her list of offenses. “But I don’t want you to go to bed like this. We’ll never get the rest we need with you all wound up.”

“Then let me go back to the twi—”

“No,” I barked. “No,” I repeated, softer. “We are not getting them involved. The night will never end if I let you go to them.’

She put her hands on her hips, bringing the vibrator back into my line of sight. “Then what am I supposed to do, Keir?”

I gestured to the toy in her hand. “Isn’t that what that’s for?”

She huffed, as if I’d just said the most stupid thing ever. “Yes, but…”

“But what?” I prodded when she didn’t finish her sentence.

She cast her eyes down, shoulders slumped. “I can’t.”

“You can’t,” I parroted, starting to piece the puzzle together. “Hmmm… ‘I’m broken’,” I repeated to her.

“Fuck… I can’t have a private thought with you around,” she said with much less anger than I’d expected.

Part of me felt guilty, knowing she didn’t enjoy the way I was in her head all the time, but another part of me didn’t care, knowing it was the only special thing I had with her.

A beat of silence passed.

“You’re not broken.”

She stared back at me, her eyes welling with tears. “You have no fucking idea…”

I took a big step in her direction. “I haveeveryidea, Lillian. Every. Fucking. Idea. You are not broken. You are so fucking remarkable.” I licked my lips as hers parted, vulgar thoughts filling my head of what I’d do with them if I had the chance. “That’s why I spilled their blood for you. That’s why the men who hurt you are dead by my hand. That’s why they will never hurt you ever again.” I took another step, trapping her against the bathroom counter.