Page 14 of Their Demon

“It’s a good thing I came to check on you two,” he said, his eyes darkening as they met mine. They drifted from my face to my neck, and his jaw twitched. I knew exactly what he was looking at: the mark Nicholas had left on me yesterday, though it had already faded quite a bit. “Let’s go, Lillian. My turn with you.”

His words burned in my lower stomach, and I had to remind myself he meant training.

I nodded, following him out into the larger room, marching over to the black mats that were still set up.

“Scream if he tries anything funny,” Aiden remarked as he walked out.

Chapter 6

Keir

Once Aiden left, I instructed Lillian to take the stance I’d shown her the day before. She was a little off on her footing, and her arms were not high enough.

Instead of getting behind her and positioning her myself as I had before, knowing that was part of my mistake yesterday, I stood next to her and mimicked how I wanted her to stand. I talked her through it until her stance was what I was looking for.

Withouttouching her.

“Good,” I praised her as I moved to stand in front of her. “Now, punch me.”

She smirked, and I knew she wouldn’t question me this time.

Her punch landed square in the middle of my left pec. I nearly grunted at the impact, her hit surprisingly harder than yesterday—even though she’d just spent almost an hour lifting weights.

“How was that?” she asked me, pride filling her smile.

“It was alright, better than yesterday. I’m impressed,” I admitted honestly.

Her shoulders rose a little at my compliment.

“Stay here.” I walked over to the cabinet in the corner of the room and grabbed what I needed.

“What’re those for?” Lillian asked me as I put the glove pads on my hands.

“For punching.”

“You can’t handle my punches now? Told you I’d hurt you,” she teased.

“Uh-huh, sure.” A chuckle shook my chest as I held my hands up, the pads resting on my palms now facing her. “Alternate your hands and punch the pads.”

She practiced her punches for a while, and thankfully, no conversations occurred—verbally or otherwise.

“Alright, let’s move on.” I removed the pads from my hands and tossed them to the side. “You won’t be the only one throwing punches.”

“You’re going to punch me?” Her voice squeaked with shock, a disturbed look on her face.

I fought to keep my jaw from dropping, honestly stunned that she would thinkIwould hit her. Was she serious? Had I been so cruel to her that she would jump to the conclusion I’d actually harm her physically?

I mean, I wanted to hurt her. Hail Satan, I wanted to make her scream, but not like that. I wanted to bring her the pain she’d come to crave from me alongside her pleasure. I wanted to spank her ass until it bled for me. I wanted to, but I couldn’t.

“I’m not going to hit you,” I said, my face twisting to show I’d taken offense to her question.

“Oh,” she said quietly, rubbing her arm with her opposite hand.

“I don’t want you to get punched by anyone, princess.”

I wanted her to be able to protectanddefend herself. I fought a cringe as I thought of her smooth, flawless face being bruised by someone’s hand. The idea made my fists clenchuncontrollably at my sides. I was angry, and the event hadn’t even happened, though I knew her getting hurt was inevitable, given my father’s distaste for her.

My father had intentionally made sure my mother’s trials were easy for her to complete, even if it meant cheating. She had to walk through the Lake of Fire, but his essence protected her. She had to tame a wild Hell Dragon, but he gave her special brewed treats that basically rendered the dragon drunk. She also had to defend herself against a member of the king’s council, but he'd been beaten half to death by someone the day before.

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