Page 25 of Wicked Heirs

As I reached out to push her dress up and expose her panties for my viewing pleasure, a break in the strange spell happened.

I was able to summon at least a lick of sense for a few seconds.

Enough to stop me in my tracks.

Enough to remember that we hated each other.

That we were enemies.

That she needed to be punished.

That she was gonna face ruin at the hands ofObsidian.

I fought with everything I had to get a greater hold on myself.

I couldn’t do this.

I couldn’t give in to this disturbing turn of events.

Gritting my teeth, I pushed off her and bolted off the bed.

As she stared at me, disappointment and confusion warring, and she climbed back off the bed, I held up my hand, urging her to keep distance between us.

My usually highly impressive control was barely there, hanging by only a thread.

Thankfully, I got some help in that area as a flare of blue fire shot through the door, breaking through my ward, and nearly ripping the door off its hinges in the process.

In the very next split-second, Xavier strode on in.

To say he didn’t look happy didn’t begin to do it justice.

“You used me, Orpheus! You fucked with my bloodlust too! How could you do—” He scented the air and tracked from me to noticing Alena there standing beside my bed now. “What’s… a hate-fuck?” he asked, looking between us. Then he focused on me. “That’s not usually your thing.”

I held up my hand. “That’s not what happened. Almost, but it didn’t.” I screwed up my face at the thought now that his arrival had ripped right through whatever strange state Alena and I had been caught up in, and all that hatred rushed back in. “Fortunately.”

“Right back at you,” she bit at me. “I would’ve been absolutely disgusted with myself.”

“Oh, then get on your back again and I’ll see to it,” I retorted.

She sneered at me. “Go to hell.”

“Like I said, little angel, it’ll be you experiencing what it means to be in hell first.”

“And likeIsaid, you’ll regret it if you continue in this vein.”

When I went to give it right back to her, Xavier held up his hand to me.

Then he gestured far too nicely to Alena, “Go, beautiful. Get out of here.” He glared at me. “He won’t be following you, so don’t worry about that.”

She hesitated for a moment, clearly trying to get a read on him, confounded that he was actually giving her a way out.

And then she gave me a vicious look and rushed away.

“We weren’t done,” I muttered, intending to go after her.

But Xavier’s hand to my chest pulled me up short. “I want an explanation for what happened earlier.”

I considered fighting him on it and forcing my way through.

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