Page 143 of Married to the Devil

“That’s impossible,” I say. Because it is. One way or another, I’ll get him back. Stella thinks she’s made peace with his absence, but I see the flashes of pain when her thoughts wander.

I experience my own loss, but it’s buffered by my confidence.

I know he wants to come back, so it’s just a matter of strategy.

He sighs. “Just because you decree something doesn’t make it so.”

“Would it make you feel better if I detailed all the possibilities of how I was going to entrap you?” I lean back, wishing he was here so I could entrance him with more than my words.

“Why would that make me feel better?” he asks, caught off guard.

“I wonder if you’re so upset because you didn’t see the strategy coming. I want you to know how far I was willing to go.” Still willing to go.

“You’re deranged,” he says.

That isn’t a no.

“The simplest would be to chain you to our bed. It would have caused problems with Kalos and threatened a war, but I find that’s not so terrible of an idea now…” I trail off, smiling when he clears his throat.

“Stella saved you from the easiest one. The pressure of everyone knowing who you’re fucking by scent alone. I planned to slather you in it. The rumors would have started small until they reached a fever pitch, and I’d convince you to allow me to claim you.”

“Stoneheart,” he says, trying to sound stern, but he still doesn’t get it.

“I considered making political moves that would have put you in a bad position with Kalos and have him question your loyalty. He’d have no choice but to release you from your position. That was a spotty plan because it’s hard to make that dragon do anything he doesn’t want to do.”

Ben makes a frustrated noise. “You would have threatened your alliance?”

“I’d threaten everything but the people I love and the baby who is on the way, if it meant having you back,” I confess. Such is the deviance of love. I recognize that I’m not my father. I wouldn’t choose a permanent sleep, but I’d burn down plenty to have my family healthy and whole.

I think I’ve stunned him.

“I’m upset,” he starts. “Because I bonded with the two of you by accident.”

I blink, but the surprise only lasts a moment. Of course he’s bonded to me as well as to her. That’s logical.

“You haven’t broken the bonds?” I guess. I’m rather an insensitive creature when it comes to magic.

Silence.

Victory. He doubts enough that I’m going to sneak into his heart whether he means me to or not.

“Do you think we’d reject these bonds if given the choice? Because if you asked, I’d tell you what I want,” I say.

“Neither of you need me.” He sounds plaintive now.

I don’t promise that we need him because he’s told himself this lie for so long that he won’t believe it just because I reject it.

My next words are harsh, they’re meant to be. “Whatever drivel stalks your mind, your time is running out. Come back to us.”

“I can’t.”

“Do not make me hunt you down,” I warn and his breath stutters on the other side of the line. “You’ll only make it worse for yourself when I catch up to you.” I let my words hang in the air before adding, “If not for my sake, for Stella’s.”

I end the call on his pained indrawn breath. The board is set.

So fucking stubborn, not that I’d want him to be any less. It makes sense why we are so compatible.

Silas gives an aggravated sigh, having caught the tail end of the conversation. “If you want to dirty talk your lovers, can you please give me enough warning to leave?”

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