Page 102 of Conflicted

“But why not? You could’ve beenhappy, Micah. Now you’re just doomed.”

He flipped us again, our hard cocks grinding together as he pinned me once more.

“Okay, you need to get this whole idea of me being happy without you out of your head right fucking now.” His eyes were blazing as he glared down at me. Was it bad that an angry Micah was a turn-on? Because my dick certainly thought so. “There’s no version of my future that includes my happiness that doesn’t also include you.”

“But —”

He covered my mouth. “No buts. I love you, Nox. If I can’t have you, then there’s no point in my continued existence.”

The second he lifted his hand, I spoke. “You can’t mean that, Micah. I’m nothing special.”

“You’re everything special to me. I’ve lived through enough centuries to know what’s important to me, Nox, and you know what? The thing that’s most important is you. Not because fate said so, but because of who you are.”

Like he could sense I was going to argue again, hecovered my mouth before continuing. “With you, I can just be myself. You don’t expect anything of me. You don’t need me to take charge or be thinking about everyone else all the time. With you, I can escape. I can behappy. No one and nothing else has ever given me that before. Not even Dimitri. You’re the only one who’s just wanted me for…well, me.”

The look of wonder in his eyes was one I was certain I didn’t deserve, but I was prepared to do whatever it took to keep it there.

“I love you, Nox,” he said softly. “Even when you’re a fucking idiot who expects me to execute you before merrily carrying on with my life.”

He removed his hand so I could speak. “I didn’t think it wasthatbad of an idea.”

“It was terrible.”

Something was niggling at the back of my mind. “Hang on, why did you kill me at all?”

“It’s not like you were going to go with me willingly. It was easier to have you unconscious while I spirited you away.”

My eyes narrowed. Micah was a terrible liar. Or at least he was terrible at lying to me. “What really happened, little angel?”

“I don’t want to tell you. You’ll just overreact and get upset.”

Oh, this was bad. Heat rose in me as my demon started to surface. I fought to keep him under control, not wanting to prove Micah right before he’d even confessed the true story. “Okay, now you’ve got to tell me.”

“Fine,” he muttered. “We had a few…visitors on the beach. Either you didn’t hear them approaching or you were too distracted to notice.”

Yeah, I hadn’t realised anyone had been nearby. Micah must’ve killed me before they’d crossed my wards. “I guess my mind was on other things.”

“I imagine contemplating your eternal death would do that to you.”

“Hopefully you won’t find out when they track us down,” I said darkly, folding my arms over my chest. “Which, from what you’ve said, they’ve already done once.”

Micah sighed and filled me in on what had happened on the beach. I didn’t like the sound of the angels from Juniper being sent to check up on him. It suggested we were right to be worried—Heaven suspected his loyalty no longer lay with them.

It put him in as much danger as me, if not more.

When he’d finished speaking, I asked about Noah. “Do you think he knows about us?”

“I’m honestly not sure. I got the impression that the whole scene on the beach was more about him and Lyle than it was about us.”

“It doesn’t matter anyway, I guess.” I sighed. “Everyone will know soon. Heaven no doubt has a bounty on both our heads already. Do you think the Seraphim will fight for us?”

“No.” Micah shook his head sharply. “And I wouldn’t want them to. This is my mess to clean up.”

“It’smymess,” I said. “If you’d have done as I asked, we wouldn’t be in this position.”

“No, you’d be dead and I’d be heartbroken.” He glared at me. “I know whichmessI’d rather be dealing with.”

“I still think you should’ve just executed me.”

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