Page 39 of Ink Deep Devotion

“How do I defend myself against someone who breaks into my room in the middle of the night?”How do I admit I don’t want his visits to stop?

Damian and Titan look at each other in shock.“He came to you last night?” Damian questions.

Ignoring him, I reply,“I don’t know why you’re here.” The weight of his hands on my shoulders is deafening. This isn’t an option. They will force me to comply and eventually talk to Dash again.“Dash utterly loathes me. He’s made that clear.”

Damian’s callus fingers land on my chin as he carefully tips my face up to his eyes. He hesitates and pleads in silence with me because a man like him can’t voice his weakness aloud.“Dash can’t separate hate and love, need from lust, toxicity from primal need. They are combined in his mind. It’s how we were raised.”His eyes glaze over before a mask slips over his emotions as he buries them.“We’re going to be here for you, Mila. We just needed you to know that. You’re going to be a part of our family one day.” His jaw sets in stone like a key clicking and locking me safely inside.

I get it. They are ensuring I don’t do anything stupid.

“You’re just another trap. You’re not friends. You’re a rope in the wind, waiting to wrap around me so you can trap me and then drag me back to him.”

“We’re—”

“What about what I want?”

Titan comes shoulder to shoulder with Damian,“What do you want?”

My chin dips, lips part,“I want…” I swallow.

“The truth,” Damian pushes.

I wanted to run. I still do.

I wanted Dash. I still do.

My desires are both a sickness and a healing ointment.

“I…I don’t know anymore,” I mutter in defeat.“I want to run so far away that no one can find me…except for Dash,” I whisper, meeting their intense stares through blurry eyes.“I want to reverse time and undo past decisions.” Tears burn my cheeks.“I want change, but at the same time, I want security.” I shrug my shoulders.“It’s madness.”

“That’s life,” Titan replies.

“We’ll help you, but we need you to help us. We need your presence to be a chisel that slowly chips away everything Dash has endured. He needs a purpose, something to leash him so hedoesn’t destroy himself in the process. He needs you to love him, Mila.” Damian confesses.

“Help us,” Titan states firmly.

“Wh...what if I say no?”

Titan levels me with a look so intense and lethal that it’s as if his blue eyes have become lightsabers, and I’m the Sith Lord he’s targeting to slice into tiny cubes. I roll back onto my heels, but he strikes.“You’re too smart to pull that card, Mila. The repercussions would be catastrophic.”

“For who?” I whisper.

“Everyone.”

Chapter 14

Mila

I feel like a bookmark trapped between pages, begging for a new chapter to be read. Titan and Damian walk with me carefully tucked in the middle of them as we cross the campus to my first class, which they insist on walking me to.

“He’s going to see,” I mutter, eyes scanning the campus for Dash.

“I know,” Titan smirks.

“What if he doesn’t forgive you?” Dash will be furious Titan and Damian are doing this.

“Dash is stuck with us just the same as he’s bound to you in that contract. He has to get over it and move on.”

Eyes turn, and men look in wonder and apprehension at the new Kings on campus. Women forget to control the muscles of their jaws. Most pant, tongues drool, and then they look at me with such vicious hatred that I don’t want to be associated with them. Men can be cruel, but women are ruthless.

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