Page 110 of The Demons We Hide

“Yes, does that satisfy you? Will you stay here now that you know we’re more than capable of taking care of this?”

I frown. “Are you going to kill them?”

He tilts his head and a strand of inky black hair falls over his forehead. For the first time, I don’t resist the urge to reach up and push it back. Lex goes still, eyes locked on me.

“Would it bother you if we did?” he asks.

It should.“I killed someone,” I remind him instead.

“In self defense,” he points out.

“So is this.”

He breathes out and I breathe in. I don’t know who is controlling our two movements, but it feels as if all the weeks, the months of fighting have led up to this point. The back and forth, the tension, the anger, the pain, the sex, the lies, the secrets. All of it was to hide the raw connection that ties the two of us together.

Lex bends his head, pressing his forehead to my temple as he whispers, “I would walk through fire for you, Juliet. Killing … is nothing. I’ve wanted to kill every man that’s ever touched you since the day I met you.”

“Why haven’t you?” The question comes before I realize that it’s in my head.

Lex continues to nuzzle against me. “Because I thought you wouldn’t like me if I went around killing people,” he answers. “Unless that’s changed… I can?—”

“I don’t want you to go around killing people.” Not that I’ll mind him killing my kidnappers, but random assholes who grab my arm or hit on me on the street? I’d rather not deal with those headaches, and I find that I don’t really enjoy the idea of Lex locked up somewhere behind bars. It makes me think of my dad and how he, too, has abandoned me—though maybe he didn’t mean to.

Lex’s breath is warm against the skin of my temple and then my ear, making me shiver. “I want you to be mine, Juliet,” he whispers. “I want to claim you, own you, let you own me too.”

My head spins with the revelation of his words. What he’s asking for—it’s a lot, and I’m not sure now is the right time for this discussion.

His lips brush my skin. “If you don’t want to watch, then I suggest you stay here and close your eyes and plug your ears, baby,” he says. “Because I promise you, before we leave this place tonight—I will kill every single man that tried to take you from me. None of them will survive me.”

My lashes flutter as his lips descend, brushing first one eyelid and then the other. Then he presses one to my cheek and breathes me in as if he wants to inhale the very essence of my soul.

None of that is disturbing. Not his words nor his actions have me wanting to run for the hills.

Instead, it’s the absence of fear that makes me want to bolt.

Isn’t this what most women want? A man who would kill for them? Burn the world for them? Set themselves on fire to keep you warm?

That’s what Lex is offering me. His last words as he shifts away from me seal themselves to the inside of my mind, branding themselves there.

None of them will survive me.

And I think … it's the first time that he’s been fully honest with me since I saw him standing behind Nolan outside of Silverwood Public all those months ago.

My kidnappers will not survive the man standing in front of me, and I don’t think I will either.

43

LEX

Juliet’s eyes are locked on mine. The blood on one of her hands is quickly drying, but I bring them up anyway, watching her oh so carefully. She doesn’t fight me, doesn’t resist as I press her palm to my cheek and turn my face into the evidence of her wound.

It’s still warm as it slides over my skin, her blood marking me almost like a warrior of old before he goes into battle. The tiniest of breaths shudders from her, but her fingers curl anyway, the tips grazing against my own skin as I slowly pull her away once more.

A small sound escapes her that I’m not even sure she’s aware of, but we’re almost out of time anyway. As much as I want to stay here with her, to give her another piece of my soul as if she doesn’t already have the entire fucking thing, I have my brothers to think about. Gio is off gathering the men who took her, leading them to one place, and Nolan is bound to be here any moment.

“Lex…”

I cup her cheek as she breathes my name like it’s more prayer than curse. “What I wouldn’t give to have you saying that while I’m balls deep in the best pussy I’ve ever fucking had,” I whisper.

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