Page 45 of The Devil's Embrace

“You were so hot that night,” he found himself admitting. “Taking control of the situation. Helping me get away.”

“You like persons of authority,” Aodhan replied, and Cal was too far gone to note it wasn’t a question but an observation. He captured his chin and forced his head up, grinning when that made Calix whine. “You’ll be the perfect little sub for me, won’t you, baby? Let me beat that ass raw?”

Was this the game? They’d agreed to role play, to feeling it out, but…

“Don’t worry,” the doctor seemed to sense his hesitation, “there’s no wrong or right thing here, Detective. Just go by instinct. I’ll follow your lead.”

He licked his lips, thighs widening slightly to accommodate Aodhan better when the doctor’s eyes immediately followed the swipe of his tongue. His dick wasstraining toward the other man, leaking despite the fact all they’d done so far was kiss and talk about the party.

“You like it rough,” Aodhan said, voice turning seductive as he settled in closer, the hand on Calix’s chin slipping down to wrap lightly around his throat. “I can see all your scars right now.”

“They’re from work,” he rushed to excuse, but Aodhan tutted at him.

“Not all of them.” His eyes landed on the marks notched into Cal’s inner thighs. “You remember my profession, don’t you? I can recognize self-inflicted injuries when I see them.”

Calix shoved Aodhan away, scrambling to his feet. He turned just as the doctor settled onto the couch, eyeing him warily when he didn’t seem to be nearly as affected by that as Cal was. “You don’t care?”

Aodhan tipped his head and spread his arms out over the back of the sofa. “Should I?”

“Most people would, yeah.”

“In what way?”

“They’d call me disgusting or broken,” Calix suggested, frowning. “Freak…I don’t know. They’d at least ask why I did it, if I still do, and tell me to stop.”

“I know why you did it,” Aodhan said, ignoring when Cal sucked in a sharp breath. “You were trying to get something out of yourself. Trying to chase something away and using pain to do it.”

“I…” Calix blinked. “How do you know that?”

“Bruce talks about you,” he shrugged like it was no big deal. Like him sitting there casually picking Cal apart down to a cellular level wasn’t a big deal. “Do you still do it?” He snorted. “I don’t have to ask that either. Those wounds are old, but that doesn’t mean you’ve stopped hurting yourself. Your reputation precedes you, Detective. You’re the first to run headfirst intodanger and the last to return home from a fight. You still crave release, it’s just the method in which you achieve it has changed.”

“That’s enough.” Calix’s dick was still heavy at the apex of his thighs, but some of the arousal had dissipated, replaced by a sick feeling of self-loathing.

“Why? I’m only telling you the truth.”

“Normal people aren’t into things like pain.”

“I guess that depends on who you ask and what you deem normal. The universe is vast, Cal. Plenty of people are into blood play. Hate to break it to you, but you aren’t the only masochist in existence.”

“I’m not…” Maybe he was.

Was he?

He’d never allowed himself to think that far, had been doing all of this with the sole purpose ofstoppinghimself from being able to think.

“Can I tell you a secret?” Aodhan asked. “One that may or may not lead to you trying to kick me out of here?”

He should say no. Hell, he should put a stop to all of this and kick the guy out anyway. This was too close to home for him. He’d never shared any of this with another person before, had never dared to dream to, and yet Aodhan had stripped him bare—both literally and figuratively—and all without batting an eyelash.

Like he really believed what he said, and all of this could be considered normal.

“Okay.”

“I’ve liked you since that first night,” Aodhan didn’t hesitate to confess as soon as Calix gave the go-ahead, a light flickering in his pink eyes.

“The first…” His chest tightened. “The night I was rapped?”

“It wasn’t the fact you’d been harmed that did it for me,” he said. “It was the way you clung to me when I held you. The way you looked with tears decorating your cheeks.”

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