Page 176 of Red Ruin

“Really. Is that why?” Remy’s soft chuckle makes my stomach flip.

“Yes,” I answer through my teeth.

Ishouldbe worried about monsters and maybe meeting Kevan, if he decides to show.

Instead, my heart beats too fast for the shadows and hellfire rolling out a misty, pink carpet beneath my boots.

“Wife.” An arm sweeps behind my knees.

Vhex lifts me into his arms. My reflexive flail turns into a grab of his bare shoulders.

I know better than to look down. Vhex wears black combat pants, and the weapon holsters criss-crossing his torso make a leather picture frame to show off his eight-pack abs.

Vhex’s grin is even deadlier.

Melted candy.

“Ignore the lich.” His pink eyes bleed to red at their edges, and his soul burns as liquid hot as his voice. “Think about something better. Like me.”

“Stop trying to read what I’m thinking.” I pull my palms away from his heat. Tingles shoot from my fingertips to my elbows.

Our souls are almost united, but Vhex won’t stop trying to claim the last five percent that’s forever out of reach.

“I don’t have to try. I can feel you inside.” Vhex shifts my weight, easily balancing my ass on his arm.

My fingers freeze.

I’m not small, and I work hard for the muscles that keep me alive.

S-class Sentinels can deadlift train cars, so my weight is nothing, but I’ve never been carried until I met Vhex.

I always carried Sentinels.

Once, I carried Kevan through a bog after an ice-fang huldra pumped him full of cold poison and knocked him out. Instead of saying thank you, he flew into a rampage that wasalsomy job to fix. Weeks later, I was still digging peat out of my creases and ears.

Comparing makes me realize how fucking deluded I was.

No amount of effort was ever going to make him care about me.

I know what it looksandfeels like when a Sentinel only wants me for my power.

That’s the attitude Vhex and Remy fed me from minute one.

Last night was different.

So is right now. Vhex’s heat bakes the dew off my uniform. Remy’s shadows stroke my ankles while they clear the path ahead.

There’s no bite to their silks.

When they’re not in pain, Vhex and Remy don’t even have demands.

Their souls are all caresses.

If anything, their tendrils nudge because they’re beggingmeto usethem.

Yeah.

I can’t play this game right now.

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