Page 118 of Guarded
“It’s okay. I understand why you did, and I don’t judge you for it.”
“Perhaps you should. I judge me for it, especially now I know more about your past.”
“You didn’t know about it then,” I said. “But I get it, Jem. I understand where you’re coming from. I know you’re not going to be travelling as much now, but you don’t haveto spend all your time with me. I want you to have the freedom you spent so long yearning for.”
Jeremiah finished with my hair and put the brush down on my dressing table. He stared at me in the reflection as he slowly gathered the length of my hair around his fist. A shiver went through me. Fuck, he knew what this did to me.
Sex wasn’t his goal right now though. Instead, he wound my hair around until his fingers brushed against the back of my neck. Using his hold, he pulled me back against him. I startled at the heat that met me. Jem’s demon hadn’t been this close to the surface for a while now.
“Now listen to me, Noah”—His eyes burned like the river Styx, but I wasn’t afraid. His demon might come out to play, but it would never hurt me—“I want to spend all my time with you. Do you want to know why?”
I tried to nod, but his hold on my hair was too tight. Fuck, how I loved that. My cock was throbbing in my trousers, begging for some relief. “Why?”
“Becauseyouare my freedom. I don’t need or want anything else, so long as I have you.”
Oh, my heart. Was it normal for my chest to feel this…full?
“So, unless you want some space,” Jem continued, “right at your side is where I’m going to be. You got that?”
When was I going to stop being surprised by how much he cared for me? Part of me never wanted that to happen, while the rest was excited for that day. I’d never take his care and consideration for granted, but I hoped I’d grow to trust it. To know he’d never waver or change.
“Yes,” I whispered, so fucking grateful we’d found each other. He released my hair, and I immediately spun in hisarms to kiss him. I tried to pour the gratitude I felt into it. The security.
The love.
We hadn’t said the words yet, but I knew we were both falling fast and hard.
And I couldn’t have asked for a better being to be on this journey with.
Chapter 30
Jeremiah
Iwas on cloud nine after leaving the Seraphim compound with Nox, but entering the house I shared with the others had me crashing back to earth.
It was eerily quiet. Not just an absence of talking, but all noise. No one was shuffling around. No one was moving at all.
Nox and I exchanged a confused look.
“Hello?” I called out, releasing some of my power at the same time. It bounced back, telling me that Darius, Dahlia, and Quill were all upstairs.
“Up here,” Dahlia called.
When Nox and I entered Quill’s bedroom, it became apparent why it was so silent. Quill was unconscious on the bed. Dahlia was sat on his desk and Darius was leaning against the wall. They were staring intently at Quill’s unmoving form.
“Oh Satan.” Nox froze in the doorway. “Not again.”
I bit back my groan.Fuck.This had happened a while back too, and we’d all thought Quill had been getting better. Not well, but better.
Evidently, we were wrong.
“I got home last night and realised Quill was refusing to leave his room,” Darius said. “This morning, after I reached out to you all and said we needed to do an intervention, I came in to find him like this.”
“It didn’t last this long before,” Dahlia added, worry shining in her blue eyes. “He should’ve woken up already.”
I asked the question we were all thinking. “When was the last time he was around sin?”
There was a long silence while everyone tried to figure out the answer, myself included. Like all higher demons, we needed steady access to sin to keep our powers and strength running at full capacity. Unlike more powerful demons, such as the sons of Lucifer or the Grim Reaper, we needed alotof sin.
