Page 126 of Tortured Soul
“Anyway. So, living with your mates now, huh?” He chuckled, taking the stone to stash it away, disgust on his face. I guess that even though I’d washed it a couple of times, it was still acting like a repellent. I hoped it wouldn’t keep him away from his own office. Maybe I should have waited a couple more days before returning it. “Must be…fun?”
“Itisn't.”
“Carter’s still acting like a giant ass?”
That was an understatement, but also something I had no idea how to answer.
“Not sure how to describe his attitude these last two days. He’s been strangely calm most of the time, and almost pleasant, only to go back to sneering and avoiding me when I get back in the evenings.”
He frowned, seemingly lost in thoughts. I’d spent my last two dinners with Marcus, enjoying pizza and a lighter atmosphere.
Which made Arc obviously upset.
Everytime I came back at night, I found both Arc and Carter waiting in the living room with angry scowls, only for Arc to grab my hand and lead me to his room in silence while the Divine jerk muttered insults and sneered. When I left the bathroom, Arc was lying in bed shirtless, all the lights turned off. The only sign he wasn’t actually sleeping was the fact that the second I joined him, he pulled me against his side.
When I woke up in the morning,hewas in the shower and I escaped again, always walking into Carter who suddenly turned kinda nice.
I wasn’t sure whytheywere mad at me. They’ve been the one playing around with my confusing feelings, lying their asses off, and, at least for Arc, manipulating the binding promise.
“It’s been challenging,” I added, forgoing any details. “I’m not sure it will ever work out.”
This time, the smile that pulled at his lips was sincere. He chuckled. “Oh, you’ll get there. Once you guys finally stop fighting it and get all that pent-up sexual tension out, it’ll click in your brains. All these bad feelings will feel like they were never here.”
My scoff was dry. “I thought we agreed that you asking me to fuck your friends was inappropriate?”
He leaned forward to grab my hand in his again, laughing out loud.
“I’m not saying you should fuckmy friends, I’m saying you should fuck—”
“Am I interrupting something?” Arc’s cold voice sounded behind me and Kai’s eyes widened.
He gulped. “—your mates,” he continued.
I turned around slowly, only to find one of said mates at the door, hand clasping the handle tightly, the other one turned into a fist at his side.
His mismatched gaze was locked on Kai’s hand covering mine, and the Archdemon pulled it back slowly.
“Arc. We were just talking about you.”
“Were you?”
My throat bobbed, my heart missed a few beats, and my palms turned clammy.
“Arc, it’s not—” Kai started.
“Lola, you’re not missing dinner tonight. You had enough time to cool down, and I’m done walking on eggshells. Let’s go.”
Ishouldhave told him to fuck off.
After all, he had no idea what I was mad about, so how dare he say that two days was enough time? I definitely could be mad at him for decades, I had experience with that.
But the look on Arc’s face and Kai’s obvious unease scared me a little. Not for me, since I was pretty sure mates couldn’t really hurt each other—which Carter had confirmed by saying that beating me on that first day had caused a deep ache he couldn’t shake. No, I was kind of scared for Kai, as Arc’s murderous gaze was so dark he was probably a few seconds away from bursting him out of existence.
Chapter 36
Lola
“Look Arc, I’m not sure what you think was happening in there, but—”
