Page 150 of Bonds of Hercules
“I’ll sleep in the bathtub,” I repeated with conviction.
“No,” Kharon said. “You won’t.”
27
SEXUAL TENSION & OTHER DRUGS
ALEXIS
“Say that again.” Kharon’s voice cracked through the room. In the torchlight, he looked satanic.
Actually on second thought, maybe I should have gone with my mentors?
“I’m going to sleep in the bathtub,” I said calmly. “I won’t sleep in the bed with—”
“Shut up.” Kharon slashed his tattooed hand through the air.
The Machiavellian dictator was back.
“Youshut up,” I said. “I make my own decisions.”
Kharon smiled cruelly. “Carissima—” His blue eyes reflected the light strangely. “Our wife will sleep in the bed, not in the tub like a fucking animal …Endof discussion.”
Augustus stood unnaturally still behind him, and there was something off about the way he was watching me.
His headache was gone.
Something has changed.
“Alexis.” Augustus said my name quietly, his voice velvety smooth.
He raked his eyes over me, from head to toe.
I like to praise. One could say he’s … cruel.Augustus’s description of their sexual proclivities haunted me.
Be strong.
I was done running from men who should be afraid of me.
Tipping my chin up, I met Kharon’s gaze. “What if I refuse? Are you going tohurtme? Break me? Trap me? Crawl across the floor while you—”
“SHUT UP!” Kharon tipped his head to the side, neck straining with pale tendons, a network of blue veins visible across his throat and jaw as he struggled for control.
“No.”
Kharon surged forward, crowding me until my back bumped into the unyielding wall—he pressed his elbows against the stone on either side of my face.
I was pinned.
Augustus adjusted himself as he watched us with hooded eyes.
“Fuck off, Karen,” I whispered, feeling faint.
Kharon leaned in, the scent of a rainstorm wafting off him. “No—I’llfuck you, Alexis,” he purred.
I turned my face, so his lips were a hair’s width away. “Aren’t you supposed to be groveling formyforgiveness?”
He pressed his forehead against mine. “Oh, darling … are you asking me to crawl, again? We both know I’m very comfortable on my knees.”
