Page 119 of Filthy Royal

His fury returned a hundredfold.

Fuck that.

Scarlett widened her stance. “You’ve seen what I can do.” She gestured toward the debris from the section of collapsed ceiling. “It’s too dangerous for me to be near you or your brother. I amnotcoming with you.”

Maddox’s gaze bounced back and forth between them, his eyes growing rounder.

Nostrils flaring, Damien drew the cuffs that connected to the taming chain from his belt. “Maddox, turn and watch the door.”

The kid turned.

Scarlett tried to run.

Less than thirty heartbeats later, he had her restrained, her wrists locked to the throat chain. He tossed her over his shoulder, the taming chain slapping against his skin as it rode up on her ribs.

Fuck him. After tasting her, he wanted to rut her more than ever.

“Put me down.” She kicked against his hold.

“No.” He barely felt it. She really was a tiny thing. But she had so much spirit—and power—coursing through her that he sometimes forgot.

Interestingly, though, he didn’t feel the surge of her gift as he usually did.

He’d seen the faint colors splash across the wall when she came on his tongue, but no shadows. Plus, despite his rough handling now, there wasn’t even a tremor of the walls or a plink of a pebble. As if the force of her earlier outburst had sapped her energy and made her ability go dormant.

That this could happen with her gift was useful to know.

He had no doubt her ability would eventually return. If he knew one thing about Scarlett, it was that she’d not stay down for long.

As if to prove his point, she squirmed against him, fighting to roll off his shoulder.

“Quit it before you hurt yourself.” He gave his prisoner’s pert ass the spank he’d been promising, smug satisfaction coursing through him.

Until she bucked, and her thigh slapped his cheek, reminding him of the sweet, juicy pussy he’d tasted, his cock about ready to burst from the perfection of that memory alone.

Pull it together, idiot. She dumped your ass.

“Settle.” He kept his voice low as he communicated his message just to her. “Or I’ll turn on the taming chain and leave it humming until you’re squirming against my shoulder and begging me to let you rub against my thigh to get even the slightest relief. Then I’ll toss you to the dirt, spread those legs wide, and tongue-fuck you over and over.”

He chose this threat because, unlike him, he suspected she had no interest in a repeat.

As predicted, she stopped fidgeting.

Good. This was not the time for complicated. He needed to keep things simple and focus on the mission. “Maddox, tell Anya to stay put and keep monitoring.”

“She hears you and is on it.” Back still turned to him and taser leveled at the door, the kid nodded. “In the meantime, we’ll kick some overgrown Consortium ass.”

“Wrong.”

“What?” Maddox spun to face him with a scowl.

“I’ve got another plan in mind.” Despite admiring his younger brother’s can-do attitude, for once, Damien knew a brawl wasn’t the solution, satisfying as it might be.

Also, his sister’s cooperation had come a little too easily, but that was a worry for another moment.

First things first, salvage the situation.

And Scarlett was right: Damien didn’t want her around the kid too much until he understood her new gift better.

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