Page 100 of Soul Sucker

She deleted the message and turned to her silent guest. “I suppose I’ll have to go.”

“I’ll come with you, if you like.”

“To do what?”

He shrugged. “Support you?”

Unwanted emotions clawed at her gut. “I don’t need anyone to hold my hand, Morosov. I’m quite used to dealing with my mom.”

He stood his ground. “We’re not at work now.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You told me not to smother you at work, so I’m not doing that. But we are connected now, Ella, and if I want to support you with your family, why can’t you just accept it?”

“Because I don’tneedanyone.”

He glared at her. “You damn well do.”

Anger shoved aside her other more fragile emotions and she embraced it gladly. “I need you for sex, okay? That’s all. And as we’ve already done that tonight, you can sleep on the couch.”

She turned around and headed for the bathroom, suddenly eager to wash all traces of him from her body, to eradicate all the erotic images of him fucking her hard and fast against that tree… She slammed the door behind her and turned the shower on full blast. Would he allow his calm, human façade to slip and follow her into the bathroom, fuck her into ecstasy in the shower? Did she want him to?

She studied her face in the gradually steamed up mirror. Her cheeks were flushed, her pupils wide, her hair a straggly mess of half-undone braids and bits of greenery. She had no idea why Vadim would want her anyway, but maybe he had no choice. The mating bond was way more complicated than she had ever realized.

* * *

He staredat the closed bathroom door and snarled a curse in Fae. Ella Walsh had no idea of his abilities. If he wanted to, he could blow the door down, follow her into the shower and have her obeying his every command. She’d be on her knees, his cock in her mouth, his hands in her hair…she’d be begging him to fuck her forever, until she died from it.

Power roared out of him and the entire house shuddered. With a groan he sat on the couch and covered his face with his hands. What the hell was happening to him? He sounded like Alexei at his most arrogant. God, he hated that about the Fae, that they thought they could just take whatever they wanted, destroy a human’s soul purely for their pleasure. Wasn’t that why he’d left? Hadn’t he wanted to be better than that? This mating bond was affecting him far more seriously than he had anticipated and Ella certainly wasn’t making it any easier.

He slowly exhaled as he heard the shower come on. And why should she make it easy? She was not only dealing with the approach of a significant birthday, but with a serial killer who was targeting empaths and closing in on her. The last thing she needed was an overprotective male cluttering up her life. He had to try and remember that, like him, she was used to protecting herself, allowing nobody to get close to her because closeness meant pain.

He got up and went to the closet where the spare bedclothes were kept. She had towantto share stuff with him, not have him forcibly demand it. He wanted to laugh. In his relationships, he’d always been the one to withdraw, the one that had been too private, too self-contained, and too elusive.

He punched his pillow, then laid it on top of the neatly tucked sheet. Despite what both Ella and he wanted to believe, mating was obviously a lot more complicated than having sex and sharing a psychic burden. With his mixed heritage it was also potentially dangerous.

The door to the bathroom opened and Ella came out, a towel wrapped around her body and another around her hair. Vadim focused on spreading the light quilt over his makeshift bed.

“I’m going to bed.”

He didn’t look at her, just nodded and concentrated on the correct placement of the flowery quilt.

“Feel free to use the bathroom.”

“Thanks.” There, it was all neatly lined up now, just like his emotions, a nice, straight orderly arrangement—except he wanted to follow her into her bed and make love to her all night.

He willed her to leave, but she hovered at the end of the couch.

“It was nice of you to offer to come with me to see my mom,” Ella said. Vadim sat down and focused his gaze on her pink toenails. “The only person who ever understood about my family was Laney. I’m used to dealing with them by myself.”

He raised his head. “Are you apologizing to me?”

“I suppose I am. It’s not your fault that you got forced into this crazy Otherworld arranged mating, is it?” She swallowed hard. “I should be grateful to you for saving me from madness, not shrieking at you every chance I get.”

He couldn’t look away. Despite everything, there was a core of honesty and decency in Ella that made it hard for him to ignore her, especially when she was like this. The least he could do was try and be honest back—well, as honest as he could be.

“I’m struggling with this myself.”

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