Page 6 of The Demons We Hide

“I won’t hurt you,” I promise her. “Not in any way you won’t like.”

She doesn’t reply, so I make quick work of her shirt, slicing it off her and tossing the remains to the side. Slowly, I scrape the edge of the knife down her side. Goosebumps follow in its wake. When I slide the sharp edge beneath one side of her thong, Juliet releases a sound. The gauzy fabric pulls tight and then loosens as I cut that away too, leaving her bare and naked beneath my much larger body.

Hunger the likes of which I’ve never known spills into my veins. I snap the pocket knife closed and slap it on the mattress as I bend down and press a kiss above her ass.

“Lex…”

Gripping her hips, I lift Juliet up until she’s on her knees. I wedge myself between her thighs, pushing both of her legs out until mine keep them apart. Then, I let my fingers trail down further, parting her cheeks. She tenses when I pause over her asshole. If my dreams really are going to come true—if I’ll get to keep her and my brothers then, eventually, I’ll get to take her here.

The fantasy is visceral in my mind even as the reality is before me. I press my finger to her hole, not quite entering her as I rub in slow circles. The muscles of her back bunch and contract, but she doesn’t stop me.

“You came here angry tonight,” I murmur thoughtfully as I finally take my finger away and move down some more to the wet center of her cunt. “You came here to deliver a message.”

“I came to make you choose,” she hisses when I shove two fingers unceremoniously into her soaking pussy. Liquid inner muscles clamp down on me.

“No,” I say. “You came to try and drive a wedge between me and my brothers.” As if to show her that I’m not angry about it, I bend and press an open-mouthed kiss to her shoulder blade as I fuck my fingers in and out of her.

Her hips rotate and roll, following my hand when I drag them out and thrust them back in. “Did you think I was the weakest link?” I ask, only half curious. “Of the three of us, Gio’s the sex fanatic, but you didn’t go to him, did you? You came to me.”

Gio. Lying in that hospital bed, unconscious, brain swelling.

Gio. Bloodied, battered, bruised, and completely unaware of his own injury.

“Ugh.” Juliet arches against me, her wrists twisting in the restraints as she tries to use them to drag herself upward.

With one hand flat against her spine, I press her down until her arms and ass are pushed upward. Only then do I withdraw my hand from her cunt and slap the rounded cheek of one side of her ass. She screams—a sound of pure shock because I damn well know it hadn’t actually hurt. Unable to help myself, I smack her again, enjoying the flush of pink that stains her skin.

“If you slap my ass one more time, I’m going to kick you in the dick,” Juliet swears, her knees restless against the black satin sheets, and her head coming up as she turns to look over her shoulder.

The blue strands of her hair flutter down her back, a direct contrast with the cream of her skin. “Why did you come to me and not one of the others?” I ask her again.

She bites down on her lower lip, eyes turning away from me again, but I can’t allow that. I jerk forward and grip her chin, forcing her gaze back to mine. “Answer me.”

“I don’t know,” she snaps.

“Lie.”

With one hand still holding her in place, I reach down and let the flat of my palm move over the place where I’d struck her. “I’m not lying,” she says quickly. “I don’t—” She grits her teeth, closing her eyes for a moment before reopening and settling them on my face. “I needed to go somewhere and I was too pissed at Gio for forgetting and pissed at Nolan for being an asshole. You were the only one I wasn’t mad at.”

My entire being softens. “Baby, Gio didn’t forget?—”

“No.” Juliet’s gaze hardens. “I don’t want to talk about the two of them right now,” she says. “I don’t want to hear any excuses. If you want to fuck, fine. Let’s fuck, butdo nottry to placate me.”

A groan of annoyance sticks in my throat. Stubborn. Vengeful. Wicked. Brat. That’s what she is, and she’s so damn lucky that I’d do damn near anything for her.

“You want to forget for tonight?” I ask, bending until our foreheads brush.

“What I want, you obviously won’t give me,” she replies. “So yes, if forgetting is all you’re going to offer, then I’ll take it.”

She’ll take a hell of a lot more before the night is done. If this is what it’ll take to keep her in place, to borrow time until the truth can be revealed, then fucking Juliet Donovan is the sweetest payment I’ll ever give.

3

JULIET

Anger is a slow acting poison. You don't even realize that it's killing you until it's too late, and by then, you don't care about anything but the reason for your wrath.

I hate the way Lex makes me feel because it's not just him, it's all of them. Every single one of the Scorpion Kings has this effect on me. Each time I look into one of their eyes—eyes that are far too open for the kind of men that they claim to be—I feel as if I'm falling for another one of their traps. The biggest reason for my anger is simple: I trusted them and they let me down.

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