Page 35 of The Devil's Mercy

Cal stared between them. “Aren’t Connects supposed to cherish and protect their bond mates?” He clung onto the most important part. “Consent has to be freely given for a bond to even form.”

“That’s true,” the director agreed.

He scoffed. “If you think I’m going to consent after all of this—”

“Baby,” Aodhan’s grip lowered until he had him by the nape, “you’re misunderstanding things again. I’ve been fucking you so rigorously these past days to show you, but it’s clearly gone over your head.”

“You don’t have a choice here, Calix,” Titus said. “When it comes time to form the bond, you’ll have to agree, of course, but we have ways of making you do that.”

Cal shuddered. “What?”

Titus’s multi-slate rang, and his brow furrowed when he glanced at the screen before setting the chopsticks down with an annoyed click. “It’s the hospital. I have to take this.”

He got up and headed to the door, slipping the earbud attachment from the device into his left ear before accepting the call.

“Those idiots can’t go five minutes without him,” Aodhan drawled, clearly to himself as he cut a boiled dumpling in half and carefully brought a piece to his lips. It was the most refined way Cal had ever seen anyone eat a dumpling before, and it helped drive a single point even further home.

“You’re a psychopath.” Calix was trapped with crazy people.

“At least you’ll never be bored.” The doctor winked at him.

Cal glanced at the doorway, listening for any signs Titus was returning, and then shifted a little bit closer to Aodhan. “You know he’s manipulated us both here, don’t you?”

Aodhan paused, but didn’t tell him to shut up.

“You heard it yourself. He orchestrated this whole thing. Leaving out the newspaper clipping for you to find, confusing me in the forest—”

“How’d he confuse you in the forest?”

That wasn’t really important here, but he explained anyway. “He used his Connect ability to turn me on and then screwed me with my own gun.”

“Did you know it was him?”

Titus’s voice as he spoke to the hospital could be heard then, the sound drawing closer to the door as the man slowly walked back down the hallway toward them.

“No.” Calix needed to speed this up. It might be his only chance to try and get through to the doctor, especially since things were already tense between the two.

“Did it matter who it was?”

“No.” Cal pulled his gaze from the door and rested it back on the doctor, only realizing he’d been giving autopilot responses to questions he absolutely should not have been giving truthful answers to.

Aodhan had a smug air about him that was impossible not to notice. “Just admit that you liked it, baby. I bet you thought about it, the same way you thought about what happened at the party. Both of those events turned you on. Did you think about me when you touched yourself after?”

Why did Cal get the sense that the doctor was toying with him? He couldn’t possibly know what he was saying was true. It had to be a really good guess. Right?

“What are you two talking about?” Titus reentered then, glancing with interest between the two of them.

“Oh, nothing much,” Aodhan’s grin turned vicious. “Our dear detective was simply trying to turn me against you, that’s all.”

“Is that so?”

Calix hated himself for it, but he instinctively dropped his gaze when Titus set a steely look on him.

“He seems to think I’m too stupid to have figured out your little newspaper trick was a setup.” Aodhan pouted. “I didn’t realize you thought so low of me, Detective. I’m wounded.”

“Hand me that knife,” Cal stated, “so I can wound you for real.”

Titus heaved a sigh. “Why do you always insist on making things so difficult for yourself, Calix?”

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