Page 55 of The Devil's Mercy

“I confessed to crippling a man,” Calix stated. “That’s not the type of behavior that’s meant to go un—”

“You want us to punish you?” His fingers twisted in a lock of his hair and he yanked Cal’s head up. “We can do that. We can do both.”

“I can punish you with my teeth,” Aodhan nipped at the tender flesh of Cal’s inner thigh and pressed his middle finger deep inside of him. “And reward you with my cock.”

“Spread him wider,” Titus ordered. I don’t have a good view from this vantage point.”

“I have questions.” Cal yelped when he was partially dragged down the chair so Aodhan could resituate him with his legs spread wide around him. They were lifted, his knees pressed back.

“Hold him,” the doctor said, and Titus reached forward and wrapped warm hands around the backs of Cal’s knees, keeping him in place.

“Go ahead,” Titus smirked over him. “Ask your questions.”

Aodhan drove two fingers into him and Calix gasped.

“That didn’t sound like a question. Have you already forgotten what you wanted to say?”

Calix’s eyes narrowed at the obvious challenge. “What happened to the no-touching-me game? Did you give up?”

“Does this look like giving up to you?” Titus’s arrogant expression had a flash of indignation curling its way through the lust being forced on him.

“So it’s fine if Aodhan touches me, so long as you don’t?” Cal countered. “Not to mention the fact you have to pump me full of pheromones just to get me to this state.”

His eyes narrowed slightly. “Should we test that theory, monstrous one? I don’t think you’ll like the results. But if you insist…”

“Wait.” Too late, he realized his mistake, but he should have learned by now that once Titus decided on something, there was no turning back.

Without needing to be told, Aodhan pulled his fingers free and stood. He moved away just as Titus let go of Cal’s legs, stepping off to the side to lean back against the window with his arms crossed. He didn’t seem the least bit interested in the orgy taking place outside, the corner of his mouth tipping up in a mocking smile when Calix met his gaze.

“Should have kept your mouth shut,” the doctor drawled. “He was going to give you more time to adjust.”

Cal sent Titus an accusatory glare as the older man settled in the empty spot between his thighs. When he tried to close his legs, the director clicked his tongue, the sound somehow enough to get him to freeze up as though a blaster was being held to his head.

“How long have you been doing that?” the question was whispered low, but the realization felt like a bomb going off inside of him. He’d noticed every other time the Connect had used his abilities on him— “Mother fucker.”

He shot to his feet, but a hand shot out, wrapping around his throat, shoving him back down into the chair. Calix grabbed onto Titus’s arm, but he couldn’t push the older man away, no matter how much he struggled. The director only allowed it for a moment anyway, that same instinct to be docile in his presence rushing at him, forcing Calix to drop his gaze and loosen his hold without consciously meaning to.

“Have you figured it out?” Titus asked. “How much control over you I truly have?”

All those times he’d used his power on Cal to make him feel scared or angry or horny had been a veiled trick. The director had wanted him to know what he was doing, that way he could get away with his real endgame.

“You made sure I couldn’t feel it was your influence making me—”

“Recognize I was your master?”

He’d always felt like the director was somehow above the rest of them. Had gotten the sense he was the one Cal needed to convince if he ever stood a chance of getting out of this or gaining higher ground.

“The problem with knowing you’re smart is you forget you may not be the smartest in the room,” Titus said. “We spoke in circles, and I allowed you to occasionally feel like you had the upper hand because that’s what was needed to get your guard down. Make no mistake though, little monster, I’m the one in control here, and I don’t just mean of Aodhan Solace.”

Calix’s eyes flicked over toward the doctor, but he didn’t seem offended by that comment. On the contrary, there was something almost like reverence written in Aodhan’s expression as he watched Titus’s back, barely even noticing Cal’s attention.

“How?” Cal needed to know. It was too late to fight against it now, so all thoughts of resistance went out the window, but still.

That explained why Titus always skirted questions about his abilities. He’d answered the ones about his snake tattoo without hesitation. It should have been a clue, but like an idiot, Cal had fallen for the distraction tactic.

“It was simply a matter of altering my pheromones around you. Changing the feeling you get from me when in my presence, as opposed to messing with the ones in the air. Everything emits pheromones, you know. I have plenty to work with, meaning there are many ways I can affect those around me. Even those,” he pointed over his shoulder toward the window, “not around me.”

The orgy was still going strong despite the fact Titus was in here and not out there. At the first party, Calix had alsowitnessed him cross the room without being touched or hit on, despite everyone else being barely able to keep their hands off anything that moved. Only Aodhan had reacted to him.

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