Page 61 of Bound
Chapter 22
Gage
“What the fuck is going on with you?” Ruin’s voice whips down my spine, forcing me to turn my gaze away from the shock of Amoret’s hair over Horan’s arm as they fade from my line of sight.
My lips press into a tight line as I meet his midnight gaze. “Nothing.”
“Bullshit,” he snaps. “Where the fuck is your head, Gage? Because it’s not on this case.”
“I’m fine,” I snarl and try to push past him.
His hand closes like ice over my arm, halting me. “And again, I call bullshit.”
I wrench from his grasp. “I said I’m fine.”
He continues to watch me, his focus unwavering. “Then how did my car get stolen, Gage?” He steps into me. “I get it. I do. It’s been years since you were around your kind. But we got bigger fucking problems.”
“Is that what you think?” I ask. “That I’m mooning over another Aos Sí?”
“Are you?”
My mouth twists. “The things I want to do to Amoret is not what Aos Sí do.”
He rocks back, gaze widening. “You want her?”
“Like fucking air,” I growl. “That’s why your fucking car got stolen. Because this brutish fucking side of me wanted to take her against a fucking tree in that field. Because when I’m with her, she is all I can fucking see.” My chest heaves. “I have never wanted a woman like I want her. Never.”
His dark irises flick over my face, but there is no condemnation. Just a kind of sad resolve. “That’s how it is with Lilah. How T is with Nisha.” I draw in a sharp breath. He shakes his head. “I know your kind don’t have mates, G. Not like vamps or shifters. Hell, even the fucking Asmodeans. But Amoret is your weakness right now. You’re not thinking shit through with her around.”
He grips my shoulder again, this time his touch is not as hard. “I get the need, man. Maybe better than you think. So I will tell you something a good friend of mine told me months ago.” I watch him in silence and his fingers tighten. “Fuck her and get your head back in the game.”
Ruin claps my arm and walks off, his words echoing in my ears.
I walk around the manor, needing the fresh air despite being in it for quite a while on the side of that damn road.
Ruin is right. Whether I want to admit it or not.
Amoret is clouding my mind. Her scent, her touch.Her.
I want her on a primal level that would make her run from me. She’s so innocent. Almost too innocent. The things I want …
But it’s been so long since I felt desire. Real need.
My fire keeps any interlude brief, unfulfilling. Little touch and just the hollowness of a fast release. To take her in that way would leave me hating myself for the rest of my life.
Amoret doesn’t deserve to be fucked and forgotten. She needs seduction, passion. Tenderness.
Any man that lays her out beneath them should do so with reverence, not the animalistic want burning inside my gut.
My hands curl into fists, flames crackling over my knuckles in a merriment I don’t feel.
I don’t have the patience for tenderness with her. With anyone.
“You planning on wearing a path in the grass or what?”
My head turns to find Tanner nearby, his arms crossed as he leans against the brick wall. In the shadows of the manor, his silver eyes are brighter than usual. Cat like.
“Thought had crossed my mind.” He nods at my answer. “Ruin send you?”
