Page 108 of Demons In My Head: Exposing the Exiled
As we filed out into the main maze and made our way deeper beneath Haunt, I couldn't help but think how far we'd come from that first night I walked into their club. I'd been sent to destroy them, and instead I'd found something worth fighting for, worth dying for.
And now? It was time to live for. It was time to claim and be claimed.
"We have some things we need to prepare," Ashland stated, calm and collected, but I could see the excitement within his icy blue eyes. Every other set of eyes was pinned to me, eyeing me like a freaking decadent meal they couldn’t wait to devour. Nobody moved until he looked around and held his arms out. "We have things we need to prepare," he said again, slower, like he was talking to a room of kids.
"Oh, yeah, right," Felix said, jumping to motion. "Come on, let's get everything ready."
I frowned. What kind of things? Talon spotted the expression and slid over to me, putting his face directly in mine. "The quicker we get it done, the quicker we can be doing delicious things to you, Bun-Bun!" He leaned in and kissed me, hard. I was breathless when he pulled back, my heart thumping wildly.
"Nothing for you to concern yourself with,kukola." Misha winked and started walking away. "I'm going to get you a bath ready so you can relax while we prepare."
"Oh, okay then," I replied. I'd seen them on missions before, and this was no different. There was no point in asking questions; they were going to handle whatever it was that needed handling, and I was going to take a glorious bath. Tough life.
"Enjoy your bath, baby," Felix purred as he brushed past me to join Talon.
Rhodes stopped in front of me as I stood, and I looked up at him. "Yes, monocle?"
His expression was one I don’t think I’d ever seen directed at me before. Or anyone, for that matter. Sheepish, almost embarrassed, but regardless, he still looked me dead in the eyes before he spoke. “I owe you an apology, Palmer. I was so set on being miserable that it was too easy to make everyone around me miserable, too. It’s not an excuse, there isn’t anything that could ever excuse the way that I treated you, and I am so fucking sorry.”
Rhodes’ forehead actually gleamed with a faint sheen of perspiration, the only physical evidence of his discomfort and nerves. The demon who stood before me had been through hell and came through the other side. He’d lost somebody he loved and felt powerless in the aftermath. I could relate.
“Say something,” he said quietly. “Please just say something.”
I reached out and took his hand. “I know why you did what you did, Rhodes. You’re right, it doesn’t excuse the behavior, but I know what it’s like to snap at people and push them away, especially when you start to feel anything toward them at all.” I shrugged, trying not to look away. This wasn’t comfortable for me, either. “I suppose that’s something both of us will have to work on in the future?”
His expression softened, and his shoulders sank a fraction of an inch. “You forgive me?”
“Of course I forgive you. I know that our relationship didn’t follow the same speed or path as the others, but that doesn’t mean I feel anything less for you.”
He smirked. Arrogant demon. “You like me.”
A statement. Not a question.
“You like me,” I replied in the same tone, as though we were discussing the fact that the sky was blue.
His smirk grew to a full-blown smile, one that reached his usually cold eyes. It was as though I was seeing him, the real him, for the first time. "You know something? I just realized that you and I? We've never even kissed, Palmer. I'm not stepping foot in that damn room without at the very least having kissed you first."
It felt as though a thousand butterflies were taking flight in my belly as I stared into his eyes. He was devastatingly handsome. So polished, so put together, almost too beautiful to look at. So I had to give him a little hell.
"Then do it."
His hands gripped my waist as he pulled me into him, and I melted. He cupped my cheek and leaned down, gently brushing his lips against mine. So lightly it was almost a question of had they actually touched?
"You drive me crazy," he whispered against my mouth, and then his hand moved from my cheek into my hair, his lips crashed against mine with the intention to claim.
Rhodes kissed me like a starved man. Like a humbled man, like a man who had lived so long being half of himself, but was done with all of that. Heat flooded my body as I wrapped my arms around his neck, and hell, I was ready to strip down and take what was mine right this second.
"Bath is ready," Misha's voice came from directly behind me, breaking the moment. I scowled. Rhodes laughed.
"Don't worry, there's plenty of time for more of that," he teased, and walked off like he hadn't just wound me up to level ten million.
"Fine," I pouted. "I'll go take my bath, but you’d better hurry up. I'm suddenly very fucking turned on and I don't like waiting."
Ashland laughed and leaned down. "You're not the boss, little rabbit. Now go on." I jumped when the sound of his palm hitting my ass broke the silence.
I held up my middle finger as I walked away. They couldn't see the huge smile on my face or feel the way my heart had never felt so full. But for real, they had better hurry.
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