Page 52 of Sweet Violence
Ishould also have realised telling X I was leaving for a few days—at least—would result in a blaze of possessiveness and obsession. He fucked me so hard and emphatically, and made me comesomany times, my legs were now like jelly. I willed them to hold me up as I walked back down the corridor outside the practise room and into the living room.
My heart softened at the sight of Joseph curled up on the big, comfy sofa, his lashes casting shadows on his dark cheeks and a light snore coming from him.
"Cute," I whispered, and knew I was in too fucking deep with this man, too.
I wanted to wake him and tell him about going away, but I let him rest. I wasn't sure how much sleep he had last night, after stressing and blaming himself for my torture session and kidnapping.
I shook my head, grabbing a big, fluffy blanket off a nearby armchair and draping it over my reaper. None of what happened was his fault, oranyof the circle's. The nightmare was all on my psychopath of a father.
Instead of waking Joseph, I went in the opposite direction, towards the library X had pointed me towards before going to the gym—on my insistence he didn't follow me everywhere like a lovesick puppy.1I might have accepted the circle were my mates and firmly in my life now, but that didn't mean I wanted to lose my independence. I'd worked hard for this, dammit. I'd killed my dad for it.2
The library was in the heart of the fortress, behind two truly enormous doors. They'd clearly been built with the devil in mind, but I ran my hands over the carved black marble, feeling up a stone woman's thigh until I found the smaller, human-sized door inset within them.
Inside, I let out a low whistle and pulled the heavy door shut, staring at the massive, book-filled space. Take your mental image of a human library and times it by ten. The books lower to the ground were me-sized, but above, the dark shelves held tomes big enough to crush a fucking elephant.
It was dangerous as hell, but damn it was pretty. Green lamps were set on tables at the edge of every aisle, and matching lamps ran down the aisles, lighting the stacks in an eerie emerald.3
I took a deep breath of that heavenly book scent, and smiled—until I took another step and a twinge went through my lady bits. Oh yeah, I forgot X followed up our sweet, wholesome love-making with pure, animalistic fucking. Added to Taj's similar performance last night, and I was feeling a little sore.4
My footsteps echoed and repeated off the enormously high ceilings, like an army of clingy puppies followed me as I strolled down the wide aisle, peering between tall bookshelves for my mate. Wait—I thought of them so casually as my mates now? Without even wincing? Wow.
"Fuck, this place is massive," I muttered, subconsciously following the not-talking-in-libraries rule.
The aisle went on for what felt like miles, until I started to suspect the library never actually ended. Maybe I walked into a vortex down here and there were endless rows of dark shelves, jewel-toned leather-bound books, black rolling ladders, and busts of ominous looking demons—previous devils, maybe? I knew the devil wasn't completely immortal even if he lived much,muchlonger than regular demons; it was an inherited position, like king.
Well, inherited unless someone murdered the whole infernal family and took the title for themselves.
I ground my teeth, thinking about my dad's grand, nefarious plan. Asshole. He'd rule this place with fear and ironclad control, and then someone would rise up to murder him, too. And the only reason he wanted to be devil in the first place was because Dev and the other powers-that-be had sneered at him 'elevating' his crusty dead body to scary-demon form. As if the world needed Christian Lachesi as a fucking demon. Dev made the right call.
Basically, Dad was like a preschool kid who had their hair pulled; he went home, cried, raged, and decided to burn down the whole school. Hell. You know what I mean.
"There you are," I huffed, finally spotting my white-haired wraith in a spotlight of green light, a massive book laid on a solid looking table in front of him. "Jesus, look at the size of that thing. Check it out for a bit of light reading, did you?"
Arkan gave me a blank look. "It's far from light reading, princess; these are the most important laws in hell."5
"Nerd," I teased. "Who reads books on law for fun?"
"Me," he deadpanned, a pale eyebrow raised.
"Fair point," I agreed, and decided to ruin my cold-hearted-bitch status even more by ducking over his chair and stealing a kiss from his lips. Arkan was too sharp to be called beautiful, but his lips were pretty as fuck—light pink with a cupid's bow and a plush lower lip. "That's why I called you a nerd."
I plopped down in the dark green chair across from him, pleasantly surprised to find it was comfy and not a stark, wooden thing that left bruises on my ass.6
"You came looking for me? To what do I owe the honour?" Arkan asked, sitting back in his seat and watching me.
Honestly, setting aside his book to give me his full focus was the hottest thing ever. My body flashed hot, my tender pussy throbbing.Back off,I warned it.We've had enough sex in the past twenty-four hours to last us a solid week.
"I'm leaving," I told him, ignoring the flutters in my core. "The devil's got some more people for me to interrogate, aaaaand you're snarling. Cool."
Arkan leapt out of his chair, his body going incorporeal and shadowy. The only visible part of him within the swarm of darkness was a skeletal hand that curled into a fist.
"Not a damn chance," he growled, rushing around the table and tangling his bony fingers in my hair, as if that would keep me from running off. "Is he insane? So soon after you were gutted and nearly died?"
"He knows what I'm capable of," I huffed. "I can do this, no problem. Stop worrying, mother hen."
Arkan made a rattling sound in his throat.7"You're insinuating I don't have faith in you."
"Well." I wobbled my head from side to side. "If you think a teensy barracks of demon dicks is gonna kill me…"
