Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
ELLISON
“Once again, they’re gone before I can even shoot them.
Are there any known supers with the ability to teleport?
Not that everyone is registered. I sure as shit am not.
Like how do you even force a teleporter to get registered?
They’d just fuck off the second you looked their way.
I can generally see through illusions, but they’re there and gone so quickly that I can’t focus on them in time.
Or do you think they’re moving so fast the eye can’t track them? ” Asmodeus asks.
He steps in front of me and begins backing me toward the house, gun in hand.
“I thought the second person in the woods when we were camping was working with Henrik. I thought once the bullshit with Henrik was over, you’d be safe… but there’s another person,” Asmodeus says, his eyes scanning the surrounding area.
“What did you see?” I ask, since I wasn’t able to see it myself.
Asmodeus is quiet before shaking his head.
“I don’t know. It was so fast I can’t even describe them, but I know they were there.
I can sense it.” The grip on his gun is firm as he pushes me back to the house, sending me inside.
Then he acts like he’s going to head out without me, so I grab his wrist.
“Don’t.”
“I want to look around. While I do, contact Valerie and see if there are any registered supers who can teleport.”
“My illusions can look around. There’s no sense in you being unsafe.”
Asmodeus watches me closely with his calculating eyes and I can tell he’s thinking that it’s not enough. I know my illusions won’t see what his eyes can, but it’s safe, and right now, safe is what I want.
My grip tightens. “You know they’re gone by now. They’re always gone. If they wanted to hurt one of us, don’t you think they wouldn’t disappear so quickly?”
“They’re waiting for a moment I don’t see them,” Asmodeus determines.
“Or maybe they’re not a threat.”
“You think a stalker has good intentions?” he asks, sounding skeptical.
“I don’t know,” I admit.
He sighs. “You’re right, they’re gone. There’s no use in running around out there.”
And because he seems to think there’s no use in going out there, he decides there’s a use in staring at me. Like if he doesn’t look away, I will forever be safe.
It doesn’t work that way.
“I have some things for work to do. So… go watch a movie or something,” I say as I head to the table. I really should use my desk, but I’m fully confident that man is going to follow me wherever I go, and out here he has many more options for things to do.
Of course he chooses to also sit at the table and lean back in his chair while I open my laptop and look at the documents Valerie sent me.
I diligently start working as Asmodeus flips and flops and shifts and sighs. I do my absolute best not to say a damn word to him since I feel like that’ll invigorate his listlessness, but after a while it becomes hard to focus.
Have I ever been this unfocused working on a document?
“Asmodeus, you look rather filthy after you were smashed like a pancake by that ball of moldy yarn. Maybe a shower could be in your future?”
“Perhaps. But how would I stare at you in the bathroom… unless you chose to join me?”
“My house is locked down with the finest security system in place. No one is getting in.”
“Security systems do nothing to those who truly want inside, especially if they can teleport.”
“Don’t you think if they could teleport and wanted to kill me, they’d have already popped into existence right behind me and stabbed me?” I ask.
Asmodeus considers this for a second, but I feel like nothing I say will really appease him.
“Go take a shower and then grab a book from my room. You told Landon you enjoy reading; go read the same book as him so you can torture him with more possible spoilers.”
“Temptations run strong,” he says thoughtfully.
Then he gets up, pats my head, and wanders off.
Perfect, now I can focus and get my work done and be the best at my job that I can be… so then why am I overly focused on the pat he gave me? Like am I a dog?
I touch the top of my head then growl and realize I’m making noises like a dog out of some odd irritation.
I hurry back to work and somehow remain fully focused until the bathroom door creaks open. I hear the sound of Asmodeus’s feet on the stairs, telling me he wants me to hear him. Normally, that man moves around like a fucking ghost, just appearing when he wants you to see him, but not this time.
This means I need to be focused and give him absolutely no attention and refuse to even look at him and my god why is he only wearing a towel?
My face twitches a little as I force it to stay focused.
“What are you doing?” I ask when he walks by, towel wrapped around his waist.
“Throwing my clothes in the washing machine. Might that be a problem?” he asks as he cocks his head to the side and my eyes travel down his chest. There are still beads of water on his shoulder, like does he not even know how to dry off properly?
Or was he so eager to get down here to pester me that he didn’t dry off?
“It’s awfully hard to work when your eyes are roaming all over me. Makes me blush,” he says before he walks through the door into the laundry room. He knows I’ll get a clear view of everything going on from where I’m sitting.
But why would I need a clear view of anything when I’m working?
“I would think that you surely have clothes to put on and don’t need to wait until they’re washed. Are you so attached to something you’re tossing in the washer that you must strut around like a barbarian to do it?” I growl.
“I am fully covered. I’m more covered than if I’d come down in shorts,” he says. “Are you simply jealous because you are sweltering under that suit that you refuse to remove?”
“I like my suit.”
“I like being nude.”
I tsk and turn my attention back to my computer, but when I look up, he’s leaning over the washing machine like he might see something magical in the bottom of it.
“Ellie SugarPie, your washing machine doesn’t like me,” he says.
“Stop coming up with ridiculous pet names for me.”
“Well, I don’t know your middle name, so I have to call you something.”
I eye him and something hits me. “There’s no fucking way you don’t know my middle name. You probably know more about me than I know about myself.”
“You’re right, Ellison Claremont… You sound so fancy.”
“Jesus.”
Asmodeus closes the lid before turning around to look at me as he hops up onto it. “It’s so rumbly.”
“Get off the fucking washing machine,” I grumble.
“Why? I like it. I feel like a housewife needing a real man.”
I slam my laptop shut and head toward the laundry room. His lips quirk, which is the last thing I see before I slam the door shut. Then all I can hear is his cackling.
I don’t even make it back to my laptop before he pulls the laundry room door open and steps out. “Do not fear, Ellison, I shall clothe myself. We both know that if I finally got you to cave, you’d come so fast you’d embarrass yourself after being pent up for so long.”
“You’re not that good.”
He walks up behind me so I can feel his breath on my ear as he murmurs, “Guess you’re never going to find out.” Then he steps past me. My hand moves of its own accord, wrapping around his wrist.
“And if I make you come first, what exactly do I get?” I ask.
“Anything you want. Because I’m not afraid of losing this bet.”
I grab his neck and draw him in to face me, wanting to wipe that cocky grin off his face. Wanting to make him beg for more. I’m left wondering what he looks like when he’s aching for release.
No, no, no… I told myself I wouldn’t. I told myself I’d keep him out of it.
But this is just fun, right? That’s all this is? That’s all I’ll let this be. No emotions, nothing more. Just sex.
I let my thumb trail over his lips while he watches me, waiting for my answer to the stupidest bet I could have ever taken. When did I stoop so low?
Then I lean forward and nip his lip, tugging it softly. “This is a bet you’re going to wish you’d never taken.”
“I can’t fathom how that’d be possible,” he says, fingers sinking into my hair.
My finger slips under his towel and with one flick, the towel drops free and hits the ground.
He’s extremely well built from all of the training he does, and as his hand slides over my cock tucked in my pants, I realize I’m wasting precious time staring at him.
Unless I can get him off with my eyes only, I obviously need to up my game.
His fingers trail around my cock before his lips find mine. He nips me as payback, and it makes me all the more eager when his lips part. My fingers teasingly slide down his cock as his tongue moves against mine.
Asmodeus swiftly undoes my pants and pushes them down, but my underwear is still there as a barrier. Is he purposely trying to lose this competition? He’s hard in my hand, dripping precum that I smear down the head of his cock while my thumb rubs over it.
But the way his fingers tease me makes me moan, and I decide I need to up my game when he pulls back from our kiss just to smirk at me.
He’s fondling me over some fucking fabric and I’m the one moaning?
His touch ghosts over me, and my body aches for him while I anticipate what’s to come.
His finger dips into my underwear before briefly dancing over my cock and sliding back out.
“I feel like you don’t understand this competition. I would think you’d be eager to get my clothes off, not keep them on for as long as you can,” I say a little breathlessly.
“Oh? Big words for a man who’s aching for my touch,” he retorts, kissing my neck before sucking on it.
“Don’t you dare leave a mark. Are we sixteen?”
“I want to mark you so everyone knows you’re mine,” he says.