Chapter Ten
Iwoke up in bed, which I guess was an improvement over waking up in Ronin’s lap. But an even more desirable improvement would’ve been waking up alone.
Crunch. Crunch.
I shifted, flipping my head over and glaring at the demon lying beside me.
Handling a wicked-looking dagger with ease, Ronin carved up his apple and ate the slices off the tip of his blade.
He saw me looking. “Finally, you’re up. That sub bond doles out some vicious and swift punishment, doesn’t it.”
My eyes narrowed to slits. “You should leave, Ronin.” My voice was rough and ragged from screaming. “You and I have no more to say to each other.”
“Don’t we?”
“No.” I carefully pushed myself up. The pain was gone, but I still felt sluggish like I’d just run a marathon with cinderblock shoes.
“You don’t have to help me find the hallows if you don’t want to, but you’re not going to stop me.
Whatever they are, they’re my and Dora’s ticket out of hell, and I’m not throwing that away on the dubious advice of someone who couldn’t be more clear in their goal of keeping me in hell.
“You say the dryads are dangerous and will kill me for asking them for help? Well, I say you’re full of shit,” I stated. “People that evil don’t raise guys as nice as Nik. I’m finding him tomorrow, and I’m asking him to set up a meet with his mothers.”
Ronin nodded along to my speech—hmming and oohing in all the right places. “You’re going to talk to the rat tomorrow, you say?”
“That’s right.”
“Hmm.” He tipped his head, gazing at me from upside down.
“And you don’t think it’ll be a problem for him that I’ll skin him alive over a boiling cauldron and gift him the pleasure of watching his organs turn to soup?
Because that’s his fate if he even looks your way again—as has been explained to him. ”
My jaw dropped. “What the hell! Is that why he’s been so squirrelly around me lately? Why would you do that!”
“And here I thought my goal of keeping you in hell was obvious?” he sang, beaming like a bastard.
“You—!”
“Enough, Hunter, I didn’t wait around all this time to pick a fight with you.
” Ronin leaned over and stabbed the side table with the knife, leaving it sticking up.
“We’re both upset that a fight resulted in you attacking me and winding up unconscious.
So let’s make up and fuck all the tension away. ”
I gaped at him. “Dude, are you shitting me? You actually think I want to have sex with you right now? I understand the phrase ‘just a pretty face’ now more than ever!”
He laughed. “That hurts, but I know how you can make it up to me.” Ronin reached for my hem.
“Cut it out!” I shoved his hand away, lurching back. “I said no.”
“You always say no. You say no while you’re twitching around my cock and shaking from your fifth orgasm. No’s just your favorite fucking word.” He tugged on my clothes.
“I said stop!” I fell out of bed, stumbling away.
“What is with you? Gods, my life’s been such a nightmare since you forced your way into it!
” Suddenly, I was screaming. “I made the worst mistake of my life picking up that phone and calling you! I should’ve just let Kazuya, Bruno, and Pravat do whatever it is they were going to do to me, because at least by now, it would’ve been over! ”
Ronin’s eyes, his expression, his everything changed. “You’re comparing me...” A sinister edge crept into his tone. “To those worthless, hideous shits?”
“Why not? You’re exactly the same as them,” I whispered. “No wonder they work for you, boss.”
Getting up, Ronin rounded the bed and bore down on me.
I held my ground, not breaking his staredown for a second.
“I didn’t realize I was causing you so much distress, Hunter.” His strange eyes glittered. “I told you once that I don’t believe in forcing a woman, so I defer to you. I’ll let you choose.”
“Good. Then I—”
Grasping my wrist, Ronin snapped his fingers. My bedroom dissolved all around us, and an unfamiliar space enveloped us in its place.
We were in another dorm room, but this one was more on the modest side. No fireplace, no sitting area, and strangely enough, there were scratches all over the walls like someone was clawing to get out, even though there was a door right next to them.
“Boss?”
I whirled around, heart leaping into my throat.
Kazuya, Bruno, and Pravat rose up from their bunks, blinking at us from over their phones.
“What’s up?” Bruno asked.
“Ask Hunter that,” Ronin said, releasing my hand and moving from my side.
I didn’t realize I instinctively tried to hold on until my arm was left hanging in the air, reaching for him. “Ronin,” I asked, taking a step closer to him anyway. “Why are we here?”
“What do you mean why?” I’d never seen him like this before. His voice was so flat—so dead. “Make your choice, Hunter.” Ronin fixed on the guys rising up and climbing down from their bunk. “You said we’re the same— No, you said you preferred them because at least it’d be over now.”
A vise latched around my chest, squeezing the air from my lungs.
“So choose,” he said. “You’re my pet... or you’re theirs.”
“Really, boss?” Kazuya asked. “We can have her? We can do whatever we want with her?”
Everything about those questions made me gag.
“Just ask Hunter,” Ronin replied to them, but bored into me. “Calling me for help that day was the worst mistake she’d ever made. Her life’s been a nightmare since she met me, and she wishes you three had done whatever you were going to do to her that day without my interference.”
He took every word I said, twisted them in his mouth, and then shot them like daggers at my soul.
“Choose.”
I shook—trembling from the tip of my twitching brows to my quivering knees. “Ro—”
“Choose us.” A disgusting, clammy, furry hand clamped on my shoulder. “We’ll finish what we started that day for sure,” Kazuya oozed in my ear. “You only had to beg, worm.”
“Fucking finally,” Pravat crowed. “We’re going to wear that pussy out. Show you how a real demon man does it.”
“I get the first go,” Bruno barked.
I heard scuffling and shoving behind me.
“So?” Ronin asked, his face still shuddered closed. “What’s it to be?”
“Ro— Ro—” I wheezed as the presence of the other two closed in on me. My tongue glued to the roof of my mouth. “P-p-p—”
Ronin’s face hardened to stone. “Seriously, Charlotte? If this is a question for you, then I have my answer.” He turned his back on me.
“Don’t worry about your sister. I’ll keep my promise so she can’t be used against you.
I’ll protect her even from Lucifer,” he said.
“The nightmare’s over, Hunter. You can now remain in the company you prefer. ”
Ronin threw open the door.
“YOU!” I raced across the distance, seizing his jacket. “I choose you, Ronin! Please!” Tears clogged my throat. “Don’t leave me here.”
He didn’t turn around. “You’re just saying that,” he said to the door. “You’ve thrown things at me and broken my nose. You clearly despise me.”
“No, that—”
Hands grabbed my dress and collar. “Give it up! He already said you’re ours!”
“No!” I threw my arms around Ronin’s waist, crushing myself against him. “No, please, I didn’t mean to do those th-things,” tumbled out of me. “I have a t-temper— I’m sorry, just—”
“A temper?” Ronin repeated. “Was it your temper that made you lie to me and say you were speaking to Erlik this morning when it was actually that leech Radu?”
My eyes widened.
“Was it your temper that made you say you were going to defy me and let that rat lead you straight into danger?” He grabbed my wrists, trying to pry me off him.
“I’ve become a burden to you, Hunter. An obstacle in your ultimate goal to get as far away from me as possible, so let me save you the trouble now—”
“No!” I cried, fighting to hang on to him.
“I didn’t mean it! Please, I’ll do whatever you say.
I— I— I won’t talk to Radu anymore,” I blurted.
“I’ll stay away from Nik and—and—and I’ll get Lucifer to agree to your deal in exchange for the hallows.
I’ll do whatever you want so, please...” I grasped his chin, forcing him to face me.
My kiss was light and soaked in tears. “Don’t leave me, Ronin. I want to go with you,” I whispered. “I choose you.”
His gaze burned me where I stood, reducing me to ash. “Say it.”
Lips parting, I said the words that sealed my fate, “Because I’m yours.”
Ronin snapped his fingers, and we were gone.
WE STUMBLED INTO MY bedroom attached at the lips—mine wet and frozen. His rough and hungry.
His hand was under my skirt before the back of my knees hit the bed.
“Hmmpf.”
Two fingers slipped past my folds as rough as the thumb pressing down on my clit. Ronin swept my legs out from under me and I dropped on the bed, coming down hard on his fingers, and rolling my eyes up in my head.
“Mine,” he hissed, nipping a trail across my cheek and to my sensitive, helpless ear. “All mine.”
Ronin tore my dress from my body. It didn’t hurt. All the gowns he gifted me were so thin and gauzy, they might as well have been made from toilet paper.
No, his goal wasn’t to hurt or punish me. I felt it in the desperate roughness of his kiss. What Ronin was going to do was brand a tattoo on my soul to match the one on my arm.
Ronin flicked my little nub and I snapped back, body bending in half as lightning zipped through my nerves—awakening every one to his touch. And still...
...I didn’t utter a sound.
Ronin may have claimed me. He may have written his name on the parts of me no one could see, and addicted my body to his touch in ways that would bring him to my mind every time I climaxed for the rest of my life—whether he was responsible for that climax or not.
Yes, tonight was his victory... but only half of one.
Latching on to my neck, Ronin kissed the fluttery, rapid dance played out for him by my pulse. A third finger slipped in and I clamped down on my lip, biting through the bottom one.
Ronin suddenly pulled back, frowning at me. One look at the blood staining my lips and his eyes narrowed to slits.