Chapter 12
Chapter
Twelve
A smodeus left the house. I don’t know how I knew it, but I was certain I could leave the bedroom and wouldn’t see him.
It was dinnertime, which probably wasn’t a coincidence. He’d made it clear he wanted me to eat. The defiant part of me wanted to skip dinner just to spite him. But I knew when I was cutting off my nose to spit in my face.
I was in the middle of my chicken and rice when the doorbell rang. Shocked the demon would show actual consideration, I flung the door open without looking through the peephole. The tall, blond man standing in the door surprised me.
“Logan?” I asked, confused.
“Hey, I brought your car back.” He reached up and brushed a strand of hair out of my face and tucked it behind my ear. “How’s the face?”
Honestly, in all of the events of the last twenty-four hours, I’d forgotten about my face. It was fine unless I touched it. Which I told Logan.
“Good, that’s good. Lily still feels horrible about it.” He dropped his hands into his pockets. I could see his car idling in the road behind him.
“She shouldn’t. It was an accident. Better my face than hers.” I rocked up to my toes and shoved my hands into my pants pocket as well. Gods, this felt awkward. And I didn’t even know why.
“So, I know this is probably a terrible idea and crappy timing. I swear it has nothing to do with guilt about my daughter breaking your face but, uh, would you like to get dinner sometime? With me?”
I stood there, completely shocked. While Logan and I got along fine, I’d never put him into a dateable role. He’d never given me any reason to think I was anything but his daughter’s nanny.
“I—“
“You are otherwise engaged.” A voice from behind me said. I spun around to see Asmodeus in human form, a tall Icelandic god with cropped blond hair and sharp blue eyes that froze me with his look.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Violet. I didn’t realize.” Logan tugged my keys out of his pocket and held them out to me. “I’m going to head out. I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Oh, um, yeah. I’ll be there.” I watched him walk down the two steps to the pathway and then closed the door before slowly turning to face the demon behind me.
He was much closer than I’d expected. He was also back in his werewolf form. The hulking black beast reached out and tangled a hand in my hair. It wasn’t painful, but it was forceful as he tilted my head back to look me in the eye.
“Anything you want to talk about?” The calm purr didn’t distract from the fire blazing in his gaze.
“How about you getting your fucking hands off of me?”
“You’re mine, Violet.” He tugged a little, sharp points of pain gathered on my scalp. “I don’t like it when people touch my things.”
I dropped my keys and used both hands to push at him. Rage painted everything red.
“I’m not yours and I’m sure as fuck not one of your things. I’m a fucking person and you don’t get to tell me what to do. Get your godsdamn hands off of me!” I shoved again, stumbling back, when he released me.
He backed me against the door and caged me in with his body and arms. We were both panting with emotion as we glared at each other.
“Why do you have to be so stubborn? This would be much easier if you accepted the truth.”
“Why do you have to be so overbearing and insistent? This would be much easier if you went the fuck away.”
“Never going to happen, love.” With that, he tossed me over his shoulder and started up the stairs.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I squirmed, but his powerful arms held me around the waist. And there was no escaping the inelegant position.
“You may not like me but you like what I can do to you. So I’m going to remind you of all the reasons you want to keep me around. And I’m going to fuck you until I can erase the image of another man’s hands touching you.”
I hated that my body reacted to his words. I hated looking forward to whatever he was about to do to me. And I hated the little spark of excitement over his unreasonable and overbearing jealousy.
“Fuck you.” I said, for lack of anything better
“That’s the plan, love.”