The Darkest Passion (Lords of the Underworld #5)(59)
Author: Gena Showalter

Which he’d almost done, but somehow hadn’t. She’d moaned and writhed and begged him for more. Hell, Wrath had moaned and writhed and begged him for more. And he’d come so close to giving in to both of them. But then Olivia had gentled her kiss and he’d been disappointed and angry, and that volatile combination had thankfully snapped him into focus.

Yet, it shouldn’t have been disappointment or anger that he’d felt. He should have been overjoyed, but he’d found himself wondering if her desire for him had waned. If she wanted someone else instead. Someone like Paris or William, both of whom she’d mentioned while showering, hands caressing her own body, lingering. With the thought, he’d once again yearned to have her completely out of control, because of him, sinking those nails into his back, scraping those teeth along his neck.

What was wrong with him?

“Did you hear that?” Olivia asked, tugging him from his dark and sensual musings. She slid her hand from his—Mine, Wrath growled, no longer crying but once again claiming—and stopped.

He’d told himself he’d protest these declarations from now on, but he couldn’t force himself to do so. Fool. “Hear what?” He, too, stopped and listened. Aside from his demon’s continued brooding, only silence greeted him. Frowning, Aeron faced her. As always when he looked at her, his heart rate quickened. “I hear nothing.”

“But the voice…” She spun in a circle, gaze roving the foyer. “It’s telling me to cup your balls with one hand and fist your c**k with the other.”

Was it possible she heard his demon and— Wait. What? “A voice is telling you to molest me?” Not Wrath, then. The demon had mentioned nothing that specific. Unfortunately.

“Yes.”

“Is this an attempt to seduce me?” Tricky, delicious female, who wore scanty clothes, asked him naughty questions and emerged from the bathroom stark naked. “Is this supposed to—”

“No! I don’t like this!” she interrupted. “I’m hearing the words, thinking them, but they don’t belong to me. I know that doesn’t make any sense, but I don’t know how else to describe it.”

Behind him, footsteps resounded. He turned. Torin was halfway down the stairs, taking them two at a time. Today he wore a black turtleneck, black gloves and pants that dragged the ground so that even if he sat down and his socks fell below his ankles, not an inch of his skin would show.

“Delicious,” Aeron heard Olivia murmur. “I could eat you up.”

“You have to stop saying things like that, Olivia.” Aeron flicked her a glance—only to still, grind his teeth and curse under his breath. She wasn’t peering at him as he’d expected; she was peering at Torin as if he was a piece of meat and she was starving.

Mine, Wrath warned.

Aeron popped his jaw in sudden irritation—with Torin. It wasn’t that he cared who Olivia desired. It was just that she’d given up immortality for him, wanted him to provide her fun, wanted to welcome him inside her body; she shouldn’t be so fickle.

“Uh, excuse me?” A confused Torin stopped at the bottom of the staircase.

Aeron studied his friend, trying to see him as Olivia must. Beyond that startling contrast of white hair and black eyebrows, that smooth, naturally tanned—and uninked—skin, and okay, okay, maybe those piercing green eyes, he wasn’t that attractive. What’s more, he was an inch shorter than Aeron and not as bulky.

“Ignore me,” Olivia beseeched, horror drifting from her. “Please. I don’t know what’s come over me.”

Torin, it seemed, was trying not to smile. “Glad you’re not scared of me anymore.”

Aeron wished he could say the same. “Let’s get the meeting started.” Surely that snapping, snarling tone wasn’t his.

“Too late, I’m afraid.” Torin leaned one shoulder against the banister, the picture of domesticated male. Except for the wicked gleam in his eyes. “Everyone’s left.”

“What!”

“You’re not the only one with big news. Lucien flashed to Rome after Sabin and the others learned that Galen succeeded in binding Distrust to one of his soldiers. A female.”

Aeron plowed a hand over his razored hair. Distrust, Baden’s Distrust, was now inside a Hunter? He’d known Galen hoped to do such a thing, but still the knowledge stunned him. Unacceptable!

Punish, Wrath agreed.

No images flashed in his mind, but Aeron wasn’t surprised. He was becoming used to his demon’s more vocal presence. “Something will have to be done about that, but we’ll have to tread carefully. Today I learned that Rhea, Cronus’s wife, is aiding the Hunters.”

Torin absorbed the words and paled. “You’re kidding, right?”

“I wish.”

Olivia clasped Aeron’s hand, twining their fingers. Wrath’s anger drained, leaving Aeron with a cuddly kitten. He favored the rage. “If there’s anything I can do to help, please let me know,” she said. “I won’t even make you pay for it.”

Her attempt to comfort him was…comforting. Damn it! Now he was like Wrath. Cuddly. And he didn’t like it. But he liked her. More than he should have. He was used to bottling up his emotions, ignoring them so he could focus on what needed to be done, but she refused to accept anything but his complete capitulation.

Maybe that was why—realization hit him hard. Shit. It was. That’s why he’d always preferred gentle women. Well, not preferred, but feared the other, stronger females. Gentle women didn’t threaten to break the bottle that contained all those churning emotions. Stronger women could smash that bottle to pieces, forcing him to feel.

“What?” Torin asked, head tilting to the side.

“Nothing,” he lied. No way he’d admit to such a weakness. “So look. Back to the Hunters. Rhea is hiding them from us while they’re in town.”

Torin’s lips pulled back from his teeth. “First we learn Galen’s leading the Hunters, and now a Titan is helping them, too. If there are more surprises, I don’t want to know.”

“Actually, Cronus—”

“Just visited me,” Torin interjected, “but he conveniently didn’t mention any of this. He just commanded us to get our asses in gear and find Scarlet, which is where the others are. Looking for her. He threatened us with the usual death and destruction if we failed to find her. Today.”