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A tear slid down Quinn’s cheek as she watched Anita jab at the teenager relentlessly with the cigarette until a nice cluster of burns had collected on her pale skin. She flinched every time the teenager did, almost as if she was reliving the pain all over again just by being here. It wasn’t until Anita delivered one against the back of her neck that an agonized scream ripped through the basement.
Any ounce of self-control I had with not intervening until Quinn had separated herself from the memory snapped. I bounded across the room, cutting far too close to the psychotic bitch for my comfort. It took hearing those noises from my pet’s mouth for me to remain fixed upon her long enough to wrap my arms around her and trap her against my chest. “This isn’t real, pet,” I growled into her ear. “The pain…The fear… None of it is real. It’s already happened.”
Just like when I had found her twisting on the bed, Quinn put every ounce of her strength into fighting me. She pushed against my chest with sharp pants. If it wasn’t for the small part of her that was still human, she would have succeeded. That tiny sliver allowed me to keep her pinned against me until the fight finally ceased.
I tightened my arms as she slumped against me. “Quinn…”
“I won’t do it again, Mama,” she sobbed. “I’ll never steal from their garden again… I’ll starve until you’re rid of me.”
Rage surged through my veins with such a blinding heat that I immediately released her, planting my hands on her shoulders to jerk her back enough to jolt her out of that panicked haze. “You have been rid of her, Quinn Rossi. She no longer has any control over you. The bitch can’t keep food from you until you starve. She can’t lock you out of the house until you freeze to death or you’re picked up by my men.”
The movement was sudden enough that the uncontrollable sobs ceased immediately. Quinn stared at me with wide eyes. It took her far too long to realize that the noise behind me had faded into muffled noises while my hold on her felt real. Several tears escaped down her cheeks as her eyebrows furrowed. “A-Asher?” she rasped. “How…? Are you…?”
The recognition in those stunning eyes gave me enough comfort to where I could release her long enough to move my hands. I cupped her cheeks and brought her closer. “Did I jack a ride into your nightmare? Yes, I did. I am a man of many gifts, pet, and they’re not all located below the belt.”
That wasn’t one of the times that I had pegged where it would take her a few minutes to register my words. When they finally sank in, her lips curled and a ragged laugh escaped her. It was shaky, but it was still a true warm noise that clashed with the corruption behind me. She covered my hands with her own. “You didn’t have to do this.”
I stroked her jaw with my thumbs, causing my pet to shiver against me. This was a movement that I could tolerate — the type that immediately got me hard. “I didn’t have to do what?”
She averted her gaze, nibbling on her lower lip. “Break me out of that cycle. I’ve had these nightmares all my life. I’m used to going through it alone. Dealing with the weight of the memories by myself.”
My jaw flexed as I struggled to curb my rage. It was quickly simmering now that Quinn was free from her nightmare — and it helped that the events behind me had simply ceased entirely — but that admission threatened to almost completely revive it. I pulled one hand away, tugging down the top of her tank to expose her marked breast. “A week ago, this would’ve meant something else entirely. I don’t think you realize how much things have changed since I first took you, pet. This isn’t a brand showing that you’re nothing more than my current plaything. You are mine in far different ways than I’d planned.”
Quinn’s eyes widened. Even if she didn’t intend to lock gazes with me, they still found their way back to my face. Her cheeks darkened to a rosy pink as my knuckles brushed against her delicate skin.
I had no problem with shifting my hand enough to keep rubbing my knuckles along her breast, encouraging that blush to deepen until I could feel the heat radiating from her. “I take care of what’s mine, pet,” I growled. The desire weighed down in my voice until the words were barely anything more than a husky noise.
The goosebumps along her skin revealed my own desire was beginning to seep into her soul. She sucked in a sharp breath and clung to me, desperate not to let her wobbly legs bring her down.
I inched forward until I had Quinn pressed against the wall, keeping her trapped. “I will never let you starve. You will always have a roof over your head as long as you are willing to put up with my overprotective ass. Any pain I inflict upon you will purely be voluntary. You control whatever I deliver. The abuse you endured from your own flesh and blood will never be done by my hand.”
Her lips parted as the disbelief washed across her face. “We’ve barely known each other for long. How could you make a promise like that to me? I’m your pet.”
“You were just a pet to me, Quinn Rossi.” I shifted my hand from her breast up to her throat. My grip on her wasn’t tight. Just enough for the pleasure to rip through her body and leave her shaking against me. “An incubus doesn’t just knot for any succubus. It takes a possible mating bond for it to happen. Which means my interest in you from the start wasn’t random. We were meant to cross paths. I was meant to buy you. And…”
“You were meant to knot me.” Her voice was soft.
There were far too many words fighting for dominance that it was all I could do to nod.
It didn’t take long for Quinn to start nibbling on her lip again. While there was a part of her that yearned to drop her gaze, the overwhelming pull between us refused to allow that. “So, what does that mean for us?”
I leaned against her, allowing the full brunt of my hardened cock to press into her pelvis. The soft gasp squeezing from her lips was enough to make it twitch, and I hungered for the hot haven of her pussy. As delightful as it would feel, the dreamworld wouldn’t carry over the same sensations that I liked to lose myself within. We could fuck in the basement and alter the memory enough to where it might stop tormenting her like this…or I could simply jolt her out of it to bury myself within the real thing. “That depends on you.”
She balked at me. “On me?”
My lips curled into a wide, coy smirk. “I am more than prepared to take over the throne with you by my side, but my people would be concerned which part of yourself you would choose.”
Quinn’s eyes narrowed into thin slits. “I thought you said my humanity was fading every time we fucked.”
A deep chuckle rumbled from my chest. I leaned forward to nuzzle her neck. “Because it is. That doesn’t mean they won’t ask the question of where you want to place your loyalty.”
Although desire haunted her aura so much that I could practically taste her scent on my tongue, annoyance seeped into it. It created a strange combination that, while I didn’t mind it, I certainly didn’t enjoy it as much as raw hunger. “Why the hell do I owe humans anything? You saw what I endured growing up, Asher, and that was just my mother. Our immediate neighbors knew what was going on. I was far too underweight for them not to know. That didn’t mean a single one of them lifted a finger to help me. Never once did they slip me something to eat.”
I delivered one hell of a nip to her neck, causing her to jerk against me. “Would you join arms with humanity should they ever desire to rise up against my family? My kind?”
Quinn slipped her hands in between us, trying to push me back. As much as I wanted to keep right up against her, I allowed her to put a little distance between us. The irritation swirling within those piercing eyes had only grown more intense. “There’s no way in hell they could convince me to turn against you.”
I responded with a quiet laugh that only prompted those eyes to narrow further. “I know that. I can sense through our new bond that you’re not attempting to deceive me. That doesn’t mean the rest of the demon kind will accept just an answer — a promise.”
