Page 28 of Hateful Prince
“Took you long enough.” Asshole pawed at my leg until I stooped down and picked him up.
“You heard me asking her to let you in.”
His laughter floated through my mind. “Never thought I’d live to see the day big bad Hades asked permission for anything.”
“Yeah, well, I never thought I’d live to see the day Cerberus started slumming it as a Bichon, but here we are.”
“Excuse me, pal. The ladies love a Bichon. The number of belly rubs I’ve gotten from Dahlia alone should make you jealous.”
I rolled my eyes. “That’s not the part of me she likes to rub.”
“Word on the street is that she’s not interested in rubbing much of anything now that she knows your secret.”
Shoulders stiffening, I gripped him a little too hard around the ribs, and he squirmed as I continued striding away from Masterson’s office. Where I was going, I had no damn idea, but I needed some distance from that infernal woman.
“Hey! Watch the hands, man! I still gotta breathe!”
I loosened my hold until he settled.
“Jesus. Dahlia might be into asphyxiation, but it’s a hard no from me. I only have one throat in this form. I’m used to having two backups.”
I ground my teeth so hard I could practically hear them cracking. The last thing I wanted right now was a reminder of what my woman did and didn’t like. Mostly because the top of the didn’t like list was me. Which made no fucking sense. She was my soulmate. She should already be desperately in love with me.
Against my better judgment, I’d given her some space like she asked for, hoping she’d come to her senses and seek me out. But she hadn’t. It’d been radio silence since I left her room the other morning. Did she not want me?
“Maybe it’s ’cause she already has two others. You’re less potent or whatever the fuck.”
“How many times do I have to tell you to stay outta my damn head?”
But was the cute little prick right?
“Yes. I’m right. And you know the rules, boss. I go where you go. I’m the one watching your back, keeping you safe, etc., etc. I need to stay in the know at all times.”
I grumbled audibly as I passed by the demon Kit, who was walking in the other direction with his nose in a book—his own book of plays. Of fucking course he was. Narcissistic fuck.
“Your curvy confection is in the music room.”
“Alone?” I asked the demon, refusing to make eye contact.
He let out a sardonic laugh as he swanned past us. “Is she ever alone?”
Asshole yipped and jumped out of my hold as flames worked their way up my arms.
“Not all of us are fireproof, you grumpy motherfucker.”
“Sorry,” I muttered, sparing him a quick glance and finding him busy licking himself between the legs.
“You almost neutered me. Again.”
“You say that like I was responsible for the first time. You’re the one who signed up for it.”
“It was the responsible thing to do. Can you imagine a whole underworld of me running around? I’m too busy to be there for my children. I will not be a deadbeat dad.”
Something about his response seemed canned, like he’d rehearsed it a hundred times to get it just right. But the last thing I wanted to do was interrogate him about his doggy vasectomy. I had other questions in need of answers.
“By the way, who did you leave guarding the gate? Maybe you should go back to the underworld for a while to check in and recover. I’ll be fine.”
As if he expected that from me, he turned and huffed, tail up, chin high, like a damn show dog. “Is that even a question? This ain’t my first rodeo. Dieter is keeping watch till we get back.”