Page 20 of The Witching Hour
His hands pried at my fingers, but he couldn’t compete with my strength.
“But,” I continued, “there is nothing you could say that will stop me from squeezing the life out of you.”
“Ren.”
Celeste’s voice drew my attention away from my prey, but I curled my fingers even more, cutting off most of his air while I looked over at her.
“You can’t kill him.”
My eyes narrowed. “Why not? It’s obvious that I won’t be able to convince him to let you go and move on with his pathetic life.”
“Ren.”
I tore my eyes away from my quarry, stunned when I didn’t see any signs that she’d been affected by a spell.
“You came with him willingly?” I asked, completely confused. “You promised you wouldn’t put yourself in danger if I let you take part.”
“Let me?” she scoffed. “I’m not here because youletme be!”
Sighing, I shrugged. “Semantics, love. Now, as I said…patient, reasonable, and all that bullshit. So explain.”
Arthur was gurgling, but I ignored him, not taking my eyes off my stubborn consort.
She gestured toward Arthur and commented, “You might want to let up a little. I don’t think he’ll survive your patience.”
I glanced at the man and conceded that he was nearly out of oxygen already and nearing unconsciousness. If she asked me not to kill him, she must have a good reason, so I eased my grip just enough to keep him alive while I waited for her explanation.
“You said Arthur was yours.”
“I did.”
“And that if we saw an opening, to take him.”
My eyes narrowed, suspicious of where she was going with this. “That wasn’t meant for you,” I argued. “But pretending that it was, go on.”
“And you wanted him alive.”
“So I could be the one to kill him.”
“I figured. But we’ll come back to that. I simply did as you requested—brilliantly, I might add. When I realized he was sneaking up behind me, I knew he’d try to ensnare me. So I decided to ‘let’ him.” She smirked, and my crazy dick found her smugness sexy, making me hard as a rock. “I knew you’d show up shortly. And now, he’s right where you want him.”
“Wrong,” I barked.
Celeste frowned, clearly puzzled by my comment.
“I don’t want this motherfucker anywhere near you.”
“Oh, well. You should have been clearer about that.”
I gaped at her, shocked and turned on by her attitude all at once.
“We can argue about that later,” I finally conceded. “Why can’t I kill him?”
She raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest. “For the same reason you wouldn’t have if you’d found him while searching the past couple of months.”
I let out a slow whistle. “You knew about that, huh?” She nodded, and I grinned. “Impressive.”
She sighed and pointed at Arthur. “He’s losing consciousness again.”