Page 68 of Trust the Fall

SEPTEMBER

LUKE

I throw back the glass of whiskey before pouring myself another. Drinking away my misery isn’t working out like I’d planned. If anything, I feel worse.

I made sure that Victoria got back to my castle and settled in a room, but I haven’t spoken to her since our fight. She’s asleep in a random room somewhere within these walls. She refused to sleep in my bed.

I just got Victoria back, and we’re already at odds.

I’m a fucking idiot.

I should go to her. Beg her forgiveness.

But there’s the whole matter of her thoughts about the reaper.

A snarl rips through my chest at the idea of her with him. I’d kill him before he so much as touched her. My hands clench the glass so hard it cracks. “Fuck!” I throw the glass, and it shatters on the stone.

Not if that’s what she chose.

A promise was made not long ago, and I intend to keep it. I told Victoria I’d never bend her will, and I won’t. If she chooses a life that doesn’t include me, I’ll walk away.

“Satan, can I be of service?” Lilith’s smooth voice calls from a dark corner.

She slinks out from the shadows, wearing nothing more than stickers over her nipples and a red G-string.

“Lil, what the hell are you wearing?”

“What? This?” She feigns innocence when we both know damn well what she’s up to.

We’ve done this dance for millennia. She knows when I’m tense and in need of release, and every time, she comes willingly to serve. This getup is precisely what she’d wear for a night of losing ourselves in each other.

Those days have long been over. Since the first night I saw Victoria in that cemetery, I haven’t been able to touch another woman. Lilith included. She knows this, and it’s been a source of contention since.

She’s been relentless in her pursuit to persuade me back to her bed, but it’ll never happen. Not when I’ve had Victoria and know what love feels like.

“She saw her own thoughts, Satan. She wants him. Give in. I can make you forget it all,” she purrs, running her red-painted nails down my chest. I bat her away.

“Enough, Lilith. You know it’s not happening.”

“And why, Satan? Because of her? That angel?” she sneers. “She doesn’t understand you and she never will.”

“I don’t care. I love her.”

“She won’t choose you. She can’t, and we both know it.”

Her words hit hard, and the need to lash out at someone can’t be contained.

I jump from the throne, prowling toward her, and based on her wide eyes, she knows she’s overstepped.

“What’s happening here?” Zeke asks, coming into the room with Michael on his tail.

I brought them here to begin the preparations for taking back the throne and for Victoria’s departure to the reaper kingdom.

“What does it look like?”

“Like you’re about to strike a woman.”

“Demon,” I correct. “And for the record, I was not going to hit her.”