Page 26 of Demon’s Temptation

That’s when he realized the place had gone silent. The music had stopped and all eyes were on him.

That was the moment he realized what he’d done, what he’d said in front of all these people.

In front of…

He spun to where Chaya had been standing. She looked frozen to the spot, eyes wide.

Brent wrenched free of the males still holding him and, ignoring all the onlookers, walked toward her. “Chaya—”

“What the hell was that?” she bit out.

Adrenaline was pumping through his veins and being this close to her was messing with him, but he needed to try and explain. Not that he fully understood himself. “Can we talk?” he said, voice nothing but a gritty rasp. “Somewhere else?”

She gave him a small nod then he was striding to his office, Chaya following him. He heard her walk in behind him and shut the door. Brent paced to one side of the office and back.

“Jesus, you’re bleeding all over the place,” she said to him. “Sit down. Let me clean you up.”

“It’s fine.”

“It was my honor you were defending, right?” she said and held his stare. “Sit down.”

His gut tightened at her tone, the command he heard in her voice, and he did what she asked instantly. What the fuck was going on here? Not a damned thing. It was wishful thinking. Your overactive imagination is getting away with you.

“Just be a sec.” She walked back out to the bar. A minute later she returned with a dish towel and a bottle of water and shut them back in.

She stared down at him. “You’ve got blood on your shirt.”

He glanced down. Jesus. He tugged it out of his pants and yanked it over his head, tossing it on the floor.

She opened the water and poured some on the towel. “So you really lost your shit out there,” she said, sitting on the couch beside him, taking his hand, and examining his knuckles.

What the hell could he say? Denying it wasn’t an option. She’d seen it for herself. He had lost it. Lost complete control again. He felt more demon than man lately, especially around Chaya.

She cleaned away the blood and looked up at him. “You said you wanted to talk, Brent.”

Yeah. Right. Shit.

“I don’t know what happened out there,” he forced out. “What came over me. I’m not…myself around you.” Getting into this with her was the last thing he wanted, but she deserved answers, even if they made zero fucking sense. “It’s like the demon in me…”

“Takes over?” she said. “Like our demon sides are calling to each other, like there’s this massive energy pulling us together.”

He shoved his fingers through his hair. “Yeah.” Fuck, that’s exactly what it felt like.

She dropped the towel in her hand and her eyes locked on his. “So why are we resisting it?”

His pulse thundered, blood roaring though his ears. “It’s not…I can’t give you…” He gritted his teeth and shook his head. “This can’t work,” he forced out.

Her lips curled up on one side. “So what are you going to do—beat the fuck out of every male who touches me?”

“Yes,” the demon in him roared. But he didn’t say that out loud and kept his mouth shut.

She lifted his hand and pressed her full, soft lips to his abused knuckles. Evidence of his obsession, the claim he’d just staked over her in front of the whole club. His cock throbbed hard when she pressed those lips to his skin again. “You want me,” she said.

Not a question. He was slipping over the damn edge. “Yeah, I fucking want you, but you don’t know what…the things that…” He bit back the confession on the tip of his tongue.

“Tell me.” She moved closer, so close her scent filled his head.

He couldn’t fucking move. He should put distance between them, but his limbs refused to take him away from her.