Page 50 of Demon’s Temptation

The woman stationed there tried to stop him, but he ignored her and strode through the doors. The place was packed, people getting in his way as he frantically searched the room for Chaya. Pushing through the crowd, he moved toward the back of the room. That’s when he saw her staring up at a photograph. It was huge, covering most of the wall.

The male in the picture stood facing out, hands stretched above his head, forced up on his toes. He wore a mask covering his entire head. His skin was flushed, cock hard, jutting from between his thighs. A female stood behind him, riding crop in her hand, frozen high in the air after striking his flesh. His back was arched, and every muscle and tendon in his body stood out, straining beneath his skin.

With the mask on you couldn’t see the tears sliding down the male’s face, couldn’t hear his begging and pleading for her to stop, to make all of it stop. You couldn’t hear the shame in his voice when, despite it all, he was begging her to finally let him come.

He knew this because the male was him.

His legs went weak, momentarily threatening to come out from under him. He clenched his fists and fought down the humiliation, the rage pumping through his body. The all-out terror.

Garrett.

The room seemed to close in as he moved forward. Chaya was focused on his image and jumped when he grabbed her arm.

She spun around, eyes landing on him, wide…guilty for a second then they narrowed. “Brent, what are you doing here?”

“Don’t,” he growled.

Somehow Garrett had arranged this and was somehow connected to Victor. He’d brought her here to look at this picture. Was more than likely still here, in this room somewhere, watching him right at that moment. The sadistic bastard had him by the balls.

Garrett knew his weakness and he’d successfully used it against him. Now Brent had no choice but to tell Chaya about his past, all of it, or leave her exposed and vulnerable.

He wanted to storm this room, raze it, and kill Garrett with his bare hands, but he needed to get Chaya to safety and as far from that monster as he could.

The fucker had won again.

Rage burned through his veins as he scanned the room.

Anything could have happened to her, and she stood there staring him down, like he was the one who was in the wrong, like he was the one who’d lied.

“I need you to walk out of here with me now,” he said through gritted teeth.

Chaya’s gaze moved over his face, and yeah, she saw it. She didn’t know what he was freaking out about, but whatever it was had pushed him past breaking point.

She sensed it. He knew this because she didn’t voice the protest he knew was on the tip of her tongue and started toward the exit of the gallery and out onto the street. That beautiful mouth of hers stayed firmly closed as she watched him in a way that made him feel exposed. He snatched the keys from the valet and opened the passenger door for her to get in.

As they drove away, putting distance between Chaya and the monster who had kept him and used him for months, the fucker who had ruined his life, he struggled and failed to gain control. Instead, one horrific scenario after the other flashed through his mind.

The urge to go back was riding him hard. But the demon wasn’t stupid. Brent could tear down that building brick by brick with his bare hands and find no trace of him. Garrett would be found when he chose to be and not before, and that just sent Brent even closer to the edge.

How many times had Chaya been near him? How many times had that fucker had the opportunity to hurt her?

The leather creaked as she turned to face him. “Brent, I…”

“You lied to me.” The emotions coming off her were so strong he had to grit his teeth against them. “You said you wouldn’t see him. You…Christ, you fucked up tonight, Chaya.”

“I’m not a damned child to be scolded. I told you I had no intention to stop what I was doing, that I wasn’t going to stop helping Grace.”

“You put yourself in danger.”

“You know Grace. Do you think she’d let me go in there without safeguards in place?”

“That isn’t the damned point,” he gritted out.

That unwavering stare of hers hardened and, fuck, his cock did as well.

“No? How about you fill me in?”

If looks could kill, he’d be a corpse. Yeah, that just made his dick strain harder against the zipper of his pants. She thought he was being heavy handed but had no idea he was half out of his mind. And there was no way he was having the conversation he needed to have with her right then, especially not in the car while he was still struggling to keep his emotions in check.