Page 59 of Broken Obsession
Ares reacted faster than Eden’s eyes could track, the blaster somehow back in his hand and aimed at Noonagain.
“Wait!” Eden leapt between them, flinging his arms out to create the biggest barrier he could.
“He saw you breaking,” Zar reminded Ares.
“He won’t say anything,” Eden pleaded with the Black Hart in front of him, trying to tune out anything the one on the multi-slate was saying. “You can trust him. Tonight never happened, right, Noon? Tell them.”
“I don’t even know what you’re talking about,” Noon wisely replied. “I wasn’t even here tonight.”
“See?” Eden urged Ares with his eyes.
Ares hesitated but didn’t lower his guard.
“How about this,” he offered, “you mentioned punishing me. Let’s do that. I’ll let you do whatever you want, okay? Noon is going to leave, and we can pick up where we left off, yeah?”
“That’s hardly a punishment,” Ares stated, “seeing as how that’s something you want.”
Eden bristled. “Are you saying you don’t want to fuck me?”
“You hurt his feelings, Creation,” Zar grunted.
Ares lifted his gaze to Noon. “Get out.”
His best friend didn’t need to be told twice. Noon vanished down the hall as quickly as he’d appeared, the sound of the front door slamming shut coming a heartbeat later.
“Keep your shit together,” Zar gave that golden parting nugget of advice and then promptly hung up.
Eden was a bit surprised, staring at the device around Ares’ wrist for a moment. All of that, and the guy just…ended the call? Like nothing had even happened? How was he even so certain Ares was okay? Eden certainly wasn’t.
“Drop the towel,” Ares said, voice low, an edge of barely suppressed instability present.
“Can you, uh,” he cleared his throat even as his hands dutifully went to unknot the towel, “put the gun away?”
Ares flicked his wrist, and the weapon deconstructed, metal twirling in the air before reforming into a band that snapped into place. The bracelet was familiar at this point, since the Black Hart was always wearing it, but Eden never would have guessed what it actually was.
The towel spilled to the floor at his feet, and Eden waited for the next command, too nervous to act on his own. He had a million and one questions swirling in his head, but it was clear Ares wasn’t completely out of the woods of insanity just yet. He’d make sure he was stable before asking the things he wanted to know.
“Go to the couch,” Ares told him, and Eden practically darted around the kitchen counter, dropping down on the center cushion of the cheap mauve couch he’d gotten secondhand at a restore shop a town over. “Lay back.”
Eden took a shaky breath and laid down, the top of his head brushing against the arm of the furniture. He instinctively curved his knees, keeping them pressed together even as he felt his hole tighten and his dick twitch when Ares started for him.
He took his time with his approach, shedding his clothing as he moved, discarding pieces here and there. By the time he was standing over Eden, he was completely naked, cock jutting from between strong thighs, a pearlescent drop of precome trickling from his slit to roll down his impressive shaft.
Maybe he was the insane one, because just like that, the events of the past half hour vanished from his memory in a puff of hazy, lust-induced smoke. Eden succumbed to the brain fog willingly, eyes locked onto that solid part of the Black Hart that promised delicious pleasure.
“You’re such a horny little thing,” Ares said, tilting his head. “A normal person would be afraid. Disgusted. You’re…”
“Not normal,” Eden provided, allowing his legs to slip open, exposing his private parts to the Black Hart’s view. “Adrenaline stimulates me. Has ever since my family was murdered. Nasty side effect.”
“The sudden death of my family did not provide the same ramifications,” Ares told him, and before he could question that, added, “Pity.”
He didn’t really see Lucifer as the type to try and solve his trauma by connecting with strangers for wild sex, so…made sense they’d developed different “coping” mechanisms.
“Sex isn’t therapy,” Ares said. “It’s an avoidant strategy. Your compulsion to manage your feelings about their deaths through intercourse will only get you so far.”
“It’s not just intercourse,” Eden wasn’t sure why he felt the need to explain, but he did. Maybe because he hadn’t felt comfortable talking about this with anyone, and after witnessing whatever kind of break Ares had just had, it didn’t feel like such a vulnerability to do so with him. “It’s the rush of being taken yet consciously knowing I have control. Resisting, knowing it’s not real. I could call the whole thing off with a word. What they experienced that horrible night wasn’t sexual, but…”
“You couldn’t deal with the potential emotions they felt,” Ares guessed. “Guessing made it worse, made you spiral, so you ran from those feelings by finding comfort in one you understood. Arousal and adrenaline can often go hand in hand. Take fear, for example. There are similar reactions. You can experience a type of euphoria from the released endorphins. I can see how that could be addictive, especially to someone running from their other emotions. But you’ll only be able to avoid it for so long, Paradise.”