Page 22 of River of Deceit

“Did you want her first?” I ask, confused. “I’d have let you. She wasn’t even all that bite-y, after we roughed her up properly.”

Asch’s phone goes off again, but this time he doesn’t instantly move to answer it. “I’m pretty sure someone was following us outside of the tunnels. I didn’t want us both distracted.”

“Following us into the tunnels?” I repeat. I try to remember if I’d noticed anything, but mostly I remember Pandora’s anger and her warm mouth. “If you say so.”

Asch takes in a deep breath, and I can see his lips move as he counts to five before he lets go of it. “One of these days, you’re going to believe me when I say something to protect you,” he mutters. “I knew you wouldn’t have listened.”

“I’m listening!” I protest. “But I’ve got you looking out for me anyway, right?” I smile at him, and I see him roll his eyes. “If somebody did see… not to pull a Declan, but so what? We fuck them up a bit or dump them naked in the woods or something.”

“You aren’t completely untouchable,” Asch replies, and his voice is quieter than it usually is. “There’s always someone bigger and badder, Blaze.”

There isn’t.

There can’t be.

My father wouldn’t allow me to cower in fear, so I need to be the strongest, theworstperson in the room.

“It’s cute you think that,” I say to Asch. “Okay, we’ll take Pandora somewhere more private next time. Maybe we tie her up.”

I see a flicker of confusion on Asch’s face. “You want to fuck her again?”

“Uh, yeah? You haven’t had a turn yet,” I point out.

Maybe I don’t usually go for seconds with a chick, but most of them don’t do anythinginteresting.

Most of them don’t practically beg me to destroy them.

Most of them don’t hurt Asch.

“So you were serious about all of that? Her practicing her blowjob skills and all. I know what I said, but I thought we were just scaring her,” Asch replies slowly.

I can’t read his expression, but I watch as he licks his lips like he’s considering what I’m saying.

“Of course I was serious. It’s not a credible threat if we never go through with it.” I shake my head with a smile. “Don’t lie and tell me you don’t want to. I know you got hard. And if you weren’t into her, you wouldn’t have tried to fuck her last night.”

“I was into her before I knew she was insane,” Asch replies. He plays with his phone without picking it up to look at it, though I know by now he’s itching to read whatever reply his mother had sent him. “Now that I know I have to worry about being stabbed, it’s less appealing.”

“Or more exciting,” I counter.

Asch glares at me. “Remember that thing about me trying to protect you? I know what my future is with the Bouchards, Blaze. I’ll be there for you any time you need me, but you have to let me”

I don’t need his protection though.

He’s the one who’s self-conscious.

He’s the one who gets hurt.

He’s the one who’s bleeding right now.

“How about you tell me what you want to do to Pandora instead?” I suggest. “And you can add the detailed protection plan, if that gets you off.”

“Funny,” Asch says, sarcasm dripping from his voice. “Have you considered a career as a stand-up comedian?”

I give him a crooked smile. “You think I should crack jokes next time I beat down an idiot like Declan?”

He rolls his eyes. “All right, fine,” he finally relents. “I want her to blow me while you fuck her hard, so hard she can’t help but choke on my dick. I want to hear it, I want to feel it, I want to know she’s struggling tobreathe.”

That’s more like it.