Unbind (Alchemy #6)

by Elodie Hart

He turns, and steps in beside Gen at the lectern, and oh my God. Oh my fucking God. It’s him.

Because if Tom Ellis reminded us of anything in Lucifer, it’s that Satan is in fact a fallen angel… and he looks every inch of the celestial being he once was.

I’d stay forever if it wasn’t for the fact that this enchanted palace comes with a royal beast of an owner, unfortunately.

I wonder what she thinks of it. The house, I mean. I wonder if she likes it.

I mean, come on. It would be like I’d fallen into the pages of some excellent Beauty and the Beast reimagining, where the beast was Mr Darcy, and he was—some irritating high-handedness aside—utterly, unspeakably perfect.

He’s lost the hoodie, kept the soft-looking white t-shirt, and gained a tent in his jogging bottoms the size of a bloody wedding marquee.

It’s official. I’m in heaven. Even if it’s the home of the devil.

‘Thank you for letting me look after you,’ he says softly, and then he’s gone.

I was bundled off and pampered by an intimidating, bossy as fuck man who I have excellent reason to despise. He then had the nerve to lavish me with medical experts and disturb my blissful slumber with his sweet little snores and his monstrously big dick.

‘Bollocks. Give me the dick porn.’ ‘It was there. It looked big. It looked hard. It looked like the answer to nuclear warheads and cancer and food inequality and every other problem facing mankind. Okay?’

Dear Lord in heaven, help me to survive this man.

The irony of my investing in a sex club where I can have any woman I please except for the one I actually want is not lost on me.

Will I see you in there later? Do you ever slip through those doors and let any of those hungry, entitled arseholes fuck you? Would you ever, in some inconceivable parallel universe, let me fuck you? Let me make you feel as good as I know I could, if only you’d let yourself judge me on the man who stands before you today and not the sins I was capable of committing half a lifetime ago?

‘You only want me because your ego needs to prove you can conquer any woman you like, especially one who despises you.’ ‘And you want me because you’re far too intelligent to underestimate the mind-melting power of a good hate fuck,’

‘If you want me to touch that pretty little cunt of yours, Natalie, then you’ll need to show it to me first. I’m not getting you off under your skirt. No fucking way.’

‘Such a shame you hate me,’ he muses against my breast. ‘I’d love to kiss you. It’s interesting, though’—he twists his finger inside me, and oh my dear God—‘that you can’t keep your legs closed for me, isn’t it? And it’s positively fascinating that you are absolutely soaked.’

There are times for brushing things under the carpet, for locking the monsters in the closet and hoping they’ll stay there. And there are times when the only way forward is through, when the most fearsome confrontations can yield the greatest blessings.

‘I need you naked,’ I say sulkily. ‘It’s not fair.’ He grins, and it’s positively wolfish. ‘Life’s not fair, little one. All in good time.’ ‘Is it because you have a hairy back? Don’t be embarrassed. I’m willing to overlook—ohmyohmygod.’ He pulls out of me and thrusts up, hard, stealing the air from my lungs. ‘That’s one way to shut you up,’

Tonight, I intend to show her another side of myself. A darker, more shadowy side, as well concealed as it is integral to the man I am, the needs I have. There’s no doubt I’m falling hard for Nat. I’m unspeakably grateful for every part of our fledgling relationship.

But as I collapse over her, wrapping my arms around her stomach and shoulders before hauling her up against me, it strikes me that she can’t possibly comprehend the enormity of what she does to me.

‘Isn’t it annoying when you feel fine but a certain person keeps fussing over you like you’re on death’s door?’ she asks me with a perky smile. Checkmate to her. ‘Yeah. It certainly is,’ I grit out.

pout like the brat I am. ‘And it’s serious?’ Mum presses. ‘It certainly seems that way.’ ‘It’s still early days,’ I hedge, right as Adam says firmly, ‘It’s serious.’

‘You’re a fucking CEO. Own it, and start acting like it.’ ‘Or what?’ ‘Or I’ll put you over my knee until you do.’

‘Luckily Nat found a way to break the ice that evening,’ Adam deadpans, and I slap the hand that’s on my stomach. ‘That’s so rude! I still can’t believe you let him kidnap me,’ I tell Gen. ‘Yeah, well, looks like your Stockholm Syndrome is still alive and well,’