Page 59 of The Guardian (Dark-Hunter 20)
Chapter 17
Lydia laughed as she watched Seth trying to figure out how to work her iPod. Only he could look that sexy with a frown so stern while wearing a set of black in-ear headphones that trailed down both sides of his head.
"This was made by a demon, too, wasn't it?" His voice thundered in the room.
Lydia pulled out one of the earphones. "You're talking really loud. You should always take one of these out when you speak so that you don't accidentally shout at people."
"Oh. Sorry." He sighed in frustration. "I don't get how this plays music."
"Well, it doesn't just play music. You can use it for all kinds of things. I have pictures in here, games, even movies."
"What kind of pictures?"
Lydia shrugged. "I have some of my house in England." She scrolled through her album until she found one of her living room, then she held it out to him so that he could see.
Seth studied the sedate room that was decorated in greens and yellows. It was very understated and yet also feminine. "It's nice."
"I like it." She scrolled to another photograph and held it out to him. "That's my backyard."
It reminded him of a jungle. Still it was serene and inviting. In all honesty, he felt a little guilty over keeping her here with him when she could be home right now had he not kidnapped her.
She would have been safe. But for him.
"You must miss it."
Without responding, she leaned forward to show him again how he could toggle around the photos. "Just press this and it'll scroll right through."
He did as she said, and discovered more photographs of her home and of her neighbor's yard. But when he got to one of Solin and her with their arms wrapped around each other, all the happiness inside him died.
How could he have forgotten about Solin?
Because you wanted to.
Yeah, but that didn't make it right.
Lydia placed her hand on his. "Seth? What's wrong?"
I'm a jerk and a sucker. That's what's wrong.
Most of all, he was a fool.
Seth couldn't speak at first as guilt overwhelmed him. When he found his voice again, he glared at her. "How could you..."
She continued to play the wounded innocent in this. "How could I do what?"
Seth showed her the photo of her with Solin. The love and happiness on their faces ... He deserved to have the crap beat out of him over it. He should never have touched her. "How could you cheat on Solin after everything he's done for you?"
She gaped. "Excuse me?"
His temper mounted at her feigned indignation. She had no right to be angry at him for defending the man she'd screwed over. "You heard me."
Lydia was so stunned by his assumption about her relationship with Solin that she was at a complete loss for words.
His gaze narrowed even more. "Are you trying to think up a lie to excuse it?"
Now that, that set her temper off, fast. It took everything she had not to slap him. When she spoke, it was through clenched teeth. "I don't have to think up anything." She raked him up and down with her gaze. "I ... you-I-I..." She kept sputtering and stuttering in outrage.
"He loves you so."
"And I love him!" she snapped.
"Then how could you have had sex with me, knowing that?"
She gestured at Seth's lower extremities. "Because I can't have sex with him." She almost choked on the word.
The very thought of sex and Solin nauseated her.
"Why not? Is he impotent?"
She shivered in revulsion. "No ... I don't know. Why would I know? Ew! Gods! Stop that! Ew! Ew! Ew! I don't want to think about that area of his body. As far as I'm concerned, he doesn't have one of those, and nothing other than his feet exists below his waist." She made a gagging noise as she slung her hands in the air, repulsed beyond endurance and disgusted by the very thought of Solin having sex with anyone. "Yes, I know I'm being childish, but I don't care. That's how I feel about it. Yuck! Who wants to have sex with their father? Gross, gross, gross ... Gross!"
Seth sat back on the bed, unbelievably stunned. And not over her outrage and overreaction. Was any of that true?
"What?" he asked.
"Yeah," she snapped, jerking her head at him, "you heard me. Incest doesn't run in my family, buddy. Just so you know."
Okay, now he had the distinct impression that she was insulting him. "What are insinuating?"
"You're the one with the family tree that doesn't branch." She illustrated said tree with her fingers. "How many Egyptian gods slept with their brothers' and sisters' wife's mother's uncle's dogs? Hmm? I ask you?"
He wasn't quite sure if he should be offended or amused by her attack on his family. Honestly, he had no real feelings for any of them other than hatred and disdain but ... "Have you visited your pantheon lately?"
"We're not talking about my pantheon, here. Are we? No. We're insulting yours."
Seth was definitely amused now. "Well, just so long as we have that straight..." Which brought him back to what had started all of this. He sobered instantly. "Is he really your father?"
"Yes ... and you are absolutely the only single living person besides us who knows this. So if you tell anyone, I will know it and I will choke you until you ... do something that makes me happy."
