Page 18 of The Guardian (Dark-Hunter 20)
"You fear people. Why else would you live like this?"
He slammed his hands down on his desk with enough force that it made her jump, and it lifted the laptop a good inch before it clamored down and landed sideways on the desk.
"I don't fear people," he said between his clenched teeth. "I fucking hate them." She could taste the venom he spat out with that one word. "Do you understand? They lie. They steal. They cheat and deceive. There is absolutely nothing about them that I can stand ... And if you don't leave me alone, I'm going to take your voice away again."
A part of her was tempted to test him on that, but the saner part of herself won out.
He wasn't one to bluff.
Fine. Whatever. Let him stew in his misery. It didn't really concern her anyway.
Not like I have to deal with you much longer. Sooner or later, Solin would free her. She knew it.
With nothing else to do, she sat on the bed and watched as he worked on whatever it was he had on his laptop. She tilted her head as minutes dragged by and he hit the keys so hard, she was rather surprised it didn't lock up or break.
It was woefully obvious that he had no idea what he was doing, and he became more agitated by the second. Boy, did she understand that. As the old saying went, a TV can insult your intelligence, but nothing rubs it in like a computer.
And for some reason she couldn't name, she felt a smug satisfaction over it.
Good. I hope you stew in frustration until you're pruny from it.
That'd teach him to be nicer to her.
Seth tried to focus on his research, but all he really noticed was the faint sound of Lydia's breathing. Every time she made the smallest move, his body reacted to it against his wishes.
Why had she touched him? Between that and his kiss when he'd given her her voice, he'd screwed himself. Now he couldn't help wondering what it would be like to have sex with a woman and not a demon.
Were all non-demonic women like Lydia? Did they smell that good? Feel so soft?
Don't look at her.
He heard his inner sanity and yet he couldn't resist glancing over his shoulder to catch her staring at his back from where she sat cross-legged on his bed. With her elbows braced on her knees, she rested her chin on her folded hands. He had no idea why he found that adorable, but he did.
"What are you doing?" he asked her.
"Trying to read through your big head."
"Why?"
She gave him a droll look. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe because I'm bored out of my friggin' mind and there's really nothing else to do since I'm not sleepy. What do you do for entertainment? Other than surf online porn, that is."
"Porn?" She used a lot of words he didn't have a definition for.
"You know? Pornography? Naked women showing off their happy places to lonely men who can't get dates? Or, in your case, guys who live under rocks and never get to see a normal woman's happy place."
He was both appalled and intrigued by what she described. Did women really do such a thing? And you could actually see it?
Of course, during his brief time in the human realm, people had been very open sexually. Obviously, they still were.
"I'm not surfing porn." He didn't realize he could do that, but now that she brought it up ...
Where would he go to find it? He hadn't had the computer long. Only a little more than a week. He wouldn't have even known they existed but for one of the slug demons who'd mentioned it while he'd been questioning Solin.
Once he got back to his room, he'd manifested one and it'd taken him awhile to figure out how to use his powers to make it connect to the human world.
The rest of it, though ...
Some special kind of sadistic demon must have invented this damn thing.
But Lydia seemed to know how to work it. "Do you..."
Don't ask. Don't do it.
She arched a brow at him. "What?"
He hesitated. He'd stopped asking others for help a long time ago. Either he was ignored, or humiliated over it. It was a no-win situation for him.
And he'd been kicked in his teeth and insulted enough for one day. "Never mind."
A knowing light sparkled in her eyes. His cock jerked at that playful expression.
"You want me to help you, don't you?"
Yes. But he'd never admit that. "I can figure it out on my own."
She tsked at him. "It doesn't make you weak to ask for help when you need it. Rather, it's a strong man who knows and acknowledges his limitations."
And it was a fool who exposed himself to ridicule. "Do you mind? I need to concentrate." He turned away from her.
Lydia wanted desperately to tell him where to shove that laptop. But the almost boyish shyness about him kept her from being hostile.
He'd started to reach out to her and then something had made him pull back.
Something? Hell, girl, you've seen his body. It wasn't an intangible thing that reeled him in. It was years of abuse that had taught him to stay inside himself.
There came a point in everyone's life when they'd been slapped too many times for reaching out. After a few concussions, they stopped doing it. She understood that better than most.
"Guardian?"
A tic started in his jaw as he turned toward her with a scowl so fearsomely evil, she wondered if it was one he'd practiced in a mirror to scare the other demons of this place.
Good thing she didn't scare easily.
Instead, she smiled at him. "Computers are extremely annoying and hard to operate if you're not used to them. Sometimes even if you are. If you'll let me go, I don't mind helping you do whatever it is you're trying to do." She jiggled the chain expectantly.
Seth didn't move for a full minute as he debated with himself. It was safer for his sanity when she stayed away from him.
Who are you fooling? She might as well be on top of you, the way you react to every breath she takes, even when it's across the room.
And he needed to get this done. His time was running fast through an hourglass he couldn't stop or break. Noir wouldn't give him any kind of extension and he knew it.
Steeling himself, he nodded.
Lydia finally breathed again as her chain vanished instantly. Whoa ... those were some scary powers he had and she still didn't know the full extent of them.
Trying not to think about it, she got up and went to his desk.
He moved out of his seat and offered it to her.
Cracking her knuckles, she sat down, then hesitated as she reached for the laptop. "This thing isn't going to eat my fingers is it?"
"Pardon?"
"I tried to use it earlier and it slammed shut on me. It almost took a couple of my phalanges with it."
