Page 227 of Savior
I wince, clutching my fist to my chest.
Legion brings a hand to the corner of his mouth, swiping the pad of his thumb across it, glancing at his finger for any trace of blood. He isn’t bleeding. Too bad. His stormy grey eyes lift to meet mine again, and another slight sneer twists his lips.
“You even taste sweet.” He snarls the words at me, is if it’s something he expected. Something he finds predictable. Typical, even. And annoyingly so.
“Well, you taste like smoke and ash!” I snap back at him. “How dare you grab me like that! Kiss me like that!”
“Like what?” he taunts.
“At all!”
The slick smirk on his face fades back to dark, and he’s a scowling Demon once again. “Fucking tease.” He mutters under his breath. “You’re all the same, aren’t you? You think you can use your feminine charms to manipulate whatever you want out of men.”
“Excuse me?” Is he kidding me? He kissed me! “I thought I saw something in you, that day you came to the shop. That day in the parking lot, when you helped me.” I attempt to snatch my purse up off the floor as quickly as I can manage in my condition, my mind still reeling from how he even managed to pull off this entire maneuver.
Shoving past him, I grab for the door knob, when I feel his fingers clamp around my arm, spinning me back to face him. I meet his contemptuous gaze with my own. “Let me go.”
“You sought me, sweet one.” He murmurs, then drags his tongue across his lower lip as he looks me up and down. “And it isn’t the first time.”
“And I was wrong. You’re not redeemable, Legion.” He tenses at the sound of his road name falling with distaste from my lips. “You’ll eventually have to let me out. Your nasty little habit, or rather, addiction, will drive you to it.”
A low chuckle rumbles deep in his throat as his free hand reaches into the pocket of his cut. Removing a thin sheet of individually packaged, foil encased little white squares, I watch as he pops one out, tossing it into his mouth. His jaw muscles ripple and clench as he chews, staring back at me, watching me with an expectant look on his face. It’s as if he’s waiting for me to express my surprise.
I hate that I am surprised, as the minty aroma creeps into my nose. “Is that… Nicotine gum?”
The corner of his mouth curls up into another dark grin. He replaces the packet back in his cut pocket, and simply continues to stare at me while he chews.
“You can’t help that you’re drawn to me.” He finally says. “You and I make more sense than you and him.”
I hold up my left hand, thrusting it up into Legion’s grinning face. “I’m engaged to the man I love.”
“Why are you really here? Hmm?” Legion asks, pulling me closer to him. I reflexively attempt to tug my arm from his grasp. “He didn’t put you up to it. You never told him you were meeting me. This is oursecret little plan.” We stare each other down in silence for a few moments, before he speaks again. “You think I don’t realize what you’re doing with me? That I don’t see right through you? I know you women.”
“You don’t know anything about women. Or you wouldn’t do what you do with them.” I snap at him.
“I don’t do anything with them they wouldn’t be doing on their own. If anything, I keep them safer.”
“Is that a sick joke?”
“They can’t go to the cops when a John roughs them up.” He growls back at me.
“What about the drugs?”
He shrugs with a complete indifference I find appalling. “They’d be doing them anyway. So what, if I don’t encourage them to get clean? That’s their business.”
“That you exploit to run your business. You are soulless.”
Legion chuckles again, his shoulders lifting and dropping as if he couldn’t care less. “Maybe. Some women are product. Some are prizes. That’s my fault?”
“That’s disgusting… You’re disgusting!”
“For what it’s worth, you’re in the latter category.” His eyes rake over me with a hunger that is both primal and longing.
“One you’ll never win.”
He nods, seemingly more so to himself. “You know… I do need a fucking cigarette.” He spits the gum at the floor between us, then pulls me to another area at the back of the cellar, where a set of wooden stairs leads up to a set of metal cellar doors.
“This is the only way I’d ever be on your arm! When I’m man handled by you and forced to be.” I snap at him, trying to keep up with his long strides.
