Reaper (Dark in You 8)

“Great,” Piper mumbled.

“Don’t listen to the things that bitch spouted,” advised Khloë. “She’s full of shit at the best of times.”

Unfolding her arms, Piper gripped the edges of the desk behind her. “As much as I hate to say it, she made some good points just now. Levi is a collector. He can get under your skin. And he will do what it takes to get what he wants.”

“There were plenty of truths in what she said,” Khloë allowed, “but she twisted them.”

Devon nodded. “He didn’t use sex to get close to you and win you over so he could make you accept the bond. He wouldn’t do that.”

Probably not, but … “I do feel collected, though. I can’t count the amount of times he and his demon have made a point of stating I belong to them.”

“As their anchor, you kind of do in a sense,” Devon gently pointed out.

Well, yeah. “But they say it a lot.”

Devon laid a hand on Piper’s arm. “You’re not a simple commodity to Levi.”

“I know. But outside of being his psi-mate, I’m not important to him. Not that it really matters either way. I can’t have him in my life in more than an anchor capacity. I’ve accepted that. But I hate that Celeste is right—I do feel owned, I do feel sickened by the thought of another guy touching me, and I probably wouldn’t reject Levi if he made a pass at me.”

“I’d like to think that—” Devon cut off, cocking her head. “The bell above the door just chimed. That’s probably him.”

Piper hadn’t heard the bell, but she didn’t have hellcat enhanced senses. “I don’t want him to see that she got to me. He’ll demand to know what she said, and I’d rather not get into it.”

“Okay,” said Khloë, “so then we stroll out of the office, casual as you please, while having an everyday conversation.”

His nerves rubbed raw with anger, Levi prowled into the studio just as Piper, Devon, and Khloë walked out of the office, chatting about … wolf spiders?

He studied his anchor. No injuries or ruffled clothing, so it was unlikely that a fight had occurred. Her expression … he couldn’t quite read it.

Faint lines of strain marked her face, but he couldn’t figure out their source. Anger? Impatience? Confusion? He truly couldn’t tell, nor could he decipher the emotion that flickered in her gaze for the briefest moment when she looked at him.

Halting in front of her, he demanded, “You okay?”

She shrugged. “I’m fine.”

No, she wasn’t. Not really. But it would be shitty of him to push her for an honest answer right here in front of God and everyone.

He wanted so badly to reach out and palm the side of her neck, or rub her upper arm, or give her nape a comforting little squeeze. Something. Anything. But he didn’t trust that he’d be easily able to step back. He was more likely to eat up her space, snatch a fistful of her hair, and take her mouth.

He balled up his hands. “Did Celeste threaten you?”

“No. She wasn’t here to bitch at me for forming the bond with you either, before you ask.”

He was about to ask that. “Then what did she want?”

“To do what she often does: annoy me for her own entertainment. She probably also hoped to provoke me into an argument so she could run back to Whitney and Joe with little tales.”

He growled. “I warned her not to use you as her punchbag anymore.”

“You had to know she was unlikely to heed your warning for long.”

Aware that Devon and Khloë still flanked Piper, their postures protective, he cast them both a questioning look. They floundered under his scrutiny, gave him breezy smiles that didn’t quite meet their eyes, and then melted away.

“You didn’t need to come here,” Piper said to him, a note of irritation in her tone.

Feeling unwelcome, he bristled. “I told you I would if you didn’t get rid of her.”

“And I told you I can talk to whoever I want. Celeste is not a threat to me. Nor is she someone I can forever avoid and ignore, because she’s family. It was better to hear her out and get it over with, so I did.”

Maybe, but … “She had no right to come to your place of work.”

“Well it’s not like she could have turned up at your apartment to see me, is it? You wouldn’t have let her into the complex.”

Too fucking right he wouldn’t have.

“It left her no choice but to seek me out elsewhere, so that was what she did.” Piper let out a subtle sigh, and her composed expression cracked. The lines on her face deepened. That undefinable emotion flashed in her eyes yet again. Her mouth set into a flat line. But then her armor slammed back into place, and it was like the crack had never happened.