She made a funny face. “Wow, center of attention. That doesn’t happen often. I don’t have a family, I mean, not a proper one. I was raised in foster homes.” Her mouth turned down slightly.
Shit, she hated talking about her past. “And now you have me, and you have us.” I smiled at her.
Cora perked up. “I do, indeed.”
Conah cleared his throat. “We should eat before the wonderful spread Kiara has prepared gets cold.”
“Someone’s overcompensating,” Cor whispered in my ear.
I almost choked on my drink.
Kiara patted my back. “Oh, dear, did it go down the wrong hole?”
Mal gave a dirty chuckle.
Azazel snorted in derision, although I wasn’t sure what he was disgusted with. Me? Conah? Mal? Heck, he looked pissed off at the world.
Fuck this. As much as I appreciated this gesture, I needed it to be over. This was just too weird with Conah playing eye tag with me, and Azazel playing statue. Time to eat and run. I piled my plate high with ribs and tucked in.
I was hungry, and these were delicious. The meat melted in my mouth, and the sauce was sticky and sweet with a hint of spice that gave my mouth a zing. I was halfway through my plate when it hit me that the room had descended into complete and utter silence.
I raised my head and locked gazes with Azazel sitting opposite me at the other end of the table.
His irises were less silver and more white today, but there was no doubt that he was looking right at me. The derision and the impassivity were gone. Now his expression was pure hunger. Did he want my ribs? Wait … No, that hunger was aimed at me. My stomach flipped, and my chest tightened.
He slow-blinked and looked away, jaw ticking.
“Fuck,” Mal said. “Don’t stop. That was hot.” His lips were parted, and the tip of his tongue caressed his top teeth. “I love a woman who enjoys her food.” He picked up a rib and stripped it clean, licking the sauce from his fingers.
I wanted to climb across the table and suck the sauce off his lips in an open-mouthed kiss that tasted of ribs.
I blinked sharply. “Fuck off, Mal.”
He laughed. “Almost had you.”
“Napkins, Kiara,” Conah said gruffly.
I touched the corner of my mouth, and my fingertips came away sticky and red. Heck, ribs were messy.
“Now, Kiara,” Conah snapped.
Mal frowned at him.
“Oh, dear, of course.” Kiara hurried from the room.
I looked over at Conah, and our gazes snagged. “A please would have been nice. She’s not your servant.”
He didn’t reply, just stared at me. His pupils were huge, eating away at his sapphire irises, and twin spots of color stained his cheeks. I knew that look. It was desire. It was the horn monster looking back at me.
My pulse hammered in my throat. I needed to look away before I did something stupid like groaned or drooled.
“You eat like a peasant,” Mal said, breaking the tension. “Wanton and with passion.” He leaned forward in his seat. “Noble demon females are taught decorum in the bedroom and outside.” He caught his lips between his teeth, his eyes bright. “It’s why most noble demons take peasant lovers. You can tell how a woman will fuck by how she eats.”
Did he just call me a good lay?
“I think he just said you’d be a great fuck,” Cora clarified a little too loudly.
Part of me wanted to tell him to shove it, the other was flattered.
“Enough,” Azazel said, his voice low. His throat bobbed. “Enough.”
“Oh, give it up,” Mal retorted. “You’re both thinking it. You’re both feeling it—that rush of letting go and just giving in to primal desire.”
“No, Mal, that’s your forte,” Conah said stiffly.
Mal shrugged. “At least I’m getting some. From the looks of it, Kiara could do with a little poke too. All this baking and cooking, it’s obviously a sign of frustration. Have you fucked her since she came here? Or have you been too busy wanking off over Fee? And you?” He settled back and looked at Azazel. “Tell me, how long has it been since you fucked … anything?”
Azazel shoved back his chair and strode from the room, and it was then that we noticed Kiara standing in the doorway.
Shit, how much had she heard?
“Excuse me,” she said in a small voice, and then ducked out into the corridor.
“Fuck!” Conah scraped back his chair and went after her.
Mal raised his glass to me and then took a sip. “Happy birthday, Fee. Welcome to the family.”
“Shit,” Cora said. “All this over a plate of ribs.”
Chapter Six
Conah
“Kiara, wait, please.” I stride into my bedroom after her and close the door.
She stops in the middle of the room with her back to me. She looks so small and dejected. Her shoulders slump, and then they start to shake.
She’s crying.
I’ve done this.
I’ve made her cry.
“Is it true?” she asks in a small voice. “Do you have feelings for Fee?”
She turns to look at me with her huge brown eyes that pierce my soul, and in that moment, all I want to do is take away her pain.
“No, Kiara. I don’t.” The lie is bitter on my tongue.
“You’re lying.” She stares at me in horror. “That’s the first time you’ve ever lied to me, Conah. We’re soulmates. You owe me the truth.”
I bridge the distance between us and cup her shoulders. I know her. I know that if she discovers what I feel for Fee is more than an attraction, then our marriage will be in jeopardy. The alliance between the crown and Mammon, the only demon with enough power and allies to challenge it, will be at risk because Kiara is a demon who leads with her heart, and she won’t accept anything but the whole of mine.
She looks up at me searchingly. “Do you have feelings for her, Conah?”
“No.” I’m firm in my lie. “I won’t lie to you, Kiara. I find her attractive. The human aspects of her personality are intriguing, but I’m in love with you. You are in my heart and no one else. Attraction fades. What we have, this.” I stroke her cheek, and her eyes flutter closed. “This is eternal.”
She smiles softly, and a tear skates down her cheek.
“Don’t cry.” I kiss her lips softly.
She opens for me, obedient and eager. Fee’s face fills my mind, and I deepen the kiss.
Kiara moans and slides her hands into my hair, but I want more than her light touches, I need more. I want Fee’s mouth. I want … Oh, God. I’ll hate myself for this in the morning. I close my eyes and imagine Kiara is Fee, and then I let go and show her just how much I want her.
Chapter Seven
“Why do you have to be such an asshole?” I followed Mal down the corridor, annoyance simmering in my veins. He’d cleared the room out with his unnecessary comments.
“Why not?” Mal padded into his room.
I hesitated on the threshold for a fraction of a second, but fuck that, he wasn’t getting away from me that easily.
I marched in after him. “Kiara made a huge effort today, and you ruined it.”
“And you shouldn’t eat ribs like you’re sucking cock.”
“Dammit, Mal!”
He sobered and looked at me. “Did you deserve it? Did you deserve her kindness today?”
Guilt punched me in the chest. “What did you want me to do? Tell her that her fiancé tried to kiss me and that I wanted him to?” I sighed. “None of this is her fault, and nothing fucking happened between me and Conah, and it never will. You shouldn’t have said the stuff you did.”
“Maybe not, but I’m sick of the lies around here. All the uptight shit, and everyone looking down on me like I’m some kind of Lothario.”
“You have a different woman or women here every other night.”
“I don’t have a fucking choice!” He looked shocked with his outburst and turned away with a sound of exasperation.
My heart was suddenly pounding way too hard in my chest. “What do you mean?”
I dropped my shields a fraction and caught the edge of something dark and empty. Despair.
He spun to face me and grabbed my shoulders in a grip so tight it was almost painful. “Don’t you fucking dare.”
His emotions hit me harder—despair, shame, and something else I couldn’t define. Something that was unique to the demon race. My mind, adapted to human emotions, struggled to make sense of it.
“Put the shields back up,” Mal said. “Or I swear, I’ll throw you on that bed and fuck you raw.”
Shit, now I was conflicted because the heat of his fingers seeping through the fabric of my top, his spicy-rib breath, and the low vibrating timbre of his voice were making areas of my body flutter and throb that shouldn’t.
His eyes narrowed. “Unless you want me to fuck you?”
He sounded almost hopeful. Auditory hallucinations must be a thing now.
I put my shields up. “No. I’m good.” My voice was husky. I cleared my throat. “Let go of me.”
He obliged and walked over to his mini-fridge, pulled out a decanter of blood, and poured himself a drink.
His throat bobbed as he downed the blood. Out of the three Dominus, he was the only one I’d seen drinking blood. I was obviously spending way too much time with him.
“What did you mean, Mal?”
“Urgh.” He set his empty glass down and licked his lips. “I was hoping you’d forget.”
“So, the offer of a shag was just a distraction.”
He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “I never kid when it comes to sex. I don’t have that option.”
My pulse sped up. There was more to this. He had no choice but to have sex. He’d said that. “What is it? A curse? Do you feed off sexual energy or something?”
He looked up at me, surprised. “You’re good. Yes, to both.”