Page 90 of Demon Food

It wasn’t a smile he was wearing, but it wasn’t a glare, either. It was something far too playful for me to yield.

“What shall we do when we meet beyond these walls?” I asked, scooting to the end of my chair. “I’m dying to see the way your hair looks in the sunlight. Think you’ll crave a swim, my fox? Or perhaps just a walk since you’ll be free from your leash.”

“Won’t I just be on a different leash, Prince?” he asked. “One that belongs to you?”

Gods, yes. Fuck, yes. Belong to me, human. Give yourself to me.

“For how long am I tied to you? Am I free to leave?”

“Don’t be silly, darling. Of course. Go anywhere you please.” I smiled. “I’ll just go with you.”

To that, he chuckled. Despite his defenses and the hell he’d been through, he chuckled like he was allowing himself to be truly humored, and it earned my respect.

“You did not mention that when I agreed to this arrangement,” he said. “You said nothing about my being followed by a lost, demonic puppy.”

“I do not resent that comparison. I would love to cover you in licks.”

He scooted closer, leaning over the desk. “And what if it would please me to go back to my brothel?”

Anger slashed through me.

“Where I might return to my duties.”

Anger and jealousy. It was dark and sticky in my gut, and I could barely be expected to tolerate it. “There are no duties for you there. That part of your life is over.”

“Oh, that’s right,” he said, his grin a bit wicked, like he enjoyed toying with me. “How could I forget? You plan to outlaw anyone in the kingdom from ever touching me again.”

“Darling, is that honestly what you think of me? You think I’ve gone completely mad?”

He showed his palms. “I’m just repeating what you said last night⁠—”

“The whole realm.”

He blinked.

“No one in this whole realm is allowed to touch you, Feloré. Well beyond the walls of this kingdom. That is what I fucking said.”

His eyes narrowed as he licked the perfect Cupid’s bow of his upper lip. “Have you always been this possessive?”

I didn’t let my gaze falter as I said, “No.”

It was like he was waiting for me to continue. But there was nothing more for me to say, and the silence that followed did the talking anyway.

A smirk settled upon his lips. He leaned back in his chair, studying me like I was a complicated equation. It was funny how I’d never really seen it before. Perhaps because he didn’t want me to see it.

But here and now, with his wine flute perched in his slender fingers and his blue eyes fixed on me like he was trying to decide how to feel about me—he looked just like a concubine. A gorgeous, sultry, seduce-three-soldiers-at-once concubine.

He pushed himself from his chair.

The twitches hit me right away, then got increasingly worse, needling my chest and shoulders as he circled the desk. Gods, it was the way he was walking, or maybe, it was the card game. Maybe, it was everything about him.

I gripped the arms of my chair to stop myself from doing something stupid like grabbing his waist as he placed his flute onto the desk and slid his fingers along its surface.

Then he slid open the drawer and pulled out…a cigarette? I lifted a single brow. He wanted me to smoke?

His cheeks were delicately flushed from the wine as he eased in closer, cigarette in hand. My fingernails dug into the suede of the chair as I let my gaze dip down his body.

Then I parted my knees, and that was when this fucking human stepped between my legs.