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Great.
Just great.
That was a fantastic start to our new, business-only arrangement.
Exhaling hard, I charged forward. And went ahead and made sure I stayed just out of arm’s reach as we walked down the street to get away from the crowd around the coffee shop.
“Okay,” I said, stopping out front of some dog specialty cookie store that I swear had to be a front for something else because no one ever went in or out of it. “I’m aware it is… unconventional,” I started, even though I knew it was worse than unconventional; it was downright treasonous for me to ask a demon to help me find another demon. “And I think we can both agree it is a sign of how fucking desperate I am that I am even willing to ask. So I don’t need you to play fucking games here, Minos. You’re going to help me, or you’re not.”
“What? No threats to tie me up and force me to do it?” he asked, smirking.
“You’d like that too much,” I told him, chin jerking up.
“Think I’d prefer it if you were the one tied up and begging, babe,” he said, voice silky-smooth.
“That’s not going to happen,” I told him, hoping my voice didn’t sound as breathless as I felt. “This is strictly professional,” I informed him. “From here on out,” I added, nodding for good measure.
“Is that so?” he asked.
“Yes. That’s… that is all over. Whether you agree to help me or not,” I added, so there was no confusion. It wasn’t an either/or sort of situation.
“I’m not sure what is in this for me then,” he said, schooling his face into indifferent lines.
“Huh,” I said, letting out a humorless snort. “It has always seemed to me that you wanted to spend actual time with me. I guess I was mistaken,” I said, shrugging an indifferent shoulder, then turning on my heel to walk away.
I didn’t get far.
I knew I wouldn’t.
Minos’s arm shot out, his big, familiar hand closing around my wrist, and yanking me back around to face him.
He didn’t like that I had the upper hand.
A muscle was ticking in his jaw as he watched me for a long moment.
“I’ll help you,” he said, giving me a tight nod.
“Good. We will get started tonight.”
“Why tonight?” he asked. “Why not now?”
“Because, now, I have to go meet my new mentees,” I said.
“Are you going to give me your number?” he asked.
“No. In fact, fuck no,” I said, trying not to like the way he snort-laughed at that.
“How am I supposed to get in touch with you then?”
“You don’t need to get in touch with me.”
“Not even if I get a lead when we don’t happen to be together?” he asked, and damn him, he had a point. I literally couldn’t stand to waste a minute on this case. If he had something, I needed to know immediately.
“You can… you know… send out feelers,” I said, having no idea what to call that weird connection we had.
“Not when you are blocking me, I can’t,” he said, his thumb starting to rub across the underside of my wrist, making me realize I hadn’t yanked my arm out of his grasp yet.
It took more effort than it should have, but I got free. Then moved back a step for good measure. And crossed my arms just in case he got any ideas to touch me again.
Even as I did so, though, I could swear my damn skin felt tingly from his fingers.
“Fine. I won’t do that for the time being,” I offered, even trying to make it sound like it was no big deal. When I knew it was a huge deal. Giving him that kind of access to me was dangerous. But what other choice did I have? I couldn’t give him my number. If anyone ever has some suspicions about me and my activities, I didn’t want a single piece of evidence tracing back to Minos.
No one could trace the weird connection we had in our heads.
It was the safest plan.
And if I was literally putting my life and reputation on the line, what was safest was what I had to go with.
Even if it meant I was going to have him in my head.
Which came with a different type of risk
At least that one wouldn’t impact my livelihood or my, you know, destiny.
“You’re gonna keep the wall down?” Minos asked, not quite believing me. “After keeping it up for this long?”
“Well, before now, you had no business being in my head. Temporarily, while we work on this case, I will grant you access since it is the only option. What?” I barked when he stared at me with those unnervingly penetrative eyes.
He opened his mouth to say something, but seemed to think better of it, taking a second to glance away before looking at me again.
