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“Tell me about it,” grumbled Devon.
“I’d be pissed at him if I didn’t wholeheartedly believe he cares about you, too,” said Harper. “Anyone who knows him well can see that you’re important to him. You’ll both be hurting when this is over.”
Devon felt her nose wrinkle. He’d said she mattered to him, but that didn’t mean she was important to him. Hell, coffee mattered to Devon, but she could live without it. The people she cared for? They were important to her, and she’d do whatever it took to keep them in her life. She simply didn’t have that much value to Tanner.
He probably wouldn’t be happy when it was over, but she highly doubted he’d be hurt by it. Especially since his main objective was to fuck her out of his system.
“Playing it safe and keeping him at bay didn’t exactly make me happy,” said Devon. “So, I’m just gonna take what I can get while I can get it—knowing it won’t last and that there’s no HEA in store for me where he’s concerned.”
“Or you’re setting yourself up to be hurt,” said Harper. “I don’t want that for you. I want you to be happy. A short fling—”
“The best thing about all this is that it’s nothing more than a short fling,” Devon cut in. “It means he won’t have the opportunity to make any kind of mark on my life; it won’t devastate me when he’s gone from my little world because he was never truly in it—he’ll simply have existed around it.
“I’m not going to lie and say I won’t still be hurting when he and I go our separate ways, especially since I’ll have to see him every day. But I’ve been through worse than losing Tanner Cole. I survived those things, and I’ll survive this. I’ll just need you girls to take me out and get me blind drunk a few times.”
“We can do that,” said Khloë, giving her arm a light squeeze.
“Whatever you need, sweetie,” Raini promised. “We’re always here for you—you know that.”
Yes, she did know that. Damn if she didn’t have the best group of friends ever. Forcing a smile for them, Devon said, “Hey, don’t fret so much. I’ve got bigger things to worry about than Tanner. As it happens, so have you, Raini.”
The succubus shot her a narrow-eyed look. “It’s so typical of you to turn the attention to someone else when you’re in the spotlight.”
“Yep,” Devon admitted, unrepentant. “But I’m right. Have you heard from Maddox?”
Raini sank into her leather chair. “He talks to me,” she blurted out, her gaze on the wall. “Mind-to-mind, I mean.”
“Saying what?” asked Harper, but the succubus didn’t respond. “Is he pushing for you to form the anchor bond with him?”
Raini shook her head. “He just … checks in. And stuff. But I never respond.”
Khloë lifted her brows. “What do you mean by ‘and stuff’?”
“It’s not important.”
“It is if it’s bothering you,” said Devon.
Raini forced a nonchalant smile. “I can deal.”
“You sure of that?” asked Harper. “Because I could ask Knox to have a ‘chat’ with him and tell the guy to leave you be.”
Again, Raini shook her head. “There’s no need. Maddox will get bored when he realizes I’m not going to answer him. Like I said, I can deal. I’ll let you know if that changes.” She doodled an X over her heart. “I promise.”
Harper let out a heavy sigh. “All right, if you’re certain?”
“I’m certain,” Raini assured her.
Sighing again, Harper turned to Khloë. “What about you?”
The imp’s confused gaze darted left to right. “Hmm?”
“What are you going to do when Keenan finally acts on his little thing for you?” asked Harper.
Khloë waved that away. “Keenan doesn’t need a girl in his life, he needs an AA sponsor. Or a dick surgeon to make his package more in proportion. Do they have dick surgeons? Or do the doctors have another title? Like Penis Fixers or something?”
“I’m seeing through all this flippancy,” Harper told her. “You like him.”
Khloë made a face. “He’s good-looking, sure, but that’s just skin, muscle, and bone. And his incubus mojo.”
“A mojo you’re immune to,” began Raini, “so you can’t blame your attraction to him even partly on that. Besides, you don’t just like his looks, you like him.”
“I like lots of guys,” said Khloë with a casual shrug. “I’d prefer one who wouldn’t love to permanently hook himself up to a drip of pure vodka. You all know how I feel about alcoholics.”
Yeah, she had no time or respect for them. Mostly because her mother was a raging alcoholic. Demons were prone to developing addictions; it was sadly one of their curses. It was also partly why the Underground was so popular with all its bars, casinos, and other gambling events.
“Knox said that Keenan isn’t an actual alcoholic,” Harper told her. “He’s positive that the incubus could cut vodka out of his diet if he needed to—he just simply doesn’t want to.”
