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She poked the inside of her cheek with her tongue. “You want me to temporarily move here, don’t you?”
Maddox really had no intention of it being temporary, but she didn’t need to know that. For now. “There’s a strong possibility that Castiel will come for me himself. There’s an equally strong possibility that he’ll decide to kill you to weaken me. I don’t know if an archangel is powerful enough to break through the penthouse’s security, but I’d prefer not—no, I refuse—to risk it. To risk you.”
“He can’t enter this building?”
“No, or I wouldn’t ask you to stay here.”
“Where exactly would I sleep?”
“In here with me, obviously.”
Raini twisted her mouth. Her pride was firmly against the idea. She could take on an archangel—no matter his power, he surely couldn’t combat psychic hellfire, right? But that wasn’t to say he couldn’t hurt her before she’d had the chance to act, much like the first halo-bearer who came after her. Hell, a full-on blast of holy fire could severely hurt her.
Raini wasn’t a fan of pain. Or of holy fire. Or of letting her ego get in the way of good sense.
If Castiel did come for her, she’d stand a far better chance of surviving the encounter if she wasn’t alone in a damn penthouse. Yes, Maddox could teleport to her in an instant. But then she’d have drawn him into danger. It would be far better for her to be out of the archangel’s reach, so that she couldn’t be used against Maddox.
“All right, since I figure this whole thing will have blown over soon,” she said. “But don’t expect me to stay permanently. Don’t think of this as you easing me into joining your lair.” She raised a hand to hold off any argument he might have made. “Yes, I know you think I’d be better off transferring here. And you make a lot of good points whenever you start jabbering on about it. But it wouldn’t be a good idea.”
“Why not?”
“How will you feel when I start dating someone? Or when I take a mate?”
Something dark flashed in his eyes. “Where the fuck did that come from?”
“Anchors can be possessive of each other, as I’m sure you’ve already noticed. It might be a little bit worse for us because we’ve been … intimate. A lot of anchored pairs live in separate lairs because then their relationships aren’t shoved in each other’s faces. If I was part of your lair and dating other guys, you’d have a front-row seat to the show, and vice versa. Maybe that wouldn’t bother you, but … ”
“But?” he prodded.
God, she didn’t want to say it. Didn’t want to admit it, because that would probably put an end to what little they had. He wouldn’t want to continue a fling with a woman who wanted more than he did.
Maybe it was better to just cut her losses and walk away now, though. Dragging the whole thing out would only make her hurt worse in the long run.
She pulled up her big girl pants, rose to her feet, and confessed, “But it would bother me to see you with other women, which annoys the absolute shit out of me. I thought we could cross lines without things becoming complicated. I was wrong. In light of that, it isn’t a good idea for us to keep sleeping together, is it?”
He took a single step closer, eating up the small space between them. “I like what we have. My demon likes it. Neither me nor the entity have any particular interest in letting it end, and it would seem that neither do you. So why should we?”
“Because the possessiveness will only intensify if we don’t.”
“And why is that a bad thing?”
Feeling her brow crease, Raini stared at him. “I can’t tell if you’re being deliberately obtuse or you’re just not seeing the bigger picture.”
“You’re the one who’s not looking at the bigger picture.” Maddox lifted some of her hair and held the blonde and pink strands up to the light streaming in through the window. “I’ve never had a woman in my bed before, not even in my room. Not once. I’ve never taken one without a condom. Never invited them to eat with my lair. Never wanted their time or attention outside of sex.”
“You’ve only been different with me because I’m your anchor.”
Maddox’s eyes drifted over her face. “You fascinate my demon, you know. It loves that you’re a devious, vengeful, lethal package wrapped up in sweetness and sensuality. It likes that it’s one of the few who really sees you.”
Pausing, he dipped his head. “I see you. You know that. It scares you. The men in your past only saw one dimension of you. Having someone walk away doesn’t hurt as much when they never really knew you, does it? But if I was to walk away, I’d have walked away from the real you, and that would hurt you. The thing is, Raini … I have no plans to go anywhere. You should have known better than to think otherwise.”
