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He took his hand off my mouth but didn’t move away. “Stay still,” he whispered against my ear.
“Why? Is it coming back?”
“No. I just really like looking down your robe.”
As soon as his words sank in, when I moved past the adrenaline and the purr of his voice, I realized that yes, my robe had bagged open and he had a perfect view down the front.
I elbowed him, but he didn’t seem to even feel it. He released me, though the way he did it implied my little move hadn’t meant a thing.
“I am so tired of people breaking into my house,” I said.
“You aren’t human, and you don’t have any wards. That’s the same as a ‘come on in’ sign in our world.”
“Iamhuman.”
“Sure, shadow-girl.” He sent me a conspiratorial wink, as if we were on the joke together.
“No, I actually am. No funky teeth, no freaky eyes. Human.” I pointed at my face as though that drove the point home.
He waved at himself. “No funky teeth, no freaky eyes. Very muchnothuman. Sure, though, if you want to pretend, I’m not one to turn down a bit of good roleplay. You want to be innocent Little Red Riding Hood? I’ll play the wolf.”
His suggestion derailed me. How could it not? Any girl who claimed she hadn’t had entirely inappropriate dreams about the wolf in that story was a damned liar. Once I’d reached a certain age, ‘all the better to eat you with’ had taken on a very different meaning.
I pictured a dark, heavily wooded forest as I ran, something on my heels, gaining ground. His warm breath on my neck when he caught me…
Suddenly I didn’t care what he’d said, why he was there or what exactly he meant by him ‘not being human’.
Until I recalled he’d broken in, and clearly him showing up at my office wasn’t a coincidence.
He snorted. “I liked where your mind was going before.”
“What are you doing here? And what was that thing?”
“Don’t we have better things to discuss? Or we can do away with talking all together.”
“I don’t sleep with people who might kill me, but thanks.”
“If someone might not kill you, are they even worth sleeping with in the first place?” He walked over to the couch and sat with such an exaggerated motion that it was as if he fell. “As for whatthatwas? Well, that’s more difficult to explain.”
“Try.”
He let out a long, slow sigh. “Whatever you did the other night sent a hell of a shockwave through the underworld. Did you really think things wouldn’t follow it back to you?”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“Just like you’re human? Right.”
“What was that thing?”
“A bottomless pit of hunger, mostly. It was a remnant—a creature from hell that feasts off souls. Usually they stick to hell.”
“And it was in my living room why?”
“My answer to that won’t change, no matter how many times you ask. It came looking for food after the other night.” He kicked off his shoes then put his feet up as he stretched out on the couch, as though planning to stay.
“What are you doing?”
“It’s late. Unless you’re offering a spot in your bed…”
