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Spoken like a true hellbeast. They were much more elemental in their sexual way of thinking. Which, honestly, she envied. There had to be freedom in that.
He seemed to be forgetting something, though. “I’m pretty sure that although Khloë didn’t get mad about our ‘practice run’, as you termed it, she didn’t give you the green light to fuck me whenever you pleased.”
He waved that away. “She knows that practice makes perfect.”
A silent laugh shook Larkin’s shoulders. He came out with the weirdest stuff.
“You know, we’re similar in some ways.”
She felt her brow pucker. “We are?”
“Yeah. We both make a point of not getting close to people, particularly when it comes to relationships.”
“That’s not true. I avoid—”
“Sweet and short flings,” he finished. “And bed-buddy arrangements. And one-night stands. And long-distance relationships. And just about anything that doesn’t involve total commitment. See what I’m getting at? You demand everything from your partners—it’s all or nothing. Generally, guys don’t agree to ‘all’ straight off the bat. It’s a way for you to hold people back.”
Her demon gave a hard nod of agreement. Larkin only stared at him, mentally floundering. She’d never looked at the situation like that before. But yeah, he was spot on.
Feeling a little vulnerable and defensive, she folded her arms and fired a scowl his way. “Are you going somewhere with this?”
“You’re using my tendency to avoid ‘complicated’ to keep me at arm’s length. Why bother, Lark? Like I said before, the situation is simple—I want you, and you want me. Can’t we explore that and take it day by day? Do we have to define, label, and put a time restriction on it?”
A sigh slipped out of Larkin. She had been overcomplicating it, hadn’t she? Of course, she knew why. She’d done it because she feared letting him too close.
The problem was that, in truth . . . it was too late for that. Teague was already under her skin. She’d refused to admit it to herself, scared of the power it gave him, but it smacked her in the face right then like a two-by-four.
He might annoy her like no one else, but she felt more alive around him than she ever had around anyone. More, she felt accepted. It didn’t matter to him that her demon was a loon. He wasn’t put off by it, or by how snarky she was, or by her having four meddling brothers that would fry him on the spot if he upset her.
He also made her feel safe. Larkin could take care of herself just fine, of course, but that was physical safety. Feeling at ease and comfortable with someone, being confident they’d never purposely hurt you, was something else altogether. Few people had made her feel that she’d be emotionally safe with them.
Teague, she realized, was one of them.
He’d never abandon someone who mattered to him. Never be anything but loyal and protective of them. Never consider his own wants more important than their wellbeing.
And, well, she kind of wanted to keep him. Something she hadn’t consciously acknowledged until this moment.
Her demon grinned, satisfied that Larkin had finally faced the reality of the situation. It felt that he made a good partner and intended to keep him around.
Staring into his hazel eyes—so languid and piercing and utterly focused on her like nothing else mattered—Larkin decided that, yes, that wouldn’t be a bad idea at all.
Of course, there were two issues at play . . . One, he didn’t do permanence. Two, Khloë would never condone it anyway.
Larkin would somehow convince her otherwise. She would talk the imp into releasing him from his promise, just as she would coerce Teague into shedding his ‘flings only’ attitude. Because whether he saw it or not, their fake relationship wasn’t entirely fake anymore. They had something. It was fragile and made up of very strange components, but it was there.
She couldn’t point any of that out to him, though. If he knew she intended to keep him, if he saw that they’d inadvertently crossed the ‘fake’ line, he’d undoubtedly react by backing away. And that basically meant she’d have to be sneaky about coaxing him further over that line.
Luckily, Larkin wasn’t a woman who needed a guy to do all the chasing and seducing. In fact, there’d be some fun in subtly chipping away at the defenses of this bastard who’d already found his way around hers. There’d be humor in trying to force him out of his comfort zone like he’d pushed her out of her own.
He’d probably crap himself when he finally realized they were in a real relationship.
Yeah, this would be fun for sure.
She was crafty enough to pull off shattering his defenses, though she wouldn’t be able to give it her all until she’d dealt with the Holt situation and kicked him out of the picture. Then she could pour her full concentration into the much more interesting project of luring Teague into accepting his fate. Her demon was all for it.
