Page 35 of My Demon Mate

EVEREST

“What do you eat in Xendail?” I ask Raven as I feed him a grape from the fruit platter he summoned to our little picnic in the living room. It’s been a few days since we went to Thrill Realm, and I’m still riding high on that cloud. The little stuffed animals Raven won for me are lined up on our bed and I look at them every night before we go to sleep. I even have one for Danae.

We decide to stay in today, lounging on the couch, talking and getting to know each other. It’s only been a little over a week—we have a lot of ground to cover.

But the short time doesn’t seem to matter to my heart. Every time I look at Raven or hear his voice or feel his touch, a little flutter kicks off in my chest. It has nothing to do with the fact that I was promised to him or because he’s willing to kill for me. It has everything to do with Raven being kind to me. With him listening to me, being there for me as I cried about my past and trying to make things better for my present and future. Hell, it even has to do with Raven trying to comfort me when he was only a voice in my head. He’s been the only constant in my life since I turned eighteen.

I love him. I’m madly, stupidly, crazy in love with Raven.

It doesn’t make sense, especially if you consider we’re so different. He can masquerade as a human while he’s on Earth, but he’s not. He’s a beautiful, caring, handsome demon. And he’s all mine.

His deep chuckle rumbles through me, and I can’t help but smile. “Our food is closely matched to Earth’s food, though it is called different things. Your cows, we call—” he makes a rasping noise in this throat that sends a tingle down my spine— “and it has the same nutritional values.” He goes on to tell me about some other things native to Xendail that have my curiosity piquing higher and higher.

The idea of going to hell when put in the context of what humans are taught is scary, but when Raven describes it, I’m dying to see what it looks like. Xendail sounds amazing. Like a nice, welcoming place that would accept me and Raven without question.

He told me there are humans that live amongst the demons. They are accepted and treated with respect. That sounds like an ideal world, somewhere I would like to live.

Could I leave Earth to stay in Xendail full time? It’s something I’ve been thinking about more and more. I’m not sure I’d be ready to leave Earth. It’s all I’ve ever known. But being apart from Raven would be torture. He said he could stay on Earth as long as he wanted, but I know he’d miss his home. What do I have to live here for? Revenge? Yeah, sure. But after that? Nothing, honestly.

A nagging feeling tugs at me, trying to pull me from the present. Something that I need to do, that I need to take care of is nudging at me, but I push it away. I don’t want to think about anything other than Raven right now.

“What about your stores?” I ask, trying to distract myself from whatever that feeling is that’s trying to creep on our good time. “Do you have, like, big box stores?”

He shakes his head. “No. Not really. It is mostly smaller markets. There are items we can summon ourselves, so we do not need a large building that holds anything.”

“You take things from Earth?” I ask incredulously.

Raven laughs, nodding. “Sure. It is not as hard as you would think. And it makes shopping a breeze.”

I laugh with him, feeding him another grape. “Do you like it here on Earth?”

“I like Earth because you are here. And there are some things I have wanted to do here as well.”

“Like what?” I ask, looking up at him questioningly.

“Well,” he says, feeding me a piece of pineapple, “there is this thing called water skiing. Or wakeboarding. That always sounded like fun.”

I’ve thought about doing things like that too, but I never learned how to swim. Since I would probably die if I were out on the water, I always pushed those activities out of my mind. But it would be fun to be on the boat, watching someone have a good time like that on the water.

“Then we will,” I tell him in a tone full of conviction. I’m not sure how, since I don’t have money or a boat to take him out on. But if he wants to do it, I’ll figure out a way. “As soon as you’d like, we can go and water ski. I’d love to watch you. I’m sure the water would look good against your skin.” We’re quiet for a beat. “With all the things you want to do here, would you ever want to stay?”

Raven smiles. “No. I love Xendail. It is my home, where I belong and where my family is. When you visit, you will see what I mean. It feels like home.”

A place feeling like home is not something I have any experience with. Except here, with Raven. He feels like home to me.

Sitting up, I turn to him, sliding a strawberry into his mouth. “I can’t wait. I love how you talk about it. I can go now, right? Since we’re mated?” My cheeks heat as I think back to our mating. I can’t wait to do it again. To feel his knot deep inside, locking us together. Raven rocking into me, pushing against my prostate. Just the thought has my dick perking up with interest.

Raven’s eyes flash. Because of our mental connection, he knows exactly what I’m thinking about. He pushes the food away and drags me onto his lap. He ducks his face into my throat, breathing me in, making me shudder. I writhe on his lap, my cock hard as a rock.

“Speaking of us being mated,” Raven mutters, his tongue peeking out, licking a stripe up my throat and I moan, “it will get more intense when we are on Xendail.”

“How so?” I whimper as he kisses my neck, turning me on more.

“I can fuck you with my tail. Would you like that?”

“Ah, fuck,” I hiss as Raven bites at the skin of my throat. “You have a tail?” How did I miss that? Then again, he’s only been in his demon form around me once and that was while he was killing Mitch. I wasn’t cataloguing his demon body parts, and I didn’t really start to take in more than his power until we were walking back to the car. Even then I was tucked into his side.

Raven drags his fingers into my hair, pulling my head back further. I groan, grinding onto his lap, his stiff member pushing against my ass. “I do. And I can show you all the things I can do with it.”

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