Page 24 of Dating the Dealing Demon

“Nothing.”

She scoffs. “Liar.”

I change tactics, looking for an angle where she might tell me what she’d be willing to give me. “Perhaps I felt bad about tricking you.”

“You don’t.”

“True.” The woman reads me too well. I go to laugh, but pain stops me.

“Your ribs looked like they could be broken,” she says.

“Merely cracked?—”

“Same difference. Do they hurt?”

“Yes.”

“Good.” The stern jut of her chin shouldn’t be so kissable. “Do you need an ice pack or another healing potion?”

“Nothing would help me heal faster than physical contact with you.”

“Yeah, that’s not happening.” Only she doesn’t move away from the bed, and her gaze stays pinned on my bare chest.

“I could be back to almost full strength by morning if you sleep here with me, which means I’d be able to search for Ava as well as the culprit opening the portals. If they can tear a holebetween worlds, who knows who they might grab next? It could be anyone.”

“You’re trying to guilt me into saying yes.”

“Is it working?”

She sits on the bed, taking off the thigh holster and slipping the dagger under the pillow closest to her. “If you try anything?—”

“I won’t.” I don’t admit that I probablycan’tin my current condition. “No soul guardians on the bed,” I tell Montejanus.

The mongoose ignores me, scurrying across the mattress like a hairy rat.

“If I stay,” Val says, “then Monty stays, and he can sleep wherever he wants.” The little fucker curls next to her, his eyes gleaming amber with triumph.

I magic off the lights except for a faint glow from the bathroom. I’m not stupid enough to give her a reason to go running from the room. Or to stab me. Not when she’s the key to me healing quicker. I can’t remember the last time a simple invocation of pre-spelled magic gave me a headache. But then today’s been one battle after another.

Val lies on the bed, wrapping her arms across her chest and heaving a big sigh which does nothing but showcase her breasts. Infuriating woman.

Except as a tense silence fills the room, she doesn’t glare at me. Instead, she stares at the ceiling as if working out a life-altering puzzle. I can practically feel the worry radiating off her.

Sure, I could ask what troubles her, but she would doubt whether or not I cared. If our positions were swapped, I would do the same.

We’re not friends.

Hell, given her frequent inclination to kill me and yes…my technical kidnapping of her, we’re enemies. But she healed me because we have a common goal in her friends’ welfare, if forvery different reasons. So I stick with the only subject she might expect from me. “The mating magic won’t work unless we’re touching.”

“I’m your one and only destined mate, and you want me to believe you’re suddenly an expert on mating magic?”

I almost don’t answer, almost don’t offer up information she might use against me or my family. Because that’s all I’ve ever known. In my world, information is currency for making or breaking a deal. Yet she rushed to help me when I was the most vulnerable. “My parents are fated mates.”

Rolling onto her side, she props on an elbow to look down at me. Gods, she’s gorgeous. No matter the damn soul guardian wrapping himself around her ankles. She trails a finger along the space between us that suddenly seems to stretch for miles. I need her closer. I want her wrapped in my wings.

She bites her bottom lip before curling her mouth into a half-smile that promises wicked things. “You mean your mom and dad, the king and queen of all the hell dimensions?” she asks. “Since that’s why you need me. No fated mate, no crown for you. It seems I hold all the power in this little deal between us.”

Fuck.

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