Page 91 of Soul Food

I could still feel his gaze even though I wasn’t looking up.

“If she’ll keep me company?” Amit added.

I couldn’t be silent anymore, not when he was talking to me. I lifted my head. “Is there a reason you came here?”

“Yeah.” Gray eyes glimmered. For a second, I thought they would change red. “For you.”

Jayne waited next to me when normally she would have given me privacy. She knew what kind of state I’d been in. I adored that about her. I might pay her but her loyalty and friendship came free. “I’ll text you later?” That was my way of letting her know she could leave.

She nodded, flashing a relieved grin as she did. I returned my focus to him. “You saw?” I whispered.

“I saw,” he agreed.

I blinked, then sighed thoughtfully. “You were right there, weren’t you?”

His lips tightened. “You’re angry.”

I frowned. “No.” I exhaled. “Are you always with me even after everything?”

He shook his head. “I don’t go into your home, but don’t expect me not to stay close when you’re anywhere else.”

“I’m exhausted.” I let my head slump forward.

“Let me take you home.” He offered his hand. I took it. Instead of leading us to a car, he walked us inside and led me into a janitor’s closet, then his hands were on my waist.

“What are you—”

I got my answer when the room changed much like he did the first time he did it. My stomach swam just as his hands fell away from me, and he stepped back. We were in my home.

“Sire,” Lars greeted him.

The soul reaper placed his hands in his pockets, almost angsty. He never acknowledged the gremlin. His focus was solely on me. For someone I’d come to know as so put together, he looked slightly unhinged right now.

“What is it?” I whispered, not immune to his intense gaze. It made me squirm. “What?” I said again. “Stop looking at me like that, soul reaper.”

“Like what?” he asked.

“I can’t do this anymore. I have no energy left to fight you.” My entire body sagged in defeat. “I’m tired of fighting you.” I cupped my shoulders, making an X with my arms across my chest, and finally admitted my haunting truth. “But most of all, I’m tired of missing the one thing that’s plagued my nightmares for so long.”

“What do you want me to do?” he murmured.

I licked my lips, wiped my eyes and turned my back to him. “I want you to help me unzip my dress.”

I couldn’t see his reaction, but he stepped closer as his finger slid across my neck before trailing down to my zipper. I held the front of my dress as he unzipped it and tilted my head back to look up at him when he was finished. He no longer hid who he was anymore. His usual gray eyes were shimmering red as he watched me.

“You tempt me even now that you know who I am?” His accuracy when reading me could be annoying.

“I don’t know what you mean,” I said despite what I was making him do.

“Lars.”

I jumped at the mention of the gremlin. I had already forgotten about him until the demon had brought him up.

“I’m already leaving,” was Lars’s quick response.

Anticipation was potent underneath my skin. Two large footfalls, then he closed in behind me. I faced forward, body trembling with so much want for this demon as one big arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me flush against his chest.So warm,for something that’s made me cold for so long. He bent down and blew over my ear and neck. I wondered if he reveled in the way my body quaked for him? I closed my eyes, tipping my head against his shoulder as his fingers trailed down my neck. A breathy sigh escaped my lips. Already, he was dipping my body in fire. I was brimming, waiting, in need of his deliverance.

“Is this what you want?” he whispered in my ear.

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