Page 26 of Married to the Devil

I frown at the photo and accompanying details of the familiar blonde woman he projects on the screen. “She was the interruption.”

“For the Council?” Silas asks before rapidly typing the details into his laptop.

“I should have told you.” It’s uncharacteristic of me to gloss over such a detail as who the Council chose to be their spy. More reason to reorder my priorities when it comes to my wife.

“Stella’s aunt is who burst in on her wedding night?” Francesca asks. “That seems cold. Though, some shifters still have traditions of public consummation of political matings…”

Silas shrugs. “She is old school, but publicly she’s in support of Stella, and by extension, you, leading the territory. Our sources say that she didn’t like her brother at all.”

“So we have no reason to think she sent the boys to remove our belongings.” I bite my lip before sighing. “Bring them in.”

“Remy—” Silas starts.

“Even if it’s a prank, we will put the fear of the gods in them. They are old enough to start some real problems.”

I was only a couple of years older than they are when I took over my first territory. Not that anyone knows that.

“We won’t hurt them, but we can threaten them with exile and see if they throw anyone under the bus,” I say.

The library doors are flung open, and a lithe woman with a high ponytail waltzes in. Her dress barely covers her ass, and though she is shorter than her sister, she’s all legs.

“Good of you to join us,” Silas growls. Fiona always brings out a different side of him. One steeped in annoyance.

“Hello to you too,” Fiona says with a saccharine tone.

“I thought you’d still be out,” Francesca says.

“I wanted to debrief before catching some sleep.” Fiona throws herself into a chair, crossing her legs and sinking into the cushions.

“You’ll still be submitting a formal report of your actions,” Silas says as if he can’t help it.

“Whatever you say, Daddy.” She bats her lashes at the lizardman.

The sound of the pencil breaking in Silas’s grip has me clearing my throat to stifle my laugh. The tension between these two gets worse and worse every year and has only escalated now that Fiona is doing more work for us.

“Stop playing with your food and report,” Francesca chastises. Ignoring the thundercloud of Silas’s expression.

The teasing expression drops from Fiona’s face, and she becomes serious.

“We’ve missed something big.”

Once the meeting disperses,I go looking for my wife. The revelations of what Fiona brought to the table will keep us all busy for the foreseeable future.

It was all at once an avalanche of a discovery and not enough.

Silas and Francesca are out the door within a breath to get a jump on the intel, and Fiona slinks away to her and Francesca’s rooms. The energy she’d teased Silas with is gone now that he isn’t here to needle.

I don’t have to look far. Stella sits in the living room, her brow furrowed in concentration while swiping through a tablet that Silas provided her. Barnes is on the other side of the long couch tapping through his own tablet. The space between them is a cautious chasm that won’t do.

The game that I’d been looking forward to is heavier now. Any seductive plans I have will be delayed with this new problem, but the tension in my chest eases at the soft light hitting her from the window. Her hair and makeup are precise, but the warmth traces her delicate skin and lights up the small flyaway hairs like hot gold hinting at her inner liveliness.

Whether she is in business dress or a slouchy hoodie with her hair piled haphazardly on her head, the brimming energy shows through.

And now she’s here.Mine.

The demon notices my presence before she does. His posture impossibly stiffens, and I stop his movement to stand with a gesture. I don’t have long before I start questing for the information we need, but there are things that must be handled.

I settle on the armchair placed perpendicular to the couch.

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