Page 102 of Dead Heat

Relief rippled through me. “Me too.”

“If we have a conflict, I don’t want us to avoid it. I want to hash it out in real time, so the problem doesn’t fester.”

“In other words, I should stop hanging up on you.”

He wore a wry smile. “That would be a start.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“Do you think you won’t be able to talk to me?”

“It isn’t about you. I was raised to hide myself, remember? I can’t undo a lifetime of conditioning just because the right demon comes along.”

He pressed a gentle kiss to my forehead. “Noted.”

“Are you interested in marriage?” I asked.

“Not a dealbreaker, but I like the idea of it.”

“Do demons have marriage ceremonies?”

“Depends on the type of demon.”

“Just to be clear, neither one of us is proposing, right?”

He chuckled. “Not at the moment, no.”

My body relaxed as I sank against him.

“Maybe we should take this downstairs to a more comfortable location,” he said in husky voice.

“And miss out on the stars?”

His whisky-colored eyes smoldered. “Who’s paying attention to the sky when I’ve got the whole universe right here?”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

I pacedthe length of the porch as I spoke to Monica on the phone. She and Cedric were ready to install their magical pitfalls on my property and wanted to come within the hour.

The pragmatic part of me resisted. “Maybe you should wait until I make it back from Helheim.” If I failed, there’d be no point in setting traps.

“Let them come, Lorelei,” Ray urged. “It’ll be one less thing on your mind when you come home.”

When not if. Ray believed in me. I’d been angry with Kane for doubting me, and here I was doubting myself.

“Okay,” I said to Monica. “I’ll be here.” I hung up and stuffed the phone in my back pocket.

“I thought I was the one with the weight of the world on my shoulders.”

I swiveled to face Max. “It’s been a week,” I admitted.

“I feel you. One minute I’m chilling in the base of a volcano like usual and the next I’m covered in grass and twigs and dodging werewolves.”

I dropped to a seated position on the step. “Want to talk about it?”

The cherufe slumped against a porch column. “Have you ever felt like the odd one out? Like all the other cards are Kings and you’re a Joker?”

“All the other cards can’t be Kings. There are only four of them.”

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