Page 33 of Cookbooks and Demons

“I just…” he said, sounding frustrated. “This neck thing…”

“Your tie?”

“Well, I’m trying to!” he barked.

“No, I mean, it’s called a tie,” Helena corrected. He didn’t respond. “Do you want me to come in and help you?”

“No, I can get it … if I just…” The sounds of struggle on the other side didn’t inspire confidence.

“Raffie, just open the door,”she said.

After another few seconds of struggle and several more under breath curse words, the mechanism on the door rattled and the oversized thing swung inward.

The demon man stood there in the black dress pants, his black shirt untucked, definitely struggling with the modern tie in his hands, which he had somehow tied into a confusing knot that he couldn’t undo.

“Oh, I see. Okay, we’re going to have to tuck that shirt in first.” She reached for his pants, then stopped. “Can I touch you?”

“What?” he asked, genuinelyconfused.

“I’m just going to tuck your shirt in, but to do that right, I need to undo the pants to lay it flat. So can I touch you?”

“What? Yes, yeah, it’s fine, whatever,” he dismissed, working onthe tie.

“Oh, okay,” she said and undid the top button of the dress pants. “I just thought you would object.”

“No, I don’t care what happens to this body. You lose your sense of personal space or modesty pretty quickly in hell,” he said, finding the right bit to pull as the knot in the tie finally came undone.

“It’s just with Honey back there, you were very defensive.” Helena reached around his waist, flattening his shirt to smooth it down his backside, trying to ignore how her cheeks were burning hot as she did it. Rafferty didn’t seem to mind at all.

“Well, she’s her,” he muttered, holding his arms up as he waited for her to finish adjusting his shirt, the tie dangling fromone hand.

“And I’m me?” Helena asked, straightening so she could bring the top of his pants together to button and zip up. As the zipper ticked its way up his crotch, her eyes drifted upward to look up into those eerie, but beautiful, starburst eyes.

“Yeah,” he said, softly.

They held the breath between them for aneternity.

“You have starbursts in your eyes,” Rafferty noted.

“What?” Helena asked, cocking her head slightly tothe side.

“Within the brown of your eyes, there is green. It looks like a starburst,”he said.

“Oh, thank you.”

“I didn’t pay you a compliment—just stating a fact.”

“Oh. Okay.”

Another still moment passed.

“Do you have the tie?” Helena asked.

He handed it to her, and she shifted back a little, partly to catch a breath, but partly to also measure out the tie in her hands. Then she looped it over his neck and focused on doing her duty, turning the silky cloth over in her hand until it tightened into a perfect Windsor knot.

“There,” she said, brushing her hands down his shoulders even though they were perfectly smoothed down. “Now you lookhandsome.”

He shook his head. “Don’t. Don’t do that. Don’t be kind to me,” Rafferty whispered, his voice growing thick. “Don’t be kind to me.”

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