Page 45 of Cookbooks and Demons

She regarded it, then raised an eyebrow at him.

“I can’t tell you,”he said.

“Why?”

“Because that answer would cost you something if I got it for you,”he said.

“But—” And again, when her mouth was open, he pushed one of the prepared cheeses into it, stopping her words. He did the same. The taste was mild and slightly sweet. He tapped the Gruyere de Comte part of the card since both their mouths were full. It was nice, but Helena indicated the pinot noir bottle lying on her bedspread. He cracked it and passed it to her while she made sure to touch his knee. Yet he grunted and shook his head, then replaced her hand on a bare section of his chest.

She went still as she touched his skin, feeling his ribs expand with his breath underneath. He breathed? It wasn’t until he started snapping beside her face that she realized he had been motioning for her to hurry up and take a drink from the wine bottle.

Skin,she thought.I must need to be in contact with his skin for the trick to work.The Pinot and Gruyere together seemed to sweeten both, and finally she had to swallow no matter how much she wanted the tasteto last.

“That one was nice,” she said aloud, her hand still on his chest, which was much warmer than his hands tended to be. “Why…” then she stopped.

He opened his eyes to look at her. “You ask a lot of questions.”

“Well, you’re very interesting, and you don’t volunteer too much about yourself. So I have no choice butto ask.”

“Hmmm,” he grunted and plucked a pickle from the dish to hold out to her lips. She wrapped those lips around the small tube, sucking the briny juices into her mouth.

Again she caught herself.What am I doing? Cut that out,she chided herself before she bit into the little pickle. She winced at the sharp taste.

“Hmm, does not mix well with the pinot,” she commented as she leaned back.

He laughed. “Take a sip of your Riesling. It is light enough that it should help.”

She leaned back to grab up the wineglass, and the stretch naturally pulled her hand off of his chest.

There. Safe,she thought.Sleeping with him would be a bad idea.She was already sharing the memory of food with him, but to share anything else… well she wasn’t about to make a blood sacrifice and the idea of exchanging her body in any way seemed repugnant.Except, aren’t I doing that anyway, by letting him use my tastebuds?That was an interestingquestion.

“Okay, then here’s a question for you,” she said, leaning back in her bed against the headboard with her wine wavering in one hand. “Have you taken other ‘payment’ than memories? Or do demons only have their specialized‘foods’?”

“That’s two questions,” he pointed out, catching her wine to take his own sip to clear his mouth, his hand cupping over her fingers so she didn’t completely let it go.

“And you can’t answer them because it might cost you?” sheneedled.

He studied her face a moment, thenstood up.

“If we’re going to get into this, then I’m going to get the dessert course.”

She laughed. “Why?”

“Because what I’m going to tell you is going to leave a bad taste in your mouth.”

Chapter 24

Finally

Dessert

“So this is like the seven deadly sins?” Helena asked as she took a sip from the small cup of coffee Rafferty had made with thedessert.

“I’m sorry about the inferiority of the brew,” he said, indicating her cup. “You don’t have a French press, so I had to make do with your coffeemaker.”

“Why would I be upset about the coffee if I’m the one who owns the coffeemaker?”

“Well, then it’s me I’m apologizing to,” he said, taking his own sip and grimacing at the taste.

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