Page 15 of Deal with the Devil

“Yeah, pfft, okay, and I’m worth 300 gold?” She slid up beside his chair and watched him respond to an email about employees going over their scheduled time because of some event. “And what even is this? I thought you ran an evil empire of crime?”

Knox shook his head, “The trick is that eighty percent of my business is legitimate. It keeps the papers above board, keeps the council off my back, and my evil empire of crime afloat. Why do most criminals get caught?”

Amelia rolled her eyes, “The taxes.”

“Bingo!” He jabbed a finger in the air before glancing up at her. “And you are worth 300 gold. I knew that the moment you stabbed Rick in the neck.”

She was speechless as he pulled away from the desk and led her down into his lap. Perched against the thick arms of his office chair, she sat with him as he went through and manually approved over thirty employees’ overtime in a computer system. It was so mundane it was almost laughable. But she couldn’t even think about that when his words repeated in her head.Shewas worth 300 gold?

Yeah, okay, sure! Amelia was stuck between laughing at him and sputtering to herself. Instead, she lingered in silence, watching him mess with inventory, send orders for toilet paper and towels for the casino, and other mundane things. How peculiar it was to lay her head against his shoulder as he reviewed video, stopping and clipping a small video of someone counting cards.

“Are you taking notes for future crime boss novels?” he teased softly.

“Slice of life mafia romance, actually.” She grinned from ear to ear as he chuckled. The sound rumbled through his chest and filled the air around her. It was soothing and sweet and nothing like what she expected.

Amelia Armstrong was in trouble because as she lay there, a fiendish hand rubbing her side, staring at yet another email he was typing up, she could imagine doing this.Doing it for real.What would life be like if Knox had met her on the street. What if he came into the bookstore like love interests do in romance books. Shows up and flirts with her, asks her for coffee, what if Knox had met her under any other circumstance…what would nights be like?

She’d never know because she’d sold her autonomy for her sister’s freedom. She’d never know if this was more than just passing attraction because he’d traded her choice for a debt.

Amelia yawned, laying her head against his shoulder, nearly drifting to sleep there in his lap. And when he finished, he put his technology away and walked her back to his room. She’d half expected him to jump her bones again, but he had her in bed and turned off the lights.

“For the next few hours, I’d like to sleep, so no stabbing me in my sleep.” His joke made her choke on her own spit as she flopped down into the pillows heavily.

“Damn, there goes my whole plan,” she snickered, curling up around a pillow. He engulfed her with his arms and legs, spooning her. It warmed her to feel his body heat against her. The room, the house, and the night were deadly quiet.

Then he whispered, “Sweet dreams, Amelia.”

She whispered back, “Are you demanding I have good dreams? Huh? Is that a part of the contract now?”

He laughed breathlessly against the shell of her ear, “Pet, your mouth will be the death of me. Sleep, you little shit.”

Amelia drifted to sleep to the soft breathing and occasional chuckling of the fiend she’d struck a deal with…a strange way to fall asleep. For the very reason she couldn’t get comfortable reading should be the reason she never got to sleep…but in his arms she felt nothing but safe.

Chapter five:

Knox

Few times in hislife did he go back to that place once he’d crawled out of it. After he’d taken up his throne and consumed his kingdom, Knox Zrazduel hardly had a bad dream.They did happen, but it wasn’t often.It didn’t seem to care if he’d felt comfortable in his position or that he was holding onto a gorgeous woman. Nightmares don’t care about frivolous things like that. They only care about the pain. They only care about the suffering. And they only stop when there’s nothing left to hurt.

He was a child, hung by his horns, blood dribbling down his eyebrows from the large gashes. His hands were chained and allowed to hang, increasing the pressure in his skull. Declan slugged him a third time, spinning the fiend in a circle.

“Should we feed him to the maw?”

“Nah, he’s worth more alive than dead.”

“Stitch him up and get him back on the street, I want him running scared. I want that bastard found!”

Knox woke with a gasp, sweat drenching the sheets. His fingers were cramped around Amelia. She was twisted toward him, cupping his face. Frenzy pumped through his veins as hepanted for air. Amelia cooed him, “Hush, hush, it’s all good. It was a bad dream.”

He was engulfed by her. His arms around her and fingers burrowed in her flesh. Their legs were tangled, and his tail knotted around her ankle.

“Wha—what…happened?” He gulped down air. A tiny side lamp near his bed flickered on and a soft orange glow broke through the empty abyss.

Amelia smiled at him apologetically. Stroking his hair and around his horns sweetly, she brought him back down into the bed. He’d somehow sprung up and nearly gotten his horns tangled in the pillows on the way up. “You were talking at first, then you shouted ‘no’ and were fighting the blankets.”

“Huh.” He couldn’t parse together words or an excuse. His heart was thrashing in his chest, ready to explode at any second. Yet, with her tender hands stroking his face, every passing moment his heart calmed down within the cavity in his chest.

“Do you want to talk about it?” she murmured.

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