Page 114 of Demon with Benefits
“But—”
“I’m more than fine. I’m fantastic. I’m better than I’ve ever been in my life.”
“But—”
“Stop panicking and think. Do you remember how we got here? Do you remember what happened?”
He took her advice and shut up. His head was spinning, and he needed to slow down and process.
“I shifted, and then Valefor—that bastard...” He shut his eyes, forcing himself to recall. “And I just watched. I listened to him. I let him...” Another wave of nausea rolled over him as he remembered standing there, watching Valefor drag Iris away, hit her, wound her.
“You didn’t. You helped me escape, remember? We left together and came here.”
“You hit your head, and I just dragged you into a cave and left you there. How is that helping?” Fuck, he was going to puke.
“Don’t you dare blame yourself. Everyone told me you were just this demented evil monster that sucked people’s souls, but you saved me. You took me here and you protected me.”
“But you could havedied—”
“Yeah, you’re right, I probably should have gone to a hospital. But your demon didn’t understand that. He thought he was protecting me, and that—” To his vast surprise, she choked up. “That means so much more than I can ever say.”
“Shit.” Hardly an eloquent summary of his feelings, but he didn’t know what else to say. “Iris...”
“If your demon hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t have found my power. I think he understood. I think he knew that I could heal myself if I just got over my crap.”
Meph winced. He wouldn’t give himself that much credit. Most of his thoughts in demon form revolved around the wordhungry. “I don’t think—”
“It doesn’t matter.” She waved a hand. “Whatever the case, it’s because of him that I’m healed. This is huge, Meph. I’ve never had this ability, and if I hadn’t figured it out, I never would have gotten it. It was your demon who helped me get to this point, and I will always be grateful to him—toyou—for it.”
Meph dragged a hand down his face. “You can’t be grateful that I dragged you into a cave and left you to die. That’s not—”
“You didn’t do that! Stop saying that. You protected me. You were with me, holding me.”
“Babe, you have blood all over you. You don’t look very well protected to me.”
She shot him a look. “I have a tiny bit of blood on my shoulder, and that’s only because you got a little carried away.”
“That doesn’t make me feel better about this.”
“Well, I, for one, enjoyed it, and I don’t want you to ruin what was a special moment for me with your worrywart attitude.” She crossed her arms over her bare breasts, which momentarily distracted him. “I was so excited to get you back, but I already miss your demon form.”
He dragged his gaze back to her face. “What?”
She shrugged. “He’s not that bad. Honestly, I don’t see what all the fuss is about.”
“Not that bad?”
“No! He’s kind of cute.”
His jaw dropped.
“He took care of me. He gives amazing head, and he tried to communicate by hissing my name. It was sweet. I like him.”
There was a long pause while Meph tried to make sense of that.
“The demon is me, Iris,” he finally said. He looked at his hands. “It’s not some other entity. It’s me.”
“I know. I didn’t mean to make it sound like I don’t understand that, because I do. But, well, Raum described it like you were two different people.”
