Page 4 of Demon with Benefits
Eva was teaching Ash how to DJ, and he’d nearly train-wrecked the last transition. Meph had booed loudly and earned himself a punch in the ribs. He was going to have a whole collection of bruises before this night was done.
Raum and Ash were sharing Meph-punching duty tonight, since Belial had opted to stay home at their apartment on the level above. Their brother Mount Everest might not pass for a human at a witch party—considering he was seven feet tall and prone to bursting into flames—and tonight was all about blending in. Poor bastard could probably hear the music through the floor, but it was for the best.
“Yeah, Raum. Be nice.” Meph’s grin broadened. “Or should I sayRoman.” He cackled, remembering Iris’s earlier lecture about how they had to use fake names so they didn’t out themselves as demons—or else.
Raum’s lip curled. “Call me that again.”
Meph opened his mouth.
“You be nice too, Meph,” Lily said.
While Eva had learned to just watch the brothers’ constant bickering from the sidelines, maybe with a bowl of popcorn in hand, Lily had taken on the role of peacekeeper. She was constantly trying to make them apologize or stop threatening one another. Positive results were still forthcoming.
Meph felt more than a little proud of himself about the whole Mist and Lily thing, considering he’d been the one to convince Mist to go after her in the first place. He’d even waited in a park as backup while they had their first date.
A first date that had gone horribly wrong, but still. Look at them now. They were the cutest. All happy smiles and adoring looks. Almost as gross as Ash and Eva.
The whole relationship thing gave Meph the willies. Holding himself accountable to his brothers was bad enough. He was constantly pissing them off, and the last thing he needed was to have a woman giving him those same disapproving looks, even if it meant he got laid on the regular.
He got laid on the regular anyway. And he did it all without having to commit to anything except giving a couple orgasms before he grabbed his clothes and ran like the building was on fire.
Well... hehadgotten laid on the regular.
Classic Meph, that was. Escape from Hell, finally finding the freedom he’d always longed for, and then, less than a year later, develop some kind of post-traumatic psychological hang-up that meant he couldn’t enjoy himself.
Any kind of intimate physical contact made him panicky. His palms would sweat and shake, and he’d have trouble breathing. Embarrassing.
The smile on his face, residual from laughing at Raum, suddenly felt forced. His cheeks hurt from it, it was so fake, so he just let it drop. For once in his damn life, he stopped fucking grinning.
His phone buzzed in his pocket.
Eager for the excuse to look away—he could feel Raum’s perceptive gaze on him—he pulled it out. It was a text from Jacqui, Eva’s mom and his kinda-mom. Okay, so she hadn’t actually told him to call her Mom, but he liked to pretend she had. He’d never had a mom. He wanted to try out the word in his head.
He read Jacqui’s text.The final piece is ready! I’m dying to take the mold off, but there’s no way I’m doing it without you. You’d better get your butt over here fast.
A picture of the mold he’d made for his latest sculpture popped up on the screen below the text. He’d been waiting for the resin cast inside to dry. Shit, he wanted to go right now. He could sneak upstairs, use the hellgate in his room, and be there in seconds.
He glanced around. Would anyone even notice if he left? Raum was looking right at him with a frown. Damn it, yeah, his illustrious presence would totally be missed at this bust of a party.
Still, he was pretty sure he’d be able to sneak off for a couple minutes without the vibe totally dying. Lily was talking to Mist, and Raum was still staring blankly at him.
“I’m going outside to make a call,” Meph told him.
“To Jacqui?”
Meph just looked at him, not affirming or denying the statement, which he knew was as good as an affirmation, but whatever. Nobody knew about his secret obsession with sculpture. Raum probably had his suspicions, but Meph hadn’t acknowledged them. It was his dirty little secret.
A demon making art. What a fucking joke.
But he couldn’t seem to stop himself, and Jacqui wasn’t helping either, always texting him shit and showing him what she was working on. Always encouraging him to just “pop by” and try some new medium until he’d gotten hooked.
Again: a fucking joke.
“You talk to her a lot,” Raum said.
“So?”
“Are you fucking her?”
