Page 102 of The Demon's Pet

“I thought this wasn’t serious,” I said. “Just casually helping one another out.”

“There’s nothing casual about sex,” Sam spat. “It’s deeply intimate, no matter how you want to think about it.”

“I…” I ran my hand through my hair, mussed and tangled from thrashing on my pillow. “I don’t want to think about it. I just couldn’t help it.”

And the demon lying beside me was never going to have feelings for me, so I needed to stay as distant as possible.

No matter how much I might be coming to like him.

“I don’t think exclusivity is too much to ask,” Sam said.

“You didn’t ask it,” I said. “You never said that was a condition of what we did.” My hands felt shaky. I didn’t want to owe him anything.

I didn’t want to belong to anyone, at least in that way.

“I’m not looking for a mate,” I said. “If there is a demon inside me, then I just want to live independently. Take care of myself.”

“And how are you going to do that?” Sam asked. “You have no money and no idea of anything to do with this world.”

He had me there.

“I… I hope you’ll keep training me,” I said.

“I will,” he said. “I’ll even take your collar off later.” His jaw ticked. “But I can’t believe you’re still thinking of Zadis, after what we—”

“I escaped the celestials,” I murmured, twisting my hands in the blanket. “I won’t belong to anyone again.”

“You’re my pet,” he reminded me.

“Yes, but I agreed to that in name only. Yes, you are in control of me, but that has nothing to do with what we just did. We did that together as equals. Not as master and pet.”

“Ha, you aren’t even close to being my equal,” Sam said, standing and looking angrier than I’d expected. “Go read. I don’t feel like being around you right now.”

It stung, but I didn’t blame him. I gathered my things and went to the door. “Sam, you said not to get feelings for you. How was I supposed to know you wanted to be exclusive? I’m just not ready for that—”

His eyes narrowed on me, looking almost like a hawk’s eyes, sharp and glaring with that golden ring. “That’s fine. And we don’t have to do that again. And if you want to, you know my requirements. I only feed exclusively. I won’t share my meal with another. Feelings have nothing to do with it.”

“And I’m only a meal to you,” I spat back. “So why does it matter?”

He glared at me, and I realized we weren’t going to get anywhere with this. “I can’t be here watching you, so I suppose you’ll have to come with me on my interviews.”

The thought of going around the fae village cheered me. Plus, it would be hard to say no to Zadis if he came by.

It wasn’t as if I were actually thinking of him or wanting him.

It was just that I wasn’t going to give Sam control in ways we hadn’t negotiated.

Good girl, said my inner demon.

Sam’s jaw ticked again. “Maybe I shouldn’t have awakened your inner demon so quickly.”

I folded my arms. “She would have awakened at some point on her own.”

“You’d be dead if not for me,” he growled.

“So what, you want me to grovel? You know I’m not like that. You saw me in a jail after almost getting stoned, and I still didn’t grovel.”

“And yet I still underestimated the difficulty in dealing with you,” he shot back.

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