His brows shot up. “You like margaritas?”
“What I want to know is how you like them? Did you get addicted after a stint in the human world?”
He smirked. “I fucking invented these. A well-placed suggestion here and there and bam, these beauties were everywhere.”
So, he was the reason for my obsession. I couldn’t help but smile. “I love them.”
He picked up the silver cocktail shaker on the table and poured me a glass of perfection, and in that moment, my heart was full of joy, love, and possibility, or maybe it was just the first hit of alcohol in over a month.
“Delish.” I smacked my lips together.
Mal’s gaze dropped to my lips, and his tongue peeked out to touch the corner of his mouth. “Yes, it is.”
Butterflies pirouetted in my belly. I held his gaze and took another sip. His eyes darkened, and heat pooled low in my abdomen.
“Seraphina Dawn, are you flirting with me?” he crooned.
Shit, what was I doing? “Pfft. You wish.”
Cora took the seat to my right between Mal and me. “God, I miss being alive.”
Mal studied her for a long beat. “What do you miss the most?”
“Margaritas,” she said immediately, and then laughed. “Everything. I miss food and heat and cold. I miss it all.” She looked wistful.
“What about family?” Mal asked.
“Mal …” There was warning in Conah’s tone.
Why was he being so weird? I looked to Azazel, but he had his attention on Cora too.
She made a funny face. “Wow, center of attention. That doesn’t happen often. I don’t have a family, I mean, not a proper one. I was raised in foster homes.” Her mouth turned down slightly.
Shit, she hated talking about her past. “And now you have me, and you have us.” I smiled at her.
Cora perked up. “I do, indeed.”
Conah cleared his throat. “We should eat before the wonderful spread Kiara has prepared gets cold.”
“Someone’s overcompensating,” Cor whispered in my ear.
I almost choked on my drink.
Kiara patted my back. “Oh, dear, did it go down the wrong hole?”
Mal gave a dirty chuckle.
Azazel snorted in derision, although I wasn’t sure what he was disgusted with. Me? Conah? Mal? Heck, he looked pissed off at the world.
Fuck this. As much as I appreciated this gesture, I needed it to be over. This was just too weird with Conah playing eye tag with me, and Azazel playing statue. Time to eat and run. I piled my plate high with ribs and tucked in.
I was hungry, and these were delicious. The meat melted in my mouth, and the sauce was sticky and sweet with a hint of spice that gave my mouth a zing. I was halfway through my plate when it hit me that the room had descended into complete and utter silence.
I raised my head and locked gazes with Azazel sitting opposite me at the other end of the table.
His irises were less silver and more white today, but there was no doubt that he was looking right at me. The derision and the impassivity were gone. Now his expression was pure hunger. Did he want my ribs? Wait … No, that hunger was aimed at me. My stomach flipped, and my chest tightened.
He slow-blinked and looked away, jaw ticking.
“Fuck,” Mal said. “Don’t stop. That was hot.” His lips were parted, and the tip of his tongue caressed his top teeth. “I love a woman who enjoys her food.” He picked up a rib and stripped it clean, licking the sauce from his fingers.
I wanted to climb across the table and suck the sauce off his lips in an open-mouthed kiss that tasted of ribs.
I blinked sharply. “Fuck off, Mal.”
He laughed. “Almost had you.”
“Napkins, Kiara,” Conah said gruffly.
I touched the corner of my mouth, and my fingertips came away sticky and red. Heck, ribs were messy.
“Now, Kiara,” Conah snapped.
Mal frowned at him.
“Oh, dear, of course.” Kiara hurried from the room.
I looked over at Conah, and our gazes snagged. “A please would have been nice. She’s not your servant.”
He didn’t reply, just stared at me. His pupils were huge, eating away at his sapphire irises, and twin spots of color stained his cheeks. I knew that look. It was desire. It was the horn monster looking back at me.
My pulse hammered in my throat. I needed to look away before I did something stupid like groaned or drooled.
“You eat like a peasant,” Mal said, breaking the tension. “Wanton and with passion.” He leaned forward in his seat. “Noble demon females are taught decorum in the bedroom and outside.” He caught his lips between his teeth, his eyes bright. “It’s why most noble demons take peasant lovers. You can tell how a woman will fuck by how she eats.”
Did he just call me a good lay?
“I think he just said you’d be a great fuck,” Cora clarified a little too loudly.
Part of me wanted to tell him to shove it, the other was flattered.
“Enough,” Azazel said, his voice low. His throat bobbed. “Enough.”
“Oh, give it up,” Mal retorted. “You’re both thinking it. You’re both feeling it—that rush of letting go and just giving in to primal desire.”
“No, Mal, that’s your forte,” Conah said stiffly.
Mal shrugged. “At least I’m getting some. From the looks of it, Kiara could do with a little poke too. All this baking and cooking, it’s obviously a sign of frustration. Have you fucked her since she came here? Or have you been too busy wanking off over Fee? And you?” He settled back and looked at Azazel. “Tell me, how long has it been since you fucked … anything?”
Azazel shoved back his chair and strode from the room, and it was then that we noticed Kiara standing in the doorway.
Shit, how much had she heard?
“Excuse me,” she said in a small voice, and then ducked out into the corridor.
“Fuck!” Conah scraped back his chair and went after her.
Mal raised his glass to me and then took a sip. “Happy birthday, Fee. Welcome to the family.”
“Shit,” Cora said. “All this over a plate of ribs.”
Chapter Six
Conah
“Kiara, wait, please.” I stride into my bedroom after her and close the door.
She stops in the middle of the room with her back to me. She looks so small and dejected. Her shoulders slump, and then they start to shake.
She’s crying.
I’ve done this.
I’ve made her cry.
“Is it true?” she asks in a small voice. “Do you have feelings for Fee?”
She turns to look at me with her huge brown eyes that pierce my soul, and in that moment, all I want to do is take away her pain.
“No, Kiara. I don’t.” The lie is bitter on my tongue.
“You’re lying.” She stares at me in horror. “That’s the first time you’ve ever lied to me, Conah. We’re soulmates. You owe me the truth.”
I bridge the distance between us and cup her shoulders. I know her. I know that if she discovers what I feel for Fee is more than an attraction, then our marriage will be in jeopardy. The alliance between the crown and Mammon, the only demon with enough power and allies to challenge it, will be at risk because Kiara is a demon who leads with her heart, and she won’t accept anything but the whole of mine.