Just one. “Nope. We’re demon free.” When she didn’t answer, he cupped her freshly clean cheek with one hand. “Hey, are you okay? Do you want me to go?” He really needed her to say yes.
She closed her eyes and nuzzled his hand in a gesture so affectionate, so tender, he felt something inside break a little. “I want you to stay,” she said softly. “I’m just not used to spending the night, you know, with a man.”
“Yeah, me either,” he teased, and she laughed, lightening the mood. “So, Family Guy, huh?”
Her smile socked him right in the heart. “It’s a guilty pleasure. Stewie is so wicked. I love him.”
“He’s the best.” He grinned. “I figure if I ever had a kid, that’s what he’d end up like.”
“I doubt that.” Serena climbed into the bed and pulled the covers up to her chin.
She was wrong, so wrong, but he couldn’t tell her why, so it was pointless to argue. Instead, he eased onto his back next to her, careful to stay as close to the edge as he could, not wanting to spook or touch her. Well, he wanted to touch her, but the way she lay there, stiff and eyeing the door like she wanted to bolt, told him now wasn’t the time.
“How’s your head?” he asked, and she rolled to face him.
“Better. Thank you.”
He stared at the ceiling. “You really shouldn’t thank me for anything.”
“Remember that conversation about you being an ass?” Her fingers came down lightly, hesitantly, on his right arm, which lay across his abs. “Just let me be grateful.”
He’d be grateful if she stopped touching him. Stopped using the pads of her fingers to trace his dermoire, the most sensitive part of his body. Well, the second most sensitive.
She used the backs of her nails to stroke one of the symbols on his wrist. “What’s the significance of your tattoos? They’re extraordinary. Sometimes they seem to actually move.”
That was because they did. Usually during sex or while using his gift. They would glow or pulse, sometimes appearing to writhe. “Trick of the light,” he said smoothly. “They’re sort of a history of my family. My dad’s side.”
“Really? How? The designs are familiar.”
“Ancient Amorite,” he lied. They were actually Sheoulic, symbols and words in the demon language. “My father’s family is big on tradition.”
“I know you never knew him…”
“So why get the tats?” He couldn’t very well tell her he was born with them, but lying to her was becoming harder to do. “It’s a family thing. I’m tight with my brothers, and we all wanted to do something together, so we got the tattoos. Corny, I know.”
“No, it’s not. It’s cool. It would be great to have family like that.”
“What about you? I know your parents aren’t around, but brothers? Sisters?”
“Neither. My mom was pregnant when she died.”
Giving comfort wasn’t something he was used to or good at, so he said simply, “I’m sorry.”
“Thank you.” She wriggled closer, so her head was on his shoulder. “Do you mind?”
“No,” he croaked. “Feels good.” Right down to his dark soul, it felt good. “So, what happened to you after she died?”
“Her will specified that I be raised in a convent. So I grew up with nuns who were really disappointed that I didn’t become one myself.”
“Yeah, I’ll bet.” The idea that she’d grown up with nuns, well, it gave him the jeebies. The things she would have learned, about sin, about sex… a weight settled deep in his gut. Even if he got the sex, they wouldn’t be friends or have a relationship… and good Gods, what the hell was he thinking? Friendship? Relationship?
Motherfucking poison. Eidolon had said it would turn his organs to mush, but he hadn’t said anything about his brain.
She propped herself up on one elbow and watched him like he was some sort of mystery and she was fucking Sherlock Holmes. “You don’t like being touched, do you?”
He liked it when she touched him. Liked it too much, which was the problem.
“I’m not used to it.”
“Me either.”
“I’ll bet, seeing how you’ll die if you have sex. That would suck.”
She laughed. “It doesn’t mean I can’t do other things.” Her voice was husky and low, touched him in places her fingers couldn’t reach, and he couldn’t stop himself from turning to her. “Like the other night.”
“What are you saying?” He knew, but he wanted to hear her say it.
“I’m saying I want to be with you. In whatever way we can.”
Serena welcomed the firm pressure of Josh’s soft lips against hers. He took his time, first brushing his lips across hers and then flicking his tongue over her bottom lip before catching it in his teeth. The little pinpoints of his sharp canines made her gasp at the pinch of both pleasure and pain.