His cock hardened immediately.
It was more than he could stand. His mouth dry, he set the drink down and went to push open the door to the bathroom. "Need someone to scrub your back?"
She made a squeak as if he'd startled her. "What are you doing in here?" she snapped.
"Wanting to see you naked in the shower," he said without embarrassment or hesitation.
She opened the curtain to stare at him. Her hair was plastered to her body, but the strands parted over her breasts, leaving the tips of them bare to his hungry gaze. "You need to learn control."
"That I have in spades."
She ran an equally hot look over his clothed body. "I am tempted, but I slept too late. We need to get back out there and see what's up with Kyros and crew."
She was right.
"Fine," he said, hating the fact that he had a job to do that didn't include more naked time with her. "Hormones leashed." He let out a tired breath, then started away.
She caught his hand to stop him. "There's always the dawn, you know?"
He lifted her hand so that he could place a kiss to the back of her knuckles. "Is that a promise?"
She nodded.
He closed his eyes and savored the softness of her skin before he released her and allowed her to finish her bath. But it was hard.
Not as hard as I am.
That was certainly true enough. He was having a difficult time sitting with the erection that wouldn't be denied.
While she finished showering, he distracted himself by preparing her food. Impulsively, he picked up a piece of the chicken to taste it.
His heart clenched as he tasted nothing. It was like the popcorn. There was no difference whatsoever. Only the texture differentiated one from the other.
"I miss eating," he breathed, moving away from the white containers of food. As a man, he had liked nothing better than that long feast at the end of a battle. The roasted lamb and beef that had been marinated in wine and spices. Goblets of rich, red wine and mead.
His mother had made the best honeyed bread he'd ever tasted.
Of all the things he'd lost by being reincarnated, he hated losing the ability to taste the most.
No, that wasn't true, he hated losing his soul, but the food was a close second.
He heard the door open. Turning, he saw Danger leaving the bathroom, fully dressed. She had a white towel wound round her head. "How is it?"
"Still warm." That was all he could tell about it.
"Are you eating?"
"I ate already," he lied. She was suspicious enough about what sustained him. The last thing he needed to do was confide in her how Acheron kept him alive. There were some things she didn't need to know.
Just as she sat down, her cell phone rang. Picking it up, Danger looked at the caller ID. "It's Kyros."
She opened the phone, then answered it.
"Yeah," she said after a brief pause. "We're still in Starkville. Where are you?"
Alexion closed his eyes and concentrated so that he could hear Kyros through the phone.
"Where are you staying?" Kyros asked.
"In a hotel."
"Is Ias with you?"
Danger cleared her throat before she answered. "Why do you want to know?"
"I've been thinking about what he said and I wanted to talk to him again."
"Hang on." She handed the phone to him.
Hoping his friend had come to his senses, Alexion placed it to his ear. "Yes?"
"How close are you to Acheron?"
"Very. Why?"
"Is it true that he has his own demon?"
Alexion decided to play vague. Simi's existence was something Acheron only shared with a few DarkHunters, and Kyros wasn't one of the privileged few. "What demon?"
"Be honest with me, Ias," he snarled. "Dammit, you owe me that much."
Alexion ground his teeth. What harm could there be in answering that one question? It wasn't as if Simi couldn't protect herself, especially against a DarkHunter. "Yes, he has a demon."
"Then, if I were you, I'd summon it."
"Why?"
No sooner was the question out of his mouth than someone knocked on their door.
Kyros hung up on him.
"That's weird," he said, pushing the button to turn the phone off while Danger got up to open the door.
Before she reached it, a small ball of light came through the wood as if it were nothing tangible. The door itself was left intact while the ball twirled to the center of the room where it grew larger and larger until it was the size and shape of a grown woman.
Two seconds later, a bright burst of light flashed into the room and the shape became that of a tall, fanged female demon.
She had black horns, black lips, red wings, black hair, and yellow eyes. Her skin was marbled with red and black.
But what caught him by surprise was the fact that he knew her face as well as he knew his own.
"Simi?"
She hissed at him, then attacked. She grabbed his arm and slung him into the wall.
Alexion rebounded off it, but caught himself. What the hell was going on here? Simi would never hurt him. Not like this.
She moved to hit him again.
He jumped back, out of her reach. "What is wrong with you, Sim?" he asked in Charonte.