“You’re strangling me,” he said, smoothing a hand up my back. “Just a little.”
“Sorry,” I mumbled against his shoulder, but I didn’t let go. He kissed the crown of my head, and a sigh leaked out of me. God, nothing was okay. Far from it, but Daemon was okay. He was himself, and dammit, together we could face anything. We would because we had to. “What are we going to do?”
He tucked the tangled mess of my hair back from my face, exposing my cheek to the path of his lips. “Keep pretending. There are gonna be things I’m going to have to say, maybe even have to do—”
“I understand.” My heart dropped anyway. I didn’t want to relive the whole office thing again, but I would if needed. I had to.
“Of course you do.” He placed a kiss on the corner of my lips. “But it’s not something I’ve ever wanted you to have to understand.” His lips followed the curve of my jaw, eliciting a shiver from me. “We’ll get out of here, but I can’t go without Dee.”
I nodded. I would never expect him to leave her behind, even if she had turned into a raging bitch who apparently wanted to throw me down a flight or three of stairs.
“And not before I know what they’re planning,” he added. “They’re up to something big.”
“Obviously.” I smiled faintly. “The whole invading-Earth part kind of gave that away.”
“Smartass.” His teeth caught the edge of my earlobe, and the little nip sent a jolt through my entire body.
I gasped, and his answering chuckle was downright wicked and wholly inappropriate given the situation. I drew back, cheeks flushing. “Only you could behave like this with everything going on.”
One side of his mouth tipped up as his gaze dropped to my lips and then below. “Well, you are sitting in my lap wearing only jeans and a bra—a cute bra—after kicking some chick’s ass. That’s hot. And I’m really turned on by that.”
The blush traveled to the lacy edge of my bra, because I could tell he was really turned on by that. “You’re ridiculous.”
“You’re beautiful.”
“I stink,” I murmured.
Daemon chuckled hoarsely. “I can help you rectify that. I mean, I can be really helpful in that department.”
“Oh Lord, seriously?”
“Hey, I’m supposedly all about the physical.” He paused as I stared at him. “Okay, probably not supposedly. When it comes to you, I’m feeling physical pretty much all the time.” His hands moved up my bare arms, leaving a rush of tiny bumps behind them.
I tilted my head back. “So besides the obvious me dying equals you dying, the other Luxen think you want to keep me around because you just like . . . ?”
“Having wild, animalistic sex with you?” he suggested.
My lips pursed.
“Something like that.” His mouth brushed mine as he spoke, and his hands settled on my hips. “Though after everything in the office, I doubt they’d think you’d be down for that.”
“I’m not down for that right now, you douche.”
An eyebrow rose. “I bet I could change that.”
“Daemon.” I put my hands on his shoulders. “I think we really need to focus on other stuff.” And there was so much. “Do they know about Beth, about . . . ?”
“They don’t know about her or Luc. We need to keep it that way.” His hands slipped around to my back and slid up to the bra strap.
“But they know what Archer is.” I bit down on my lip as two of his fingers dipped under the strap. “Beth’s pregnant.”
His head dipped to my bare shoulder. “I know.”
My jaw dropped. “What?” He didn’t answer, because he was too busy licking my shoulder— Sweet Jesus. I grabbed a handful of hair and lifted his head. “You didn’t tell me?”
He captured my mouth in a deep, searing kiss that almost made me forget what we were talking about and where we were. His kisses had that kind of magical power. “I didn’t get a chance to tell you.” He hooked his pinkie under one of the straps, easing it down an inch or two. “Remember. Holy alien invasion everywhere.”
“Oh. Yeah. That.” My lashes lowered as his lips chased after the strap. Tension curled low in my stomach. “Beth’s been sick, though. I don’t know if it’s normal or not. That’s . . . that’s why we were at the grocery store. We were getting her stuff.”
“Archer should’ve never let you leave that house.” Daemon’s head jerked up suddenly, swiveling toward the closed bathroom door. His pupils gleamed like diamonds. “Someone’s coming.”
I stiffened in his arms, heart lurching into my throat.
He turned his attention back to me. Cupping my cheek, he lowered his mouth once more, kissing me deeply and spinning my senses so fast and so furiously that when he lifted his head, I whimpered. Actually whimpered. “Act like you’re mad at me. Fight me.”
Still lost from the last kiss, I stared at him. “What?”
Suddenly, I was on my back, dangerously close to the broken glass. Globs of spilled conditioner and shampoo splattered. Daemon hovered over me, his hands capturing my wrists and holding them to the floor as one of his legs shoved in between mine.
My chest lurched. “What in the—?”
He dipped his head to mine, voice low. “Pretend I’m Sadi.”
If I did that, I might cut him.
My eyes narrowed, but the bathroom door swung open, and a Luxen male—the quiet one from the office—stood in the doorway. Heat swept across my face, partly due to how I was undressed, and partly because of how we must’ve looked at that moment.
“Everything okay here?” he asked in that strange, lilting way.
“Just spending a little one-on-one time with her,” Daemon answered, and my breath caught at the change in his voice. It was back to that smug, mocking way of his that made me want to introduce my knee to an important part of his body.
Over Daemon’s head, I saw the Luxen tilt his head to the side. “Doesn’t look like it’s going too well.”
“Well . . .” He flashed a grin. “It would be easier if she wasn’t so upset. Isn’t that right?” he asked me. “But that’s okay. I like the way she tries to fight.”
“Tries?” I spat, my fingers curled inward. “I’m going to—”
“Shush it,” he murmured lazily. And then he moved lightning fast, and from an angle the Luxen could see, he nipped my ear again. I had to bite down on my lip to stop myself from crying out and punching him in the gonads.
I was so going to kick his butt later.
Daemon made a show of eyeing me like I was an all-you-can-eat buffet, then glanced at the other Luxen. “Do you mind? Or are you planning to watch?”
The flicker of interest on the Luxen’s face turned my stomach. “As alluring as that sounds, I’ll need to pass. This time.”
Oh, yuck. Wiggling a leg free, I slammed the heel of my foot into Daemon’s calf for starting that line of conversation.
“Ouch.” He shot me a look.
My lips twitched as satisfaction rolled over me.
“Rolland just wanted to make sure everything was fine,” the Luxen said, his cool, crystallized gaze straying to areas I was so not happy about.
Daemon shifted, casually blocking a good portion of my body. “Is that all?”
“No,” was the response. “Rolland would like you to attend the press conference tomorrow. And he wants you to bring the girl with you.”
Press conference? Bring me? Oh . . . a shiver danced over my skin. I so did not like the sound of all of this.
Daemon managed a smirk. “Sounds like fun.”
The Luxen hesitated, and then nodded. After one more way-too-long look in my direction, he backed out of the bathroom. “Have fun.”
Neither of us moved or spoke for a good minute after the Luxen had left the bathroom, and then Daemon glanced down at me.
I drew in a deep breath. “I don’t like the way tomorrow is looking.”
“I don’t either.”
I wet my lips. “You don’t think Rolland knows you’re faking?”
“No.” He sounded so sure. “I’ve been more than careful.”
“Then what do you think they’re planning?”
He shook his head, causing several black waves to brush against his eyebrows. “He videoed a press release earlier. He’s pretending to be the mayor . . .”
As Daemon trailed off, he released my wrists and rocked up, his expression far off, and I had a feeling he was thinking the same thing I was. Sitting up, I wrapped my arms around my waist. He looked over and our gazes locked.
“Do you think he’s pretending?” I asked. “That he’s really pretending to be the mayor, as in . . .” As in working from the inside to take over. “What if there are more like him? Ones who have taken over the bodies of important people?”
He cursed under his breath as he shoved both hands through his hair. “I should’ve seen it right away. I mean, I got that he was pretending to be mayor, but I didn’t think beyond that. They’re only killing some people without assimilating them. They’re targeting certain people. Same age group. People old enough to have . . .”
“Families,” I whispered. And that would be even worse than assimilating those in positions of power, because if they pretended to be mothers and fathers and teachers, they’d be everywhere, and no one would be able to tell, even if there were witnesses. Accounts of the Luxen snatching bodies couldn’t stop something this huge.
I looked at Daemon.
The Luxen had already been on this planet for decades and then some, and no one knew.
“Does the TV in that room work?” I asked.
“I think so.”
“I think we need to turn it on.”
After helping me up, Daemon rubbed his hands up and down my arms, chasing away the chill. “Take a shower, and I’ll find something for you to wear.”
I glanced at the door, hesitating. Stripping naked with a bunch of Luxen nearby who had no concept of personal space made me want to hurl.
Daemon dipped his head, brushing his lips across mine. “I won’t let anyone come in here. You’re safe.”
You’re safe.
Two words I couldn’t wait until I never had to hear again. Closing my eyes, I stretched up and kissed him softly. “Okay.”
He pulled me in for a quick hug, and then he started for the door. Stopping, he twisted at the waist, and his gaze drifted over me, warming my cold skin. “Kitten?”
“Yeah?”
His eyes were beautiful when they met mine, luminous and clear, and a long moment stretched out between us. “I love you.”