“Stuffed mushrooms and French onion chicken.” A timer beeped, and Ash added a second tray to the oven, checking the one already in there. He straightened and pulled off his oven mitts. “Oh, and a salad.”
“You really like cooking, don’t you?”
Ash grinned. “I like when Harper eats my food. But theprocess is actually quite relaxing. I haven’t found a recipe I can’t conquer for him.”
Ollie snorted into his drink. “Oh my god, you’re so cute with Harper. It’s sickening.”
Ash laughed. “Don’t care.”
Ollie loved that Ash didn’t give a fuck what anyone thought. Ollie tried to be like that, but he was mostly faking it.
He glanced back at Harper and Dante. “Harper hasn’t had any more issues with that cult his family was in, right?”
“No.” Ash frowned, his eyes weirdly intense. It honestly looked a little scary. “They’ve left him alone.”
“Good.” Ollie grabbed an olive off the cutting board and popped it in his mouth.
Harper and Ash’s relationship had moved worryingly fast. Ollie’s relationships always moved fast. He’d been consumed from the get-go, letting his boyfriends’ lives overtake his until there was nothing left, too wrapped up in the honeymoon phase to see the red flags.
But Ash and Harper weren’t like that. Harper hung around the apartment with Ollie as much as before, spent time with Ollie without Ash, and seemed to have plenty of independent activities. From what Ollie could see, Ash was building Harper up rather than trying to change his life or take it over.
It was proof relationships weren’t always bad, but Ollie knew that already. It didn’t mean he was willing to risk getting involved in something. Being his own person was more important than having a partner.
And sex was overrated anyway.
3
DANTE
“I think I scared him off,”Dante grumbled to Ash as they flew over Shearwater Landing, the city lights twinkling below them.
They’d left Ollie and Harper at their apartment after dinner and were headed home. It felt wrong to fly away from Ollie, every wing stroke taking extra effort. But what else could Dante do?
“Scared is a bit dramatic,” Ash called over his shoulder.
Dante focused on beating his wings, not bothering to disagree. Maybe he hadn’tscaredOllie, but something had happened. Ollie had seemed less happy at the end of the night than he had at the start.
Dante had attempted to be engaging. Was it not enough? Maybe he seemed boring to a bright young man like Ollie.
Ash and Dante landed on the deck attached to Dante’s large clifftop home overlooking the city and the ocean. It sat in the middle of a nature reserve, the whole building protected by an illusion to prevent humans from discovering it and by powerful spells to keep other magical beings out.
Dante opened one of the massive sliding glass doors and walked inside, tucking his wings against his back.
His muscles relaxed as the familiar scent of wood and leather filled his nose. He loved his home. He’d had it designed to accommodate him in his full demon form, but his affection for the place was more than practical. He’d dreamed of having his mate here one day and had kept everything minimalistic so his mate could put his touch on the place.
It was a building block, ready to be molded to fit him and his mate as they made their life together. He and Ollie.
Dante wandered to the open-plan kitchen and pulled out his candy drawer, craving chocolate. He selected two of his favorite bars.
“Would you like some blood with that?” Ash asked as he opened the fridge.
Demons had to drink blood to maintain their immortality in the Human Realm. Eating human food wasn’t necessary, but Dante enjoyed it, especially anything sweet.
“Sure, thanks.” He ate his first chocolate bar in three bites.
Ash poured bagged blood into two mugs and popped them in the microwave.
Dante bought blood from a vampire-run organization that sourced it from donors aware of magic. It was a much easier setup than when demons had first arrived and had to hypnotize unsuspecting humans to drink from them.
