Another harsh crack of laughter escaped me. “What fucking chemistry? This isdisdain.”
He waved a hand. “A rose by any other name...”
The Shakespeare reference made me think of Sin, and my heart gave a little pang.
“Speaking of cookies,” I asked, trying to steer this conversation back to my original point, “Is there any fresh food here?”
Lucifer stood and made a show of stretching. “My lady love requires sustenance? The memoir of a fallen angel can wait. Come with me.”
Okay, I could work with this. He was egotistical enough to want to be my sole provider. Following in his wake, we made our way into the kitchen. He was humming happily, as though I didn’t hate him and wasn’t his unwilling hostage.
“Alrighty, what does my tart little crabapple desire?” he asked as he opened the barren fridge. “Fresh fruit? A bit of veg? Perhaps pizza, or maybe fried chicken?”
As he spoke, ripe strawberries, pineapple, and blueberries appeared in a bowl in the refrigerator. Then a pizza box and a bucket of KFC showed up on the counter, the scents of melty cheese and pepperoni in addition to fried chicken filling the kitchen.
“I am rather fond of In-N-Out, if you wanted to go the burger route.”
The mention of burgers had an image of Malice blazing to life in my mind. I had to squash the wave of sadness before Lucifer saw it on my face. He would too. The man was far too talented at reading me.
“So . . . the cookies. You didn’t bake them?”
“Oh, I baked them for you, darling. But I manifested the ingredients.”
“Wow,” I said, leaning in to the opportunity to fawn. “That’s amazing. What else can you do?”
He turned to face me fully. “What do you mean, love? I can do so many things. You might need to narrow down the question for me.”
“Well, for example, I don’t have many clothes here. Just what I arrived in and some of Cole’s old sweats. Could you conjure some of those for me?”
“Of course I can.”
“Does that only work on inanimate objects? Like, could you manifest a puppy?”
“Is my girl in need of a cuddle? All you have to do is ask,” he said with a wink. Before he’d completed the move, a basket of golden retriever puppies appeared between us.
Apparently, I was weak because a basket of puppies had me sinking to my knees and scooping two of them into my arms.They were soft and warm and even smelled like puppies did. One immediately began licking my face, while the other promptly passed out in my arms. I was such a sucker.
“If I’d known that was the way to your heart, I’d have licked you days ago.”
I glared at him behind my puppy shield. “It’s cute when you’re a furry baby. Less so when you’re a slobbering idiot.”
“I don’t slobber, darling. I think you’ll find me quite house-trained. Besides, I didn’t saywhereI would lick you.”
Fuck me, but I blushed. And all it took was puppies.
This was going to be so much harder than I thought.
Lucifer
Merri’s attempts tosuss out my limitations were transparent, but I didn’t want to crush her spirit. She was finally out of that godforsaken room and willingly engaging with me. I wanted to prolong the moment as long as I possibly could. Besides, letting her think she was winning would just bring us closer.
I leaned casually against the counter while I watched her play with the puppies. They would have to go sooner rather than later, back to their demon owner and to their hellhound forms, but what she didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her. I certainly couldn’t conjure living beings out of thin air, but transformation was much easier done. I deserved to take advantage of the moment and soak in the sight of her joy. I did that. I made her smile. I brought the light back into her eyes. Didn’t I?
Hang on a tick.
Didn’t I?
There was no denying that Merri looked good. Better than good. Better than she had since she arrived, actually.
