Panic surges through me. “Yes! He was only flirting with me!”
I will never forget moaning to Lello and Ned about Flyn. It seems like a lifetime ago. But time is strange. It probably wasn’t as long as it feels. It was in this very kitchen. Gray had been silently listening. Back then, the demon hadn’t been lucid for long, and to my shame, I kind of assumed he wasn’t following what I was talking about. I’d only been bitching, pretending Flyn flirting with me was a hardship.
Thank heavens Gray had checked with me. I’ve had literal nightmares about him silently going off and murdering Flyn because he took my complaining too literally.
“Have you changed your mind?” asks Gray.
“No!” I exclaim a little too forcefully.
Gray blinks at me slowly, his impossibly dark eyes utterly unreadable. He drops his head and goes back to mixing ingredients in a large bowl.
“Thank you though,” I say quickly. “It’s very kind of you to offer.”
And it really is. I love that Gray wants to help me. I have no idea what I have done to deserve it. But it’s sweet. As well as very comforting. If anyone does give me grief, I have a demon to back me up. Not many people get to say that.
Gray glances back up at me and gives me a shy smile. I smile back at him. Then I turn to Lello, and yelp. The kelpie has moved closer to me. His elbows are propped on the table and his chin is resting on his hands. His eyes are large and extremely intense.
“Tell me everything!” he demands.
I swallow. Why did I start this? What was I thinking?
“I…um… There is not much to tell,” I stammer.
Lello’s look turns deadly, and my heart pounds.
“I bumped into him and we had coffee and he helped me buy a new phone and we swapped numbers!” I babble frantically.
A huge, gleeful grin spreads across Lello’s face. “Are you going to see him again?”
Heat floods my cheeks. “I hope so.”
Lightening quick, Lello stands up. He claps his hands together, sending a cloud of flour up into the air.
“Another wedding!” he squeals. “I can be a flower boy again!”
My jaw drops open. I turn to Gray for support, but his eyes are gleaming too.
“Lello! We haven’t even been on a date yet!” I protest.
Oh goddess. Once Lello gets an idea into his head, there is no shaking it loose. He is going to start planning a ceremony soon, and bounding into my room at all hours with wedding magazines.
He pouts at me. “So? Love is in the air! Isn’t that right, Gray?”
I turn back to the demon. Hopefully he can save me. Lello might listen to him.
“You’ve not had sex since the harem,” says Gray.
The room falls completely motionless. I swear even the cloud of flour floating in the air pauses. Gray didn’t frame it as a question. He stated it. Like a fact. I guess it is something a sex demon would know.
And now it feels as if all my secrets are laid bare. I can hear my own heart pounding. So loudly that it is the only thing that I can hear. It’s the only sound in the room.
Lello’s eyes grow enormous. Then he gasps loudly. “Oh Jade, you poor thing! That’s terrible!”
My eyes close. If only the ground could open and swallow me up. That would be great. Lello is never going to understand. Neither is Gray. Gray is an incubus, he literally needs sex to live. And Lello is… well, Lello. I swear he is actually a rabbit and not a kelpie. I’ve never met anyone so enthusiastic about sex. He even enjoyed it in the harem, as long as it was with Ritchie and not one of the asshole’s friends.
“Are you like Blue?” Gray asks solemnly.
I blink at him. “I don’t think so. I feel… attraction. Desire.”
