Dex leaned forward. “Well, now I have to ask.”
Luc swallowed, his gaze unfaltering. “I saw you and wanted to talk to you, so I followed you inside.”
A shiver wound down Dex’s spine. That should have been borderline creepy. Instead, it was thrilling. “You wanted to talk tome?”
“I did.” Luc looked down, trailing a red nail along the bar. “But I’m out of practice with small talk.” He frowned like this was perplexing, and it was kind of sad.
Dex had the urge to rescue him. “I engage in small talk all day. I’m a barista. It comes with the hospitality territory, so feel free to practice.”
“Really?” Luc’s attention lifted from the bar.
Dex’s insides twisted at the look of hope in Luc’s eyes. “Yeah, no problem. So, what do you do?”
Luc’s face fell. “I don’t have a job.”
“I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to hit a sore subject.” Dex couldn’t blame himself. Looking at Luc, he seemed well-off rather than struggling. It wasn’t as if Dex could afford clothes like that.
“No need to apologize. I don’t need a job, but work is what people talk about, isn’t it?”
Why did Luc seem to be referring to people as a foreign concept? He must not get out much.
“Someone’s profession is a key small talk component. But we could move on to the weather, or our star signs if you want to get interesting.”
“I don’t have anything to say about the weather or star signs.”
Dex laughed, prompting a smile from Luc. “I’m starting to see the issue. How about you tell me what you’re doing in town? Do you live in the city?”
Luc hesitated. “No. I followed my brothers here, but they’d rather I didn’t stay.”
Damn, that was an honest answer. Luc appeared to be taking his not-lying resolution a little too seriously. But that wasn’t bad. Social awkwardness didn’t put Dex off. Not forcing yourself to act like everyone else was an attractive quality.
“That sounds like a story.” Dex smiled encouragingly. “Want to talk about it?”
3
LUCIFER
How could Luc talk about his brothers without lying? This wasn’t going how he’d imagined. Luc had entered the bar confident, only for Dex to shatter an illusion he hadn’t known he’d been upholding.
For far too long, whenever Luc interacted with someone, he decided who to be in order to bend the situation to his will. If he needed to be cruel, so be it. If he needed to placate, that was easy. It was only recently that being genuine aligned with his desired outcomes.
With his brothers, being genuine was straightforward. He was sorry even if no one believed him. He’d told the truth when they’d found him at the tower in the Realm of the Damned, and ever since. It was all he could do until he was given the chance to offer more.
But when faced with someone who didn’t know him, someone who had no grudge or preconceived notions of who he was, how could he be genuine? Who was he without his mistakes?
Luc didn’t know.
He hadn’t been anyone other than the Devil in far too long.
Dex was a blank slate. This man, who drew Luc in like he always imagined the fated mate connection would. It inspired him to show Dex nothing except his purest self, but he came up empty.
Maybe he was nothing more than the being who’d damned thousands and destroyed the universe’s magical balance. When Luc looked, he couldn’t find anything beneath that truth.
He cleared his throat.
Should he tell Dex what he could about why he was in Shearwater Landing? No matter how much he wanted to avoid lying, even by omission, the full story was impossible to share. Dex would assume Luc had lost his grip on reality if he started talking about the fall to Earth and magic.
But he had to start somewhere if he wanted Dex to know him eventually.
