“That doesn’t just mean you fucking settle.”
And who would you suggest I date instead?I knew Thallor didn’t feel the same way I did about him. And even if he did, the two of us weren’t made for happy endings. My life was a perpetual cycle of mishaps and sinister occurrences, and Thallor? Well, Thallor was a demon that didn’t belong on the mortal plane atall. As much as I wanted to lean into my own emotions, it was my feelings for him, and it was me caring for him that stopped me from acting on them. Because I’d never burden him with asking him to stay, I’d never burden him to a life he didn’t want simply to be with me.
In the flurry of my own confused thoughts, the words slipped from my mouth. “You sound jealous.”
By heart careened against my chest, fighting to break free, it too, desperate to hear his response to those three accusatory words. But Thallor didn’t say anything.Quincey, you fucking idiot.I furrowed my brows as I looked at him, feeling a hot blush bloom against my cheeks.He obviously doesn’t feel that way about you.
I wasn’t sure who won the little staring contest we found ourselves in when a clattering of noise pulled our attention from each other. Mortimer, the ball of paws and fur that he was, had jumped onto his usual ledge, only to find a plant sitting in its place, toppled off the ledge, and landed in the middle of my living room with a rather undignifiedthud.
“Blame her,” Thallor grunted before walking away from me, scooping Mortimer up into his arms, and holding him close against his chest. A sight that both melted my heart and sent a wave of white-hot irritation through my body.Wait, was I jealous? Of a fucking cat?
No, he’s jealous, remember?
“Are you jealous?” I blurted out as I trailed after him under the guise of also greeting the little black bundle of fluff.
He didn’t look up from where he was still stroking Mort, but from his clenched jaw and huff of breath, I realised that was probably the wrong thing to say.
“No, Sterling, I am not jealous,” he snarled. “I am fucking furious.”
“You’refurious?Furious that he didn’t come to the door? He’s at the building, okay? He picked me up. He did all thegentlemanly things he’s meant to do.” I let out an exasperated sigh and pinched the bridge of my nose. I knew we were both treading a very thin line between everything we wanted to say and everything we didn’t.
Tell me to stay and I will.
“I know,” he gritted out.
“Okay, so you’re just being grumpy then?”
“It would appear so.”Right.“He still should have come to the door.”
“Thallor, you’re here. How do you think that would go?”
“What do you meanI’mhere?”
I let out an incredulous laugh. “I don’t want my date to end before it even starts. You’re intimidating and unfriendly. And like two hundred and twenty pounds of pure muscle and your face?—”
Quincey, you fucking moron. Can’t bring yourself to talk around strangers, but you get comfortable around one demon, and suddenly you can’t shut up.
It was only then that he looked up at me, all the previous ice, all the coldness dissipating for something softer. I wasn’t sure if I was imagining it. I wasn’t sure if I was projecting my own feelings onto him but I could have sworn as he held my gaze that he held his breath too.
“What about my face?”
I rolled my eyes at him, raising my hands up in an exasperated motion. When he didn’t say anything, I just rolled my eyes again, this time so hard that I was pretty sure I saw brain matter. “Oh, give it a rest. You know what you look like.”
Thallor didn’t speak; he just lifted an eyebrow at me. For a moment, we stood in a stand-off, whilst Mort meowed for pets between us. Like a warmth spreading across his face, Thallor’s mouth broke out in a grin, one that had me fighting my own smile and losing.
“You have aniceface. Are you happy now? I know you already know that, so you’re also a massive asshole.” I stomped over to the door in an exaggerated fashion, though it didn’t have the desired impact as my heels met the carpet of my living room long before I ever made it to my hardwood floor. I whipped open the door, resolving to forget this entire interaction.
“Sterling!”
I stopped dead in my tracks before the door hit the latch and pushed it open again. Thallor plopped Mortimer down on the sofa, his meows of protest barely audible over the sound of my own hammering heart. Thallor stalked over to the door, looking down from where he still towered over me, despite the fact that I was in my highest pair of heels–albeit they were four-inch heeled boots because I refused to buy anything that might result in a broken ankle.
“I’m not?—”
“Jealous?”
“—just call me if you need me, okay. Ipromise,I will come. Whatever it is, I will come and get you.”
I looked up at him and smiled, but his gaze was deep-set and serious. “I promise.” Thallor emphasised every syllable like he was committing it to the universe. Like he was weaving it into every part of my subconscious. Like he was trying to right a wrong he had no reason to feel responsible for. But I appreciated the sentiment more than he would ever know. More than I would ever be able to muster up the words to tell him.
