Alexa play: skins by The Haunting
Shemhazai’s green eyes flashed as the pretty server dropped off our bill at Turner’s Seafood restaurant. Her phone number was scrawled across the receipt, and her cheeks flushed at the flirtatious look Shem gave her.
“Thanks, sweetheart,” he purred in that tone he used when he was doing depraved shit to me behind closed doors. I smirked and shook my head in amusement as I took a sip from my wine.
We’d been here for several hours, waiting for the crowds to die down so we could get a chance to meet with Bridget Bishop’s ghost.
Bishop was rumored to haunt the building, and our lovely server had promised us a private tour of the second floor once they had cleared the guests out for the night.
“Let me just do my cash-out, and I’ll take you up,” Anna said shyly, and Shem gave her a panty-melting wink as she scurried away.
“You’re such a ham,” I drawled, leaning back in a wooden chair, swirling my wine lazily as I eyed up the handsome chaos demon that sprawled in his seat across from me.
He lifted a shoulder and ran an elegant hand through his mop of dark hair.
“Witches love me.”
I barked out a laugh. Anna was definitely a little witchy, with her gemstone-encrusted fingers and pentagram earrings. Most people we’d come across so far in Salem were. The whole town had fully embraced modern-day neo-paganism, which made it the perfect hiding spot for Hecate, the mother of witches.
“So are we actually waiting for her to come back to give us a tour, or are we just sneaking up there ourselves?” I asked, and Shem smirked at me, his green eyes twinkling with mischief.
“Why? Worried I might go home with her?”
I scoffed at Shem’s lazy attempt at making me jealous. This was his way of testing me. Even though we’d spent several months getting to know each other, he still liked to poke me with little challenges.
After Art had betrayed him, Shemhazai had been…difficult,to say the least. Flirting with and then flaunting his casual conquests in front of me was his way of trying to keep me at arm’s length.
It wasn’t very effective.
This little human girl wasn’t a threat to me. As far as I was concerned, no one was. Shemhazai could bed the entire town of Salem, and it wouldn’t matter. Shem’s body wasn’t what I was after, though it was a nice perk.
I wanted hismindand his heart. If he needed to play these games to make himself feel safe, I would play.
And I wouldwin.
Lilith had told me over Yule that once Shemhazai gave his heart to someone, it was forever, and he had been burned enough times that he now kept it under lock and key.
I was a patient demon.
And I was immortal.
I had all the time in the world.
“Go home with her if you wish.” I smirked, leaning over the table, my gaze falling to his full, perfect lips. Heat curled in my abdomen as I remembered how those lips had tasted when I’d had them clenched between my teeth the night before. “When she leaves you frustrated and wanting more, you know where to find me.”
Shem’s eyes twinkled, and he snatched up my chin between his fingers, causing all the tiny hairs on the back of my neck to stand on end.
“Sococky, little bird,” he purred, and I grinned.
“Cocky.Such an interesting choice of words.”
Shem huffed out a laugh and let me go before tossing some human cash on the table and getting to his feet.
“I suppose I can skip the appetizer and jump right to dessert,” he said with a wink. “She wouldn’t have put up enough of a fight to make it interesting, anyway.”
See?
It was all a game.
