“If you had the curse off, would I have to be afraid of you?” she demanded.
Brax frowned. That was a new thought. “No,” he said slowly. “No, you wouldn’t. You know, I’ve lived for over a century. I didn’t go around killing everyone I met. I even had human friends. Sometimes.”
“Are you saying I’m your friend?”
“Well, I’m trying to save your life, does that count for anything?”
Penny looked thoughtful—as thoughtful as someone holding ice packs under her arms while standing in an open freezer door can look, anyway. “I think it does. Okay. Truce. Friends. How do we break this witch’s spell?”
“Well, first, we get ourselves to the point where we can both think. In my apartment, or anywhere outside, I’m slowly turning to ice. In here, you’re melting, but I feel fine.”
“Put your arms around me, and then I can think.”
“If that doesn’t sound like some horny teenage boy ploy...” Brax mumbled and shed his coat, holding his arms out.
“I’m not horny.” Penny stuck out her tongue and launched onto him.
“Maybe not, but when your fever breaks, you’ll stake me. You might think this is all somecouyonfever dream.”You might think I was taking advantage.He could see himself doing all sorts of things that the demon craved, things that his neglected bloodlust begged for. If it couldn’t have the carnal delight ofeating, it could surely have just plain old lust. He was already spinning lines in his head.Let me cool you from the inside, sweetheart. Want this pretty popsicle? Nice and cold on your sore throat. Skin-to-skin contact is better for this sort of thing.
I might be better off freezing outside.
“You’re cold. I’m hot. We could—we could make a cure, maybe.”
“Are you talking to me or yourself?” Brax sat with her on the couch, experiencing the painful, full-body shivers of someone who is starting to warm up after overexposure to the cold.
She reached over to the end table and retrieved a pen and the back of a magazine. “I, Penny, who am hot—in a fever way, promise not to stake Brax for cooling me down. In exchange, he will get to warm up, and he won’t hurt me, either. Sign next to my name.”
“Sign?” He took the pen, eyebrows aloft.
“All the other major truces in history are in writing, aren’t they?”
“I suppose.” Brax took the pen, and his hand spasmed, a cold cramp slicing through his numb fingers.
Penny put her flushed palm to the side of his neck, making him jump, and then sigh, his shoulders doing a long shimmy. “You’rereallycold.”
“I believe the term is ‘duh,’” he snarked.
“No, I mean, I don’t feel good, and you don’t feel good. That’s the best time to make a truce, when both people get what they need out of it. I’m too hot, you’re too cold. Go make warm?”
Go make warm.He signed rapidly, nodding, afraid to look up and let his eyes betray him. “Right. Go make warm. How do you want to—”
Penny plastered herself to him before he even finished the question. Both of them let out long, relieved sighs, taut frozenmuscles easing their pain as he cautiously put his arms around her, achey, rushing blood cooling as she found some relief.
“We need to lie down. Not on top of, but full body. Come on.”
“You’re going to kill me if I come and lie down with you for some sort of full-body relief! Even the sound of it—”
“I put it in writing. I’ll put it all in writing. Bring the paper!” Penny stumbled down the hall, leaving him staring at cheeks in snug lavender panties as she went to her room.
“Penny!”
“Are you coming or not?” she asked testily.
“There are so many loaded questions today,” he sighed and shivered after her.
EVERY DEMON’S DELIGHT, and I don’t want it, Brax thought as he stopped dead in the doorway of her bedroom. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but put your clothes back on.”
“No. I’m hot. Too hot. The bed is too hot. We should lie on the floor, but it’s too hard, and my back hurts.”
