Lazerath’s lip curled.
“No, no,” Rose chided, patting his chest. “It was fine. Iknow it wasn’t my fault. It was probably the first time I sort of put the pieces together about… what I was interested in.”
“Like?” he asked, tilting his head.
She pursed her lips. “Like… you’re sexually attracted to females, right? And so is Dav?”
The comparison fell into place. “Oh, I get it. But Dav’s into both. All? Umm, he’s open about his preferences, and he wouldn’t be mad about me saying that, or, you know, fielding questions.”
“Okay, so I’m…” One hand rubbed over her chest. “Similar to him, but not? I mean, I’m logical, so I can objectively know when someone is attractive, but it’s actually their intelligence that… you know… makes mesexuallyinterested.”
Well, fuck him.
But not, because…
“Intelligence. Yeah. Fuck.” Laz scratched at the back of his head, suddenly feeling like his apartment was much too small and hot, and when did his tail start that weird out-of-rhythm thwacking?
“Laz?” A cool thumb brushed over his cheek, tugging his face back. Rosalind’s warm gaze settled on him, such a shock to the pain burrowing into his bones. “Why did you say that?”
He meant to express his frustration with a wave of his arms, but they sort of flopped at his sides. “I mean, you want an intelligent partner. I’m basically… not.”
Dav was. Dav was fucking brilliant.They could bond over lists and numbers and have little human-demon babies that lined up like a family of cute measuring cups. Or tiered cake. Chocolate, of course.
Laz was just… silly. Fun, yes, but he didn’t know the first thing about the books that Dav kept. He could handle money, yeah, fine, but not the bigger things. Not balancing and budgeting beyond making sure he had enough to pay rent and business licenses. For fuck’s sake, he had been screwed over by a demon sellingmilk.
And just when his thoughts were sinking into the pits of the sads that he wasn’t sure he could climb out of, there was a prick of pain at his jaw.
He blinked, finding an absolutely terrifying sight in front of him.
Rosalind didn’t just look mad; she lookedfurious. Those eyes that had just held warmth were now stern, a fire living in the depths of that molten brown as her fingers pinched on either side of his chin to hold him captive.
“Don’t youeverfucking—fuck, I’m too short for this.” Quickly, she released him and glanced around her feet, finding the small chair he kept by the door to put on his boots. She stormed over to it, grabbed the back, then dragged it in front of him. With one hand on his arm to keep herself steady, she stomped onto the seat so she was… fuck, just a bit taller than him now, then fixed her angry face again as she grabbed his chin.
Lazerath should not have been so turned on by her anger directed at him like this. He hadn’t quite believed Dav whenhe’d explained how thoroughly Rosalind had torn Salgoron of Salgoron’s Goods a new asshole, but now he understood his friend’s mutterings about how fucking hot it had been to watch.
Rosalind’s grip returned to just the right side of pinching pain, pulling his attention back. “Don’t youeverfucking say that again.”
Laz was too dazed to remember what he’d said. “Yeah, sure. Never again.”
The wrong fucking thing to say—or the very right one—because her nostrils flared and her grip turned punishing. “Lazerath, look at me.”
“Nowhere else I want to look right now, beautiful.”
The anger in her gaze softened a fraction. “Laz. You are smart.” Instead of digging her nails in farther when he ached to turn away, her other hand came up, and then her palms were cradling either side of his face. “Yes, you are.”
It was hard not to believe her when she said it peering directly into his core. When he truly did believe that she was half of his soul, and thus everything out of her mouth should be right.
“Intelligence,” she said, eyes taking in his face, “is not only measured in balancing books or math or inventory. And it’s certainly not measured by jerks who take advantage of others’ kindness. You started a business, recognize patterns in customer flow, and have an incredible eye for displays. There’s alsoemotionalintelligence, and yours drew me in immediately. Just like yoursmile and joy.”
Laz huffed, but her thumb pressing on his lower lip stopped his words.
“You are brilliant, Laz. Just because it looks different than others doesn’t mean you’re not smart. Like tonight, when there wasn’t a single lull in conversation because you were listening, processing, asking questions, and letting me ask them in return. Like how you work flawlessly within a routine, or when your workspace is messy you can get thrown off, but you can also focus on something you enjoy and get so much done. You can even recall recipes without needing to reference the ingredient card. None of that is a lack of intelligence, it’s just how you work.”
He reached up, tugging her hands into his. “You know all of that about me already?”
“I need to. I…” Rosalind bit her lower lip. “I just need to keep my mind moving, taking in everything so it doesn’t have time to…” Her hands were occupied, so she just shrugged. “It’s howIwork.”
That he could understand, so he set her hands on his shoulders and placed his palms on her waist. “Situational awareness. Anticipating. Like the rhythm we fell into that first night with each other?”
