Like, say, how much he turned her on.
Dear god, he was turning her onnow, in the middle of this maelstrom of brand-new information. And not just because her head was full of that enormous demon body, and the fact that he had fangs, and oh, thosehorns. Or because he had emerged from the bathroom in his restored human form, and his restored human form was all ruffled up, like he’d been through a blizzard. Or because he was covered only in a robe that showed a ton of his hairy chest whenever he leaned over.
It wasn’t even the memory of that orgasm.
It was that bliss he seemed to have sunk into, over the idea of her acceptance and lack of fear. The way it made his expressionsoft and warm; the amount of tension that appeared to have run right out of him. She realized now that he’d been holding a lot of worry in his shoulders, his back. It had made him stiff.
Now he relaxed.
And it was so good to see, so sexy to watch him lean back in his chair—his gaze bright and just about eating her up—that she really didn’t want to disturb it.You can ask him things later after you’ve ravished him, she thought. Even though she knew that was nonsense. She didn’t even know if he really wanted her to. Or if maybe he would be more of the ravisher now.
And besides, there were things she had to know.
She just had to make sure she asked them in a way that didn’t disrupt his calm. “So. Supernatural things are real. And I’m a witch. And you’re a demon,” she said, and it worked. He almost laughed and shook his head.
“I can’t believe how much you make being a demon sound like nothing.”
“Well, it’s not like you’ve given me any reason to think anything else.”
“Yeah, but you know what demons are, right.”
“Totally. You prick people’s butts in Hell.”
That’s it, she thought.Make it sound like a cheerful cartoon. Though if she was being honest, she kind of knew it wasn’t much beyond that. Splinters of suppressed memories were returning to her at a rapid pace, and some of them included imps and the like. And every one of them was all pitchforks and primary colors.
It didn’t seem like a stretch to go with something like that.
Even though he looked outraged to hear it.
“What?No.No,” he protested, his face a picture of horror.
It was all right, though. It only gave her an opening to find out more.
“So a place like that doesn’t exist, then.”
“Yes, it exists, but nobody there does that.”
“Is it more like you go there and then everything is your worst nightmare?”
“I mean, that’s closer to the truth, yeah. There’s no giant forks. Or fiery lakes. Unless you’re afraid of giant forks or fiery lakes. In which case there might be. But either way that’s not really my department.”
She leaned forward at that.
Eyes already widening, before she could stop them. Of course she couldn’t stop them. Even as a kid she’d never been able to find out this much detail. She’d never had anyone who could explain.
“There aredepartmentsthere?” she gasped, now thinking of a giant office block, floating out there in the universe or another dimension or something. Though just as she got to grips with that, he seesawed one hand at her.
“Sort of. I guess. You’ve gotta understand, honey, I’m saying this in human language. And human language doesn’t quite cover what is really there. If I tried to get it across to you, it would hurt your brain to hear it. It would sound weird. So you just have to kind of conceptualize it the only way you can.”
“Then tell me how to conceptualize what you actually do that’s so bad.”
He hesitated. She saw him do it. And for the first time since they’d started talking about this, he searched for his cigarettes. The cigarettes that definitely weren’t cigarettes at all, but most likely some kind of demon-calming drug.
Though he seemed to reconsider after a moment.
Probably because he saw her expression, waiting without judgment.
“I punish evildoers so wicked Hell cannot wait for them,” he said, all in a big tumble. Then he winced. As if he still thought it might be a little far for her anyway. Much to her amusement.
