“And that’s supposed to be horrifying to me.”
“Well, I do it with a big hammer. It’s pretty gruesome.”
She fake fanned herself with her hand. Made her face as pretend scared as she could get it, all big eyes and lip biting. “Oh no, not gruesome. However will I cope with such a thing.”
“I can’t believe you’re being funny about this. These are human beings.”
“So they’re not that guilty of bad stuff then. Actually, Satan is just super strict about these things. You end up with one too many parking tickets and your head gets caved in by a seven-foot-tall horned hottie with a big hammer.”
“Don’t say it like it’ssexy.”
He threw up his hands, his face the very definition of aghast.
Though there was a gleam in his eyes when he did it. And the outraged breath he let out had just a hint of delight about it, around the edges. Like he was appalled, but somehow secretly pleased at the same time. She’d let slip a bit of desire, still burning despite everything that had just happened, and he’d caught it.
Even if he couldn’t quite believe it.
“You just saw what I looked like,” he said, incredulous.
And she knew just how to reaffirm what she’d said, without pushing it too hard. “That simply slipped out. I didn’t mean it. Despite how factual it is.”
“Factual? My demon form is the color of a tomato.”
“Yeah, but tomatoes are delicious.”
“Not when they’re massive body shaped, they’re not. Then it’s just weird.” He leaned forward, tilted his head almost conspiratorially. Like,hey, you can level with me, it’s fine. “I know it’s weird, okay? I might not understand everything about humans, but I have grasped what they find attractive, and it’s not that.”
“Is it also not biceps like buses?”
“That—you—you’re saying it like it’s good on purpose.”
“It’s not that hard. Here, I’ll do it again: those thick thighs save lives.”
She knew as soon as she said it thatthiswas too much. He rocked back in his chair. Mouth hanging open, eyes like moons. Even though she’d kind of curbed herself quite a lot there. Her still soupy-with-desire brain had wanted her to say way more, and about a lot of other things she’d accidentally seen. Because honestly she’dtriedto keep her eyes high up as he made his way into the house and disappeared into his bathroom. But unfortunately, his sudden huge height had made judginghowhigh up her eyes needed to be pretty tough. She definitely hadn’t quite gotten it right.
Things had been glimpsed around his tattered pants.
Big things. Big things she couldn’t stop thinking about.
So, really, he’d gotten off pretty lightly. Even if he didn’t seem to think so. “Jeez, this is just… this is really not the way I imagined this going,” he said, in a hushed sort of voice. “I mean, it’s weird enough that you seem to like me like this. And that you’re okay with me likethat. But finding it in any wayappealing? I just don’t know what to say.”
“Try simply accepting it.”
“I want to. But gosh, honey.”
Notkidanymore, she thought. Honeynow.
And that made her want to say more dangerous things.
But luckily, something else about what he’d said came to her. It pinged in her head, like a lightbulb going on. “Do you say stuff likegoshbecause you can’t sayGod?” she asked, and oh, the sheepish look he gave her. “Wow, you can’t. That’s so weird. And cool.”
“It’s not cool. I can’t speak the name of the Lord with my forked tongue.”
“Wait, you have aforked tongue?” She leaned forward to try and get a look. “How forked? Like, just a little bit?”
“That’s not the important part here. That’s not… it’s not literal. I’m cursed. The light of heaven will never shine upon me. I dwell in darkness, condemned to destroy the souls of those who offend the face of they who embody goodness,” he said, and she didn’t know what she liked more. That his voice went just a little bit weird and demony and sonorous when he started to get all biblical about it. Or that what he was saying definitely suggested something pretty neat.
“The way you say it makes it sound like god is nonbinary.”
