“It was fine.”
He tilted his head. “Yo, if the couch isn’t comfortable, just say the word and we can swap. You take my bed and I’ll crash on the couch.”
My body jerked at the offer. I nearly flung the eggs onto the ceiling.
“I can’t sleep in your bed!” I stammered.
“Why?”
Chase’s innocent question sent a wave of heat prickling up my arms. Was he that oblivious? How could he be so unaware after kissing me twice?
“I—It’s not—”
He put his palms up, looking slightly dejected. “Okay, okay, it was only a suggestion.”
My face burned. He’d misunderstood my hesitation. It wasn’t that I found it objectionable, or that I didn’twantto. In fact, being enveloped in the smell of him seemed... pleasant.
I roughly dumped the scrambled eggs onto the plates. “Here. Eat.”
Chase perked up. He thanked me and shovelled them into his mouth.
As I picked at my own plate, I wondered if the demon had spoken to Chase this morning. Did he mention my thwarted attack? Or worse, the fact that I’d stroked Chase’s hair while he slept?
I refused to let the demon get the upper hand on me.
“You should know that I attempted an exorcism trick on you last night. A sleep strike,” I explained to Chase.
He glanced up from his plate. “Huh?”
“Essentially, I attacked you in your sleep. It’s a common tactic used on lesser demons. It ejects them without harming the host. But Faust thwarted me.”
“You attacked me? When?” Chase asked casually.
“A couple hours ago. You slept through it.”
“Oh.” He sounded disappointed, like he’d missed the excitement.
Then he paused. I recognized that telltale look on his face. The demon was speaking to him.
“Uh, Faust says something else happened, too.”
I gritted my teeth. That piece of shit demon... He forced me to out myself before he did.
“To test my theory, I gently touched your hair,” I admitted, trying to sound nonchalant about it. “I apologize.”
Chase sat up straighter. He gawked for a few seconds before stammering, “No, it’s fine. It’s cool. I don’t mind.” He picked up his fork, fumbled it, then put it back down. “So let me get this straight. Faust stopped you from attacking me, but not from petting me?”
I nearly choked.
“I didn’tpetyou,” I asserted, despite the heat blooming in my core. “And I didn’t attackyou, I attacked the demon.”
“Okay.”
An awkward silence descended as we finished our breakfast. As soon as Chase was done, I grabbed his plate and put the dishes in the sink.
“Hey, you don’t have to do all that,” Chase insisted. “You’re a guest. Let me handle it.”
A guest. Right. I was a guest in Chase’s home. An exorcist here to deal with a demon. Not to develop some silly infatuation with my client.
