Narae’s startled eyes stayed on him as he approached the passenger side door. He pulled the already open door wider and made a shooing motion with his hand so she’d get her legs back inside. When she did, he closed the door and watched confusioncloud her pretty features. Once the door was closed, he reopened it.
Once she realized what he was on about, a smile split her face.
“You don’t open doors when you’re with me,” Daemon declared.
And Narae didn’t argue. She didn’t want to. She enjoyed this treatment. She liked feeling coveted.
Daemon’s hands were warm when, instead of letting her climb out on her own, he reached up and lifted her out of the truck. Instead of immediately setting her down, he pulled her in for a quick kiss and lowered her feet to the ground with his mouth still on hers.
When he pulled back and grinned down at her, she breathed, “Thanks, baby.”
His chest squeezed at the endearment. No one had ever called him that. No one called him anything other than Daemon or Demon or, where Thrall was concerned, Fuck Face. He liked Narae’s pet names for him. He especially liked it when he wasfucking her, and she’d cry out, “My Demon!” He’d never really cared for the name Demon, but he loved it now because Narae had made it belong to her.
Releasing her, he glanced at a bench nestled under a grove of trees in the boulevard of the theatre parking lot. He jerked his chin toward it. “We got time. You wanna admire the moon for a minute?”
Narae nodded with a smile, so he led her to the bench and got her seated before sitting beside her. In silence, she stared up at the full moon in reverence, while he stared at her with the same expression.
When Narae blushed, glancing at him quickly before giving her attention back to the moon, he followed her gaze to stare up at it too.
He turned contemplative, thinking on how so much had changed since the day they’d found Jury in their territory. If Jury hadn’t come, he and Thrall wouldn’t have had the opportunity to kidnap Narae. So many stars had to align for him to find Narae.
“What are you thinking about?”
His response was immediate. “You.”
She waited for him to expand.
“Him,” he jerked his chin toward the moon, and Narae followed his gaze, her eyes locking on the pregnant moon.
She didn’t push; she just waited in silence, hoping Daemon felt comfortable enough with her to tell her more.
“You know,” he started, voice pitched low. “The only time I’ve ever talked to him is when I’ve been deep in the shit and needed something from him.”
She stayed silent.
“And you know what, he’s never let me down, and I never saw that before. All the times I thought I was ignored, and my prayers weren’t being answered, they were. He was giving me what I needed, it just wasn’t what I wanted, so I raged against it.” Quietly, he admitted, “And I cursed him for it. I blamed him. I got so mad that I tried to hurt him back by crushing my heart so fully that not a single bone in my body craved love anymore. I thought that if I stopped wanting it, wantingyou, then I couldn’t be hurt by the absence of you.” He squeezed Narae’s hand beforebringing it up to his lips and kissing her knuckles, eyes still focused upward. Silence reigned a beat before he added, “I was dumb and blind and selfish and impatient. I thought I knew better than he did. I thought I knew what was best for me. Now,” he squeezed her hand. “I know I was wrong. He had a plan all along.” He fell quiet a moment before adding, “I let him down, I suppose.”
And that broke her heart. “The fact that you even question it says that you didn’t. Do you think bad people sit around questioning whether they disappoint God?”
When Daemon didn’t respond, Narae continued, “Before she died, my Mama taught me that the best way to assuage guilt or anxiety or uncertainty is with gratitude.”
“Iamgrateful,” Daemon admitted, turning to look at her, his expression was unguarded. “I’m so fucking grateful.”
Narae smiled. “Good. Then let’s thank him.” Tearing her gaze from Daemon, she looked back up at the moon. “Lord, we thank you for this night. We thank you for seeing us and keeping us, and we thank you for gifting us each other.” Her throatclogged with emotion on the last, and she swallowed hard, unable to finish. Daemon did it for her.
Head angled up, eyes locked on the same moon, his words were steady. “Thank you for sparing my life on all the occasions that you have. On all the occasions when I didn’t care one way or the other.” He glanced at Narae. “I appreciate your foresight.” He kissed Narae’s hand again before his attention went back up. “I thank you for my pack. I thank you for my wolf. And I especially thank you for my mate. I am sorry I have never thanked you before. I’ll do better. I’ll be better. Not just for you, but for my Demon and for my Narae. They both deserve the best version of me.”
Narae was crying now, moved by the change in Daemon. He was already so much better. He was trying so hard to be a good man for her, and she saw it. And while she didn’t need him to change for her, she gave him the grace to do what he felt he needed to do.
Daemon turned and looked at her. “You’ll tell me when I fuck up, won’t you?”
Narae swiped her tears and chuffed a watery sound. “No. Love isn’t keeping score, and it isn’t one-sided, baby. It isn’t me policing you and getting what I want. It’s both of us working hard to be what the other deserves. I’m gonna make mistakes too. And you’re going to have to love me through them.”
“And I will,” he promised.
“And I’ll do the same for you, and we’ll get to where we want to be together.”
“Together,” Daemon repeated. Leaning over, he gripped the back of Narae’s neck and guided her mouth to his, where he kissed her long and deep before pulling back. Pressing his forehead into hers, he snarled, “If we don’t stop now, we’re gonna miss the show.”
