Page 59 of Angel I Am Not

His mouth moved against my neck when he laughed. “That’s what you’re doing at four in the morning?”

“Yes. This is important.” I elbowed him lightly and kept going. “Sat, Tan, Sata. They’re all stupid. I can’t call Nick any of those. He’ll get mad at me and then I might not get his dick anymore.”

The words left my mouth before my brain had the good sense to intervene, and my cheeks burned. Heaven would have had an entire fucking lecture prepared for that sentence. Apparently, a few days away had turned me into the kind of woman who casually worried about losing access to Satan’s dick before breakfast.

Zel’s shoulders shook behind me. “You’re worried he’ll withhold sex because you gave him a bad nickname?”

“I’m exploring all possible outcomes.”

He turned me around and started walking me backward toward the bedroom. “Come back to bed. You can save Satan’s dick through the power of nicknames later.”

“Nope. I need this now.” I planted my feet as much as I could with him still moving me. “He needs something besides Nick. What if we’re in public and somebody hears me call him Satan?”

“They’ll probably assume you’re being dramatic.”

Zel laughed and leaned down to press a soft kiss to the bridge of my nose, and something in my chest went unexpectedly soft. Yesterday, I probably would have assumed wanting him meant wanting his dick.

I still wanted that eventually because I had eyes and the thing had spent half the morning pressed against me, but now I wanted this too. His arms around me. His sleepy kisses. The ridiculous tail that kept finding some part of my body to wrap around like it had developed attachment issues.

Seeing this side of Gluttony was nice. Sweet, even, which was not a word I expected to associate with a demon who had spent half the night treating my pussy like an all-you-can-eat buffet.

The thought brought Domiel to mind and soured my mood. I couldn’t remember him ever touching me just because he liked having me close. There had always been a reason attached to it, an expectation, some version of how I was supposed to behave afterward.

Zel had kissed my nose because apparently he wanted to kiss my fucking nose. “Breathe,” he murmured, his hand sliding down my back. “Just keep calling him Nick. It’s another form of the name, and everybody knows who you mean.”

“That’s boring.”

“It also works.” His mouth twitched when I made a face. “But if you really want my opinion, call him Satan in bed.”

My body shuddered before I could stop it, and Zel’s grin widened.

“Thought so.”

Then I realized the permission he had just handed me. I leaned back against the wall and let my voice drop. “You mean like calling you Beelzebub?”

His eyes darkened instantly. The tail around my ankle snapped tighter while the tips of his claws pushed carefully into his own palms instead of my waist. His grip on me tightened anyway, and the way his pupils swallowed the brown made a pleased little thrill move through me.

“Oh,” I whispered. “That works too.”

“Angel.”

I smiled and pressed my chest toward him. “Beelzebub, take me back to bed.”

“Gladly.”

He hoisted me over his shoulder before I could laugh and smacked my ass hard enough to make me yelp on the way down the hall.

“What the fuck?” Nick’s sleepy voice came from somewhere beneath the blankets when Zel shoved the bedroom door open.

“She was wandering,” Zel said as he carried me inside.

“I was peeing.”

Luc cracked one eye open from his side of the bed. “Dangerous hobby.”

I shoved at his shoulder when Zel dumped me into the middle of the mattress, but Luc only grunted and shifted closer. Zel climbed in behind me and immediately wrapped himself around my back again, tail finding my ankle like it had somewhere specific to be. Nick grumbled until I lifted the blanket for him, then slid in against my front with absolutely no shame about stealing the rest of the space.

Within seconds, I was trapped between too many limbs, one wandering tail, and three demons who apparently had no concept of personal space. I should have complained, but instead I tucked myself closer and tried not to think too hard about the fact that Dante wanted me to meet Lust next.