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He was the same as me: a college student likely trying to figure all of this out. As I sat there watching, he began to stir. His eyelids fluttered, and I shuffled toward the wall to make room for him. A smile twitched at the corners of my mouth. He’d gone from being a sexy, intimidating demon to my drop-dead adorable boyfriend stirring to life in my bed.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” he asked.

“You’re cute when you’re sleeping.” The words fell off my mouth before I realized it, but I didn’t regret them—especially when Luc blushed, making himself even more precious.

He squirmed, brushing a hand over his face. “Shut up.”

Damn, I’d flustered the demon.

“Well, you said you’ve been watching me. Thought I’d return the favor.” The color on his cheeks deepened, and another chill shot down my spine. “Gimme a minute.”

I snatched my hoodie from the back of my desk chair, then padded into the hallway to turn up the heat.

“You could have told me you were cold,” Luc said when I re-entered my bedroom. “I’d have warmed you up.”

Apparently, he wasn’t keen to let me forget that he could make me blush just as hard. “I know.” I climbed back onto the bed and straddled his lap, settling on his thighs as his hands landed on my hips. “How?”

I wasn’t asking about the methods he’d use to warm me up, and we both knew it. I wanted to know how he’d been watching me. Cameras seemed too easy, and when would he have gotten in to place them? Even if he had gotten the chance, Carter wouldn’t have let it fly.

Luc looked… bashful. Maybe he thought he’d never get caught, or he hadn’t expected to have let it slip so soon. His large hands curled around my hips, smoothing down my thighs and up to my ribs and back before he spoke. He swallowed hard, and looked at his hands instead of my eyes. “There’s a gargoyle perch outside your window.”

My brows furrowed and I looked toward that wall. Sure enough, if I just leaned forward a little bit, the gargoyle perch was right there—empty, in the light of day.

How many creatures had been watching me?

“It’s always empty,” Luc continued, answering my unspoken question. “One night I… I followed you back after classes. I didn’t plan on staying but I saw the perch and…”

His sentence fell away. It was clear that it wasn’t the last time he’d done it. The things he’d said—the wildly specific things—couldn’t have all happened in one night.

Even if there were entire nights I would spend chanting his name like a prayer.

“I understand if it’s a dealbreaker for you.”

My attention snapped up from my belly, where Luc’s thumbs were rubbing soothing shapes into my hips. “It should be,” I murmured. “But for some reason it isn’t and I don’t know how to explain it.”

Luc inhaled deeply. “I’d have to talk to another devil about it, but it could be something to do with the bond. It sort of…” He paused, drawing his bottom lip between his teeth and staring over my shoulder, as if the words he sought out were written on the walls. “It’s a bit like taking a few shots rather than chugging the bottle.”

I gagged at the mere mention of alcohol, making Luc laugh.

“It doesn’t entirely lower your inhibitions,” he continued, “but it starts to make you rethink things you normally wouldn’t.”

“So…” I began. “I’ve done it, right? I’ve accepted the bond? You did that last night when you made me swear to be yours.”

A flicker of something dashed across Luc’s eyes—pride, maybe? Lust? It could have been a little of both. I… may have scanned the transcripts of that podcast while Luc was in the bathroom.

The bond locked into place the day we met.

The ritual summoned him and began the mating.

I’d repeated Luc’s words, binding me to him officially.

The last step was for Luc to claim me as his.

“That’s right,” he finally said. “It won’t be complete until you carry my scent, but we won’t be rushing that part.”

My cheeks warmed at the reality of what that meant: Luc needed to come inside me. And though I appreciated his efforts to make sure I wouldn’t get hurt, my body decided to be less appreciative. Luc’s thumbs dipped behind my waistband, drawing up goosebumps over my belly.

I blamed the still present chill for making me fold over on top of him, not the insecurity that continued to take over the forefront of my mind. Luc was a devil, and an extremely attractive one at that. He had to have people beating down his door for even the chance to hook up with him. What made me so special?