"What would you like to eat, my beautiful, broken girl? I had my chefs prepare a number of human dishes."
"Huh. They're me-sized," I remarked, only now noticing a trio of regular dinner plates next to Dev's fucking massive one, mine piled with tangerine segments, strawberries, and melon on one; pancakes loaded with chocolate, berries, and honey on another; and a greasy cooked breakfast on the third.
After the day I had, waking up in Hell after a night of vividly remembering the torture session at my dad's command, I reached for the cooked breakfast. I shoved a sausage into my mouth, not caring how unladylike I looked as I chewed and swallowed at a rate of knots.
"I see you like sausage, babygirl," Dev purred with a little smirk on his brutal face.
I snorted. "Cute euphemism. Not very subtle. Five out of ten."
He laughed so loud the chandelier hanging above the dining table rattled.8
"I'll have to work on my delivery," he said, still smiling as I devoured a slice of bacon next and followed it up with a fork full of eggs. "But I'm glad you like the food. I had a Michelin starred woman brought here specifically for you."
"And bybroughthere, you mean you kidnapped her?"
Dev shrugged, leaning back in the dark wood chair and watching me with zero remorse. "Only the best for my babygirl."
Ugh, why was I flushing? My ears definitely shouldnothave been hot and my cheeks tingling right now.
Deflection, Avie!
Deflect right now!
"So … this proposition," I said, and gave myself two out of ten for subtlety.
"Yes," he agreed, a sigh leaving him. "I'd rather keep you here in the fortress forever; at least I know you're safe here, and I can pamper you as much as I desire."
If Dev's brand of pampering included knives, books, movie rooms, candy floss, and orgasms, I wasn't too inclined to argue. But I knew there was a catch all along. The devil wanted something; that was why he saved me, patched me up, and probably why he mated me too.
"But…" I prompted, and popped a roast tomato into my mouth. It was one of those fancy ones cooked on the stem with a bunch of other tomato buddies. Sweetness burst across my tongue, flooding my senses. Maybe I should have felt alittlebad about the woman who'd been kidnapped to make me food, but damn she was good.
"ButI know you love drawing blood and seeing the life leave your victim's eyes as they choke to death."
I stiffened, a shot of heat from my head to my toes. Uh oh. Breakfast was not an appropriate time to be horny.
"And," he went on, watching me with affectionate eyes, "you're a talented weapon yourself. Locking you up would only make you resent me, so instead, I have a mission for you. Well, a favour would be more accurate."
"You're doing me a favour, or the other way around?" I asked, cramming the last two tomatoes into my mouth, a little sad to see my plate empty. I swiped my finger through the chocolate and syrup on the pancakes plate and sucked it noisily off my finger—
Aaaaand realised Dev hadn't answered.
"Hey, big guy? Earth to devil," I laughed, watching his fiery eyes focus. "You know damn well whatever Stonehenge-sized monster you're packing wouldn't fit inside me."
He scoffed, his lips curving dangerously. "There are ways, babygirl."
Well, fuck if I wasn't intrigued by that mysterious reply. "How—"
"You'llbe doing me the favour," he cut me off, clearing his throat and ignoring my smug expression. "Consider it an extension of that binding mark on your palm."
Ugh, that thing. I turned my hand over and winced. My fingers had been broken and my hands shredded to ribbons, so instead of a perfect black spiral, it was more like a glitchy, broken swirl, bisected in three places where I'd been cut.
I groaned, palming my forehead. Honestly, if the opportunity arose, I wouldn't hesitate to end my dad for everything he did, especially stealing my power and trying to use me to take the throne of Hell. But couldn't someoneelsetake care of him while I was here having breakfast with the devil?9
"I can find someone else to do it," Dev said, watching me. "But I thought you might like to slaughter your enemies personally. I'd give you full permission to kill any and all insurgents you find—any agents of your father."
I did like slaughtering enemies…
I huffed, giving him a narrow-eyed look. "That's not much of an incentive, Devvy boy."
