Page 47 of Craving Demons
At ten thirty, Grey strode into the lounge and all the flirty hard-ons around my station suddenly fled.
Apparently, the “claiming” thing was really working.
“How are you doing tonight?” he asked, his voice low as he leaned against the bar, those sable-black eyes sucking me in once again.
“Good, thanks,” I said, feeling just a little breathless around his intensity.
“Why don’t you take a break?” he said. “So, we can be seen.”
God, the way he said that made it sound so very dangerous and sexy, like we were about to perform some sex act live on stage for a bunch of voyeurs.
“Ah, yeah sure.” I looked over to Maria, the shift manager, and she nodded to me. Then I slipped out from behind the bar.
Grey was there, a heavy, possessive arm draped across my shoulders. I’d worn a dark blue bodycon dress, off the shoulders and tight to my curves with a sweetheart neckline and mid-thigh skirt.
His fingers skimmed up off my sleeve to the exposed skin of my shoulder and drew a shiver. But his hand didn’t stop at my shoulder, it slid to the back of my neck, and he did that thing again, stroking his thumb up behind my ear.
Thankfully I didn’t moan this time, well, not out loud anyway. Instead, my body just got very warm and parts of me got very wet.
He offered me a chair at a table near the window overlooking the park and the lit-up city, the lights bright in the evening’s darkness. Then, instead of taking the chair opposite me, he shifted it around so it was next to me, close, very close, so I was between him and the window.
“There,” he breathed, words just for me. “Now I have you all to myself.”
I shivered, the sensation rolling down my spine and adding to the liquid heat pooling in my core.
Boy was I glad I’d learned from yesterday and brought several changes of panties just in case. If Grey kept talking to me in that low and heated tone, while stroking my ear, I was going to need them.
ANAIS
We satin silence for a while, him being all tall, dark, and possessive, and me being all melty and gooey and flushed.
“If you don’t mind me asking…” he said, his hand on my back lifting away so just a single finger could trace the neckline of my dress. More shivers of anticipation swept through me, and my heat ratcheted up a notch to boiling. “What was all that last night about two hundred and fifty million? Was that a joke?”
And in an instant, the bubbling lava in my core turned to a hard rock in my gut.
He must have sensed my stiffness.
“Sorry,” he said almost instantly. “I didn’t mean to pry.” He sighed. “It was just an oddly large and specific amount.”
“Could we talk about something else?” I asked, mouth dry as a desert. “And can I get a drink?”
He nodded and signaled a server, ordering two ginger ales.
I smiled. He’d remembered what I liked to drink and that I didn’t do anything alcoholic when I was out at a club.
“What would you like to talk about?” he asked, his voice still hushed, just for me. The way he had his hand on my back while leaning on the table with his other arm, facing me and leaning in, made it feel like he was the only thing in my world and I was pretty sure that was intentional.
I wracked my brain for a conversation topic before remembering he liked animals. “Do you have any pets?”
He smiled, and instantly the dark and dangerous Grey was gone, replaced by a warm and tender-hearted Grey. Wow, what a shift.
“Yeah. I think of all the animals in my shelters as mine, until they find a good home. But I have a dog, as well. His name is Kerberos.” The name sounded odd, like care-bear-oos. And I couldn’t help but smile at the innocent-sounding name.
“What type of dog is he?” I asked, hoping to keep light-and-heartfelt Grey around.
“A hellhound. Well, technicallyThe Hellhound. He used to guard the gates of Hades until I left and he came with me. He always liked me better than Dad.”
What the fuck? Apparently, it just wasn’t possible to have a normal conversation with these guys without seers and hellhounds coming up.