Neon Blue E Frost (speld decodable readers .TXT) 📖

to do anything graphic in front of Lin. But he just brushes his mouth across my forehead and breathes warmly into my mind, I missed you.

You did? I stand rigid within the circle of his arm, not sure how to take his admission. I thought . . . you said you don’t feel that way . . .

I said I don’t miss my harem like humans miss each other. His liquid chocolate chuckle. You’re not part of my harem, sweet meat.

Thank God for that, I fire back. But if he doesn’t want me to be part of his harem, then what does being his seggurach mean?

I’ll show you after dinner. Say g’night to the nice dragon. Dinner’s waiting.

I draw away from him, irritated at his ability to read more of my mind than I want him to. He lets me go with a grin that tells me he heard that thought, too. Smug bastard.

“You ready to go?” he asks aloud.

I nod.

“Good. I got lamb tagine waiting and it shouldn’t be left too long. Dries out the apricots.”

My mouth begins to water. His additional thought – And crème brulee for desert, but only if you lick it off the little demon – does nothing to help me control my salivation.

“You cook?” Lin asks. She gives me a meaningful glare. I shrug.

“A little,” he says, all false demonic modesty.

I knock him with my elbow. “He’s an amazing cook.”

“I can’t believe I offered to cook on Friday.” Her glare redoubles and I shrug. So I didn’t mention it. Although I adore his cooking, it’s really not what’s been at the forefront of my mind.

“I’m lookin’ forward to it. I love traditional Shandong,” the demon says easily. He slides his arm across my shoulders again. “C’mon, let’s go.”

I let him steer me out the front doors with an abbreviated good-bye to Lin, and only when we’re accelerating along Memorial Drive do I remember that I’ve left the apples on my desk.

They’ll keep, the demon thinks. We don’t need ‘em for anything we’re doin’ tonight.

“We don’t need them for anything we’re doing because we’re not doing anything. I’m going gathering, remember?”

“I told you, no more fraternizing with the airy fairy.”

“And I told you that I need him.”

“’Cause it’s all about what you need, right?”

He sounds so much like Saul in that moment that I shiver. “Maybe it is.” And if it is, maybe he’ll leave, like Saul. But nothing in me believes it. And although I shouldn’t feel relief at that thought, I do.

Stop trying to convince yourself that you don’t want me around.

I turn in my seat to look at him. He sits behind the wheel completely relaxed, one huge hand clamped around the top of the wheel, long leather-clad legs stretched in front of him. His eyes are on the road, dark and alert. The master of all he surveys. Except that there’s a muscle ticking in his jaw.

“What difference does it make?” I ask. “You ignore everything I want anyway.”

“Maybe it bugs me that I’ve offered you everything I can and all you can think about is gettin’ rid of me.”

I snort in disbelief. “Are you telling me I’ve hurt your feelings?”

He flicks his eyes at me, their neon glow sliding over my face like hot fingers. “Somethin’ I been thinking about all day. Last night, I asked you why you don’t call me ‘baby’ or ‘lovedaddy.’ You didn’t answer me.”

I twist in my seat so I can stare out the window. I’m not answering him now, either.

“Your mind’s a fucking bullhorn. ‘Cause I’m a demon, right?”

“I never said that,” I say to the window.

“You thought it, though. You don’t want to be like the dead bitch and the others that have trapped me, but you are. Deep down. You’re using me just the same way.”

That’s grossly unfair. “I am not using you!”

“No? Why do you keep jumping in the sack with me?”

“You haven’t given me any choice!”

“That ain’t the way I remember it. I had to tell you ‘no’ yesterday.”

“You are such a pig!” My breath steams against the window, and not because of the cold air outside.

“You’re usin’ me for sex, sweet meat, admit it. You’re poppin’ me like Ex. I could smell it earlier when you were doing your greenwitch thing. You’re pumped up on my power.” His voice drops to a growl. “And it’s okay to use me like that, right? ‘Cause I’m just a demon. So what I want and need don’t matter.”

I snap my head around to glare at him. “What you want and need mean damnation and the loss of my soul, or have you forgotten about that?”

“Nope, been thinking about it pretty much non-stop. Can’t remember being this preoccupied with one human, actually. Maybe that’s why makin’ you my seggurach seems like a good idea.”

“Funny, it doesn’t seem like a good idea to me.”

“’Cause you don’t know anything about it.”

“Well, why don’t you enlighten me?” I say through my teeth.

“Showin’ you’s easier.”

I cross my arms over my chest, feeling the seatbelt bite between my breasts. “You are so not taking me to Hell.”

“See, there you go. You never been there, don’t know anything about it, but you’re already certain you don’t want to go.”

“Strangely enough, yes, I am pretty sure I do not want to go to Hell. I’m even more sure that I don’t want to go there with you.”

He glances at me, his forehead tightening into a frown. “Why not with me?”

“Because you’ll try to keep me there!”

He looks back at the road. His mouth tightens and the muscle ticks in his jaw again. “That never even crossed my mind.”

I bang my palms against my forehead in exasperation. “You make me insane! You expect me to believe that you just want to take me on a little day trip to Hell?”

“You can be so fuckin’ close-minded . . .” He sighs. “Here it is, I want you to come with me. Tonight. I want to raise power with you to fortify my place. And show you what it would