Immortals After Dark 06 - Dark Desires After Dusk

fit,” she insisted.
    “We’ll get you a belt.”
    “Wait, this is only one outfit!”
    “None doing. We’re getting you five pairs of these earth-shattering jeans, and that sweater in every color, and then we’re finished, yeah?” Out in the store, he said, “Damn, that was close. I got you out of there just in time.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “You were about to claw out the girls’ eyes for their interest in your demon. It was imminent—lives held in the balance.”
    “You’re not my demon.”
    “No? You sure kissed me like I was.”
    “Ooh!” she muttered under her breath.
    He snagged a black leather belt, coiled on a display table. “Try this.” He looped it around her waist, taking his time with his arms around her, lingering. Ten to one odds said he was smelling her hair.
    “It’s fine,” she said, so he got her a few more, then set about collecting all the jeans and sweaters.
    When it was their turn to pay, Cadeon told the lady at the register, “Good evening, dove.”
    The woman stared speechlessly at him, unable to do more than fuss with her hair.
    “Ma’am,” Holly prompted, more sharply than she’d intended.
    Once she snapped out of her daze and began scanning the tags, Cadeon murmured at Holly’s ear, “Another close call. These silly chits flirt with death.”
    Holly kicked his shin. In response, he gave a deep chuckle.
    When they’d finally gotten their bags and had taken the tags off the clothes she wore, he told Holly, “Go try on some hiking boots downstairs.” He handed her a Centurion American Express card.
    Apparently the demon was rich. “You need some expensive ones that you don’t have to break in. With Gore-Tex for snow.”
    “Where are you going?”
    “Getting a coat and some things. Stay in this store till I get back….”
    In the shoe department, she picked out two types of boots. One pair was sturdy, with a Gore-Tex coating, because she needed them. Yet she also chose a pair made of sleek, black leather with higher heels—because her claws were curling for them and she was helpless not to.
    When the saleslady returned with her size, Holly tried them on, walking around the area. Did everyone walk differently in boots? Maybe with a little more strut?
    Holly bought the two pairs, wearing the black ones. Her task complete, she sat and waited for Cadeon to return. With no activity and no one to talk to, her mind began mulling recent developments….
    She’d officially been unfaithful to her boyfriend. And that just wasn’t her way. She’d never cheated on a test, had never even broken a promise. Tim was too nice a guy to deserve this—
    How well do you really know Tim?
    The thought came out of nowhere, making her frown.
    He was perfect for her, a steady, even-tempered guy, who was incredibly driven in his career. As driven as she was. He was tall, slim, and handsome in an affable, non-intimidating way. And as she’d told Cadeon, Tim would make a great husband and father.
    Which was more than she could say for a male like Cadeon, who would be unfaithful to her and most likely an absentee father to any children he might have.
    Yet earlier with Cadeon, she’d had a realization. There were things about a man that could be learned so much more easily when in a sexual situation, when the walls were down.
    Cadeon’s eyes had been lustful, hungry, but his touch had been tender, almost as if he’d been savoring or even…awed.
    Holly hadn’t expected that gentleness from the rough mercenary and never would have seen it if not in bed with him.
    What would she discover about Tim in a like situation? She tried to imagine doing the same things with him. Yet she couldn’t—because she kept seeing the demon.
    No, no! This was a perfect example of her new, foreign thought processes taking over. The ones that reason why mutual petting with a demon makes sense: because I can learn—wink, wink—about him. As a person.
    She was doubting Tim only because she wasn’t herself. Not because of any faint suspicion that she clung to him as a personification of her old life—the one she feared leaving…
    Her thoughts went blank when she spied Cadeon coming for her, his long-legged stride eating up the distance, his shoulders back, cocky half-grin in place.
    Maybe Cadeon had a good point, she thought dazedly. Maybe she should have one last adventure before her normal, ordered existence resumed. A little sexual experimentation, a little excitement…
    When