by Lynn Hagen
“Right, right.” Amir nodded.
Deandre was dying to kiss him. Fuck, those full lips, so sweet, made for long hours of foreplay and kissing.
And other things, but Deandre forced those thoughts out of his head. Or he tried to, but fuck, resisting Amir wasn’t an easy thing to do. Aside from threatening to kill Deandre and hand his dead body over to the sheriff, he liked everything he’d seen about the human. They way he’d talked to the people who’d entered his office, how he’d tried to reach out to Deandre on that trail.
“Smile for me.”
Amir frowned. “What?”
“I just want to see you smile.” It was an overpowering need that Deandre couldn’t shake.
Amir gave him a tight grin.
Deandre rolled his eyes. “You can do better than that.”
The human chuckled, giving Deandre a genuine smile. “Is that better?”
“Much.”
“Well, I need to go back inside.” Amir stood and held up his phone. “I’ll get in touch if anything else happens.”
Amir didn’t give any indication that he was attracted to Deandre, no sly looks, no blushing, nothing.
Deandre sighed as he watched Amir go inside. Fate was a cruel bitch. He’d been hoping to find out if Amir was his mate, with the crazy attraction he had toward the guy. But that wasn’t going to happen. Right now Amir was simply fascinated with him because Deandre wasn’t human, but when shit got too insane, Amir would demand he never return.
His mood soured, Deandre got up and made his way home, to his empty apartment and his even emptier life.
* * * *
Donny left the room where Kragon had been interrogated. He scrubbed a hand over his face and took a deep breath. This was fucking bad, real bad.
The human who Deandre was so in lust with was in danger. The house he lived in used to be a Liquid Wrath lab when Marino Malone was alive. He needed to find Deandre and tell him.
As soon as Donny was on the streets, he pulled out his phone and called Deandre, hoping his friend picked up. He didn’t want to go back to the human’s house, but Donny would if he couldn’t get ahold of Deandre.
“What’s up?” Deandre asked when he answered.
“Where are you?” Donny looked around as he made his way to the demons’ apartment building.
“Home, why?”
“I’ll be there in a second. Don’t leave.” Donny hung up and picked up his pace. He entered the building from the alley and went straight to Deandre’s apartment.
Donny looked around when he entered. Why in the hell was it so dark? “Deandre?”
“In here.”
His friend was in the kitchen, sitting at the table, his head resting on his folded hands. Donny rolled his eyes. “You got it bad.”
“Shut up.” Deandre lifted his head. “What did you want to see me about? And it better not be to mess with me.”
Testy. Donny flipped on a light before he took a seat. Man, if this was what it looked like to fall for someone, Donny never wanted his heart to be stolen. He’d been through enough torture and pain in his life and wasn’t willing to add to that.
“Nah, I love fucking with you, but even I’m not gonna kick a man when he’s down.” He got up and grabbed a bottle of juice from the fridge before taking his seat again. “It seems the house your boo lives in used to belong to Marino Malone. It was one of his drug labs. From what Kragon told us, there’s some shit buried in the basement that some people want to get their hands on.”
Deandre groaned. “Don’t tell me some idiot is trying to get the lab up and running.”
Donny took a swallow and wiped his mouth. “Kragon isn’t sure what the guy who paid him wants with it. He’s not even sure what’s buried down there, other than what he was told, which he thinks might be a lie.”
Deandre scrubbed his face. “Then I need to get back there and find out what everyone is after.”
Donny nodded. “That’s what I was thinking. You gotta protect Amir and his kids. Do you need me to go with?”
“I got this. I’m not sure Amir is gonna want to see me, let alone have me bring a friend along for the ride.”
Donny wanted to say more, to do more for Deandre. He hated him looking so miserable. But he also knew when Deandre wanted to be alone.
“Call me if you need me.” He got up and walked out, hoping Deandre wasn’t about to get his heart crushed.
Chapter Four
Deandre needed to stay out of his own head. It was a dark place and kept pulling him into an abyss. He couldn’t believe he sat at his kitchen table once again wallowing in his pity party for one.
He also needed to man up. This wasn’t like him. Deandre usually didn’t give a shit about anything, took life by the balls, and had fun while doing it. But he was letting Amir get to him, and he didn’t know why.
Who was he kidding? He knew why. Deandre had seen Amir’s family and he wanted to be a part of it, a part of something special. To have someone in his corner the way the rest of the warriors had found their happiness in their mates.
So the burning question was, could Amir be Deandre’s mate? The first question needed to be, was Amir into men?
Deandre pulled out his phone after Donny left and dialed Amir’s number. But he didn’t hit Send. His finger hovered over the button, but his racing heart and self-doubt stopped him from making the call.
“Man the fuck up.” Deandre let out a long sigh and hit the button, pressing the phone to his ear while he hoped he wasn’t calling too late.
“Hello?”
A smile tightened his face when Dahj answered. That had to be her name because Deandre doubted it was Flynn. “Hey, darling. It’s the tooth fairy. Can I speak to your daddy?”
She sucked in a breath, and it sounded like she’d dropped the phone. “Are you gonna tell my daddy you gave me a dollar?”
He frowned. “You didn’t tell him?”
“Nuh-uh. But I told Zanny! That means I didn’t keep a secret!”
The girl was stealing his damn heart. Deandre’s smile hurt his face, and now more than ever he wanted to see Amir. “No, I’m not calling to tell on you. Can I talk to your daddy?”
“Swear.”
“I swear,” he said.
“Daddy!”
The girl had the right people raising her, because she was intelligent beyond her years. Deandre wouldn’t be surprised to find out she challenged Amir on a daily basis.
“Hello?” Amir said. “Tooth fairy, huh?” He made a clucking noise. “Is that who she thinks you are, Deandre?”
“How’d you know it was me?”
“Because you’re the only tooth fairy I know.”
“Oh.” Deandre cleared his throat. “I’m calling because we have something serious we need to discuss.”
“Is it about last night?”
Shit, that meant it was morning in the human realm. Even after all this time Deandre still sometimes got the time differences mixed up.
“Yeah, it’s about that. We found out something in the interrogation, and it’s not good.”
His leg started to bounce as he waited to see what Amir was going to say. Deandre’s stomach was in knots, and god, someone shoot him and put him out of his misery already.
“We’re having breakfast right now.”
“Oh, well, you can call me back if—”
“So come on by and you can join us. But no talk in front of my kids. They don’t need to hear anything about that.”
It took a second for Deandre’s brain to catch up with Amir’s words. “You’re inviting me over?”
“Sure, just as long as you behave yourself. I gotta go. I’m in the middle of flipping pancakes. See you when you get here.”
Amir hung up, and Deandre practically ran to his closet. He stopped, took a deep breath, and walked inside, emerging into Amir’s garage. Deandre let himself out and knocked on the back door.
He heard a baby squealing and something knocking over. Amir cursed, i
f fudge was a curse word, and opened the door. He let Deandre in then went to the highchair and bent, cleaning up spilled pancakes.
As Amir cleaned up the mess, Deandre went to the stove and flipped the next set of pancakes before they burned. He turned the bacon over and scrambled the eggs.
When Amir approached, Deandre shook his head. “Have a seat. I can handle cooking. It’s what I’m good at.”
He hated that Amir had faint bruising around his neck. Deandre wanted to find where Panahasi had taken the demon and kill the son of a bitch for blemishing Amir’s skin.
“But I was—”
“Looking frazzled?” Deandre arched a brow. “I got this. You concentrate on the baby. Get him fed without burning breakfast.”
“Thanks. Zanny is usually here by now to help, but she had some things to take care of this morning.”
“Is she your sister?” Deandre remembered Dahj calling her aunt.
“My best friend.” Amir pulled a chair to the baby and started feeding him pieces of pancake from his own plate. “And Flynn usually feeds himself, but he’s in a mood this morning.”
Dahj sat at the table, eating breakfast, her legs swinging back and forth, as she watched her tablet. She cut her gaze at him, and Deandre smiled.
“You already told me your secret,” Amir said to his daughter. “In the bath, remember, sauce monster?”
Her dark brows furrowed, and then she grinned. “Oh yeah!”
“And I told her not to keep secrets from you,” Deandre added.
Amir got up and joined Deandre at the stove. “A hundred bucks, really?”
“It was all I had on me,” Deandre said. “I was trying to get her to go back to bed.”
“Well, I replaced it with a dollar. Remind me to give you your money back after breakfast.”
“Put it in her piggybank.” Deandre refused to discuss it any further. It wasn’t as though he needed the cash. He was independently wealthy and had nothing to spend his money on. He had no bills to pay, a small amount of expenses, and his money just piled up.
“I’m not taking—”
“Not in front of the kiddos,” Deandre said in a singsong voice. “Go feed Flynn. He’s making a mess.”
Deandre plated the food, turned the burners off, and grabbed one of Flynn’s small bowls from the dish rack so he could give him another pancake.
Deandre sat at the table with Amir and Dahj, Flynn’s highchair right next to him. His chest ached at how good this felt, to be a part of something, even if it was an illusion in his head.
When was the last time he sat down to a home-cooked meal with anyone? Never. Definitely not in his childhood and not since he became a warrior. Edward had invited him to eat with them, but that had gotten interrupted.
This was the first time he was breaking bread with anyone, and damn, Deandre was not going to get choked up about it.
“Is Zanny coming?” Dahj asked. “She promised to take us to town.”
“She’s running late, hon.” Amir picked up his napkin and wiped the syrup from Dahj’s chin. It was a loving gesture that made Deandre smile.
After breakfast Deandre helped with the cleanup as Dahj and Flynn took off to play in their rooms.
“You got your hands full.” Deandre handed Amir the plate so he could put it into the dishwasher. He was also checking out the guy’s ass whenever he bent over.
“It hasn’t been easy doing this on my own.” There was a catch to Amir’s voice.
“Their mom?” Deandre held up his hands. “If I’m being too nosey, tell me to shut my trap.”
Amir chuckled. “I can’t believe I’m doing dishes with a demon. This is so unreal.” He cleared his throat. “They were born through a surrogate. My partner and I wanted children, but we didn’t want to adopt. Hasan wanted children who looked like me, so we used my sperm.”
Deandre wrinkled his nose. “That sounds so clinical.”
“It was a beautiful experience watching my children grow inside Zanny.”
Deandre’s brows shot up. “So she’s their mother?”
“Shh!” Amir looked over his shoulder. “She’s my best friend and was the perfect person to ask. I agreed to allow her to be in their lives, and she agreed to let them think that Hasan and I were their parents.”
“And Hasan?” At least now Deandre knew the guy was gay. That stamped out one question but brought up so many more.
“He died last year of colon cancer.” Tears sprang to Amir’s eyes. “We found out too late to do anything about it, and can we please change the subject?”
And Deandre thought his life was complicated. “I have a mole on my butt cheek.”
Amir froze, his hand halfway to the dishwasher as he stared at Deandre. Then he burst out laughing, and damn, that was the sexiest thing Deandre had ever heard.
The tension was broken, and Amir’s hazel eyes sparkled with his smile. A dazzling display that made Deandre’s heart skip a few beats.
“I don’t really have one, but I got you laughing.” Deandre winked.
“I wouldn’t know, so I can’t call you a liar.” Amir just stood there, staring up at him, and Deandre wasn’t sure what came over him, but he pulled Amir close, giving him a chance to back away, and when he didn’t, Deandre descended on his lips.
Pure heaven with a slight taste of maple syrup. Hot, sexy, and Amir’s moan set Deandre’s blood on fire. He cupped Amir’s ass, bringing him impossibly closer, the kiss igniting Deandre’s lust.
Amir shoved his hands against Deandre’s chest and pushed him away. They stood there panting, staring at each other, before Amir looked away. “I shouldn’t have let you kiss me.”
A punch to the gut. A reality check. Regret in Amir’s eyes that made Deandre’s heart shrivel. “I don’t know what came over me.”
“You should tell me why you came here.” Amir crossed the room, clearly putting distance between them. He was shutting down, and there was nothing Deandre could do to stop it.
“Years ago this house was used as a drug lab.”
Amir’s jaw dropped as he stared wide-eyed at Deandre. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“Marino Malone ran the operation. He was killed a long time ago, but some believe he hid things in the basement, and someone wants whatever he left behind.”
Amir’s hand fluttered to his throat. Those faint bruising made Deandre gnash his teeth. “I bought a drug house?”
“It happened almost two decades ago.” Deandre leaned against the counter and crossed his arms, forcing himself not to cross the room to pull Amir back into his embrace.
“The realtor didn’t tell me anything about this house being used as a drug lab.”
“Because humans don’t know about it.”
Amir paled. “A supernatural drug house.” He dropped into a chair at the table. “What kind of drugs do demons make?”
Amir was going to hate Deandre for this. “He was half-demon and half-elf.”
If it was possible, Amir’s eyes grew larger. “Elf?”
“There are many different preternatural species. The sheriff? He’s a wolf shifter.”
A bark of laughter escaped Amir. “Wolf shifter. Oh god, I’m going to be the one who needs a therapist.” His laughter died. “What other things?”
Things. Deandre let that slide. The nonhumans weren’t things. They were people, just like everyone else, trying to make a life for themselves. They just had supernatural abilities. “Vampires, winged beasts, fairies—”
“Stop.” Amir held up a hand. “Enough information for now. I feel as if my head is going to explode. So what am I supposed to do about those who want what’s in my basement?”
“I say we go down there and see what’s hidden.” Thank goodness Deandre hadn’t named off ghouls, hellhounds, and other beings that would’ve made it impossible for Amir to sleep at night.
Deandre hated that he’d shattered Amir’s world with the truth, had opened his eyes to what was really out there. It must’ve been nic
e to live in a bubble, to think the worst thing out there were violent humans.
The creatures that lived in Deandre’s world were much, much worse than any malevolent human could ever be.
* * * *
Amir was still stunned by the kiss. His lips tingled in remembrance as he tried to focus on the conversation. Deandre had dove in on an impulse, and that was what had stopped Amir from enjoying it. Or was it the fact that he wasn’t ready?
Or the fact that Deandre was a demon?
But he looked so human, with his thick muscles and gorgeous smile. The way he looked at Amir with such interest, as if he was listening to every single word Amir spoke.
Dahj seemed to have taken to him. During breakfast she went on and on about video games, and Deandre had looked amused, confessing his ignorance and promising to play with Dahj later.
Flynn had shared the pancakes he’d mushed in his hands. Amir’s son never shared with anyone.
It was more than that, though. Amir was fiercely attracted to Deandre. He was all Amir had thought about last night as he tossed and turned, forcing himself not to call the guy.
Here’s another one. I want to fuck you to find out if you’re my mate. Amir couldn’t get those words out of his mind. They kept circling around, taunting him, and making him feel as if he was losing it.
“What do you think?”
Amir blinked several times. “I’m sorry. What did you say?”
Deandre had a knowing look, as if he knew what Amir was thinking, the struggle he was going through. “I said do you want to go downstairs and see what’s hidden?”
What Amir wanted was another fiery kiss. A kiss that had ignited something in him that he thought had died with Hasan. A swirling, molten need that churned in his gut, making a thousand butterflies flap their wings.
“No, not when the kids are awake. I don’t want either of them down there, and Dahj is curious enough that she’ll follow.” Amir touched his throat and grimaced. It was still sore, but it didn’t hurt as badly as it had last night.
Deandre crossed the room and sat next to Amir. He ran his knuckles over Amir’s throat. The touch was tender, Deandre’s eyes filled with sorrow.