“Demon?” Clytie rubbed her hand down his cheek, feeling the stubble he had yet to shave this morning.
“Yeah baby?” His voice a rough growl of words they danced heat along her nerves. She leaned up on tiptoe and licked him from his collarbone to bottom lip with a tiny pink tongue. Demons whole body locked down.
“I have a name. Don’t call me baby.” She turned and went back to her omelet. Hopping back up onto her barstool with a shiny smile, she dug into her food while Demon stood frozen by his coffee, an uncomfortable tent in his jeans and a hot look in his eyes.
She groaned as the first bite hit her tongue. Demon picked back up his coffee while she smiled at Ben.
“You have a gift.” She stated with verve.
Ben smiled back, sweeping an exaggerated bow before him and making her laugh. Demon plunked the cup back down on the counter with enough force the cup shattered. Coffee splashed out hitting the counter, the floor, and Demons hand. Clytie jumped up with a gasp, pushing Ben out of the way to get Demons arm and pull him over to the sink.
“Shoot.” She said, turning on the tap, testing the water temperature and holding his hand under the gushing water. “Hold on, the cold water will stop the burn.” She glanced up, the worry clear in her eyes. “Better?”
He held still under her ministrations. His scar garish in the morning light, his tattoo stood out against the neckline of his black t-shirt. Her eyes trailed down his muscled seven-foot frame. She looked back to where she held his large hands under the cold water for a coffee splash. Her cheeks heated with embarrassment. She let go stepping back and looking around at the three large men staring at her as if they had discovered a new species and didn’t know if it was dangerous.
She cleared her throat, “Sorry. I guess I overreacted.” She tried to make a joke of her worry. “Imagine what I’d do for a paper cut.” She walked back around to her stool and tried to concentrate on eating her cooling omelet.
“Can I get my purse back now?”
“You’re not leaving.” Demons voice loud in the silence of the kitchen and Clytie gave him a warning glare. Ben got busy with his own breakfast, doing his best to be invisible. The absurdity had Clytie rolling her eyes. Mac smiled at her, as inscrutable as ever. “I’ll get it.” He said leaving the kitchen.
Demon leaned over the kitchen island beside Ben and put both hands on either side of her place setting. “You.” He said, poking a big finger toward her nose. “Are not leaving.”
She tried to bite his poking finger but he jerked back. “Of course not.” She said, exasperated with him in particular and men in general. “I’m going to eat my breakfast, check my messages, and find out what plans you have today.” She got back to her breakfast. “I thought if you don’t have anything planned maybe I can take you to lunch.” Her cheeks had barely faded from the last blush and were rosy red again. “I’ll understand if you can’t. I thought…” She trailed off and he placed a warm palm under her chin and raised her eyes to his which were a heated chocolate brown. She would have never expected such tenderness from a man so strong.
“What did you think?” His voice had become smooth velvet and the tone made Clytie shudder with longing and close her eyes.
“I thought we could spend some time together.” Good grief, how did people do this? She felt stripped bare before his eyes. Waiting for his answer a nauseous fist of anxiety hit her stomach.
He kissed her softly across the island and she opened her eyes. “I’d like that ba… Clytie.” Her smile was blinding, so pretty he had to kiss her again.
“Jesus that’s sweet. Don’t you think that’s sweet Mac?” Ben’s voice rolled over them and Clytie pulled back blushing yet again.
“Like Cotton Candy and balloons.” Mac answered placing Clyties purse beside her on the counter.
“And puppies.” Ben finished, grinning down at them.
Demon flipped them off without lifting his head and Clytie laughed. She kept the smile on her face all through breakfast and clean up where she wasn’t allowed to do anything but watch. It was no hardship watching such beautiful men razzing each other around the kitchen. Unfortunately, her messages were enough to kill the after glow.
“I need to go by my sister’s shop. She is having some issues with the payroll program I installed.” She looked up at Demon. “Maybe we could meet for lunch?”
“I’ll take you.” He said instead.
Clytie hesitated and then shrugged. “I can show you the shop.” She made a study of the white kitchen with the stainless steel appliances and complete lack of color. “You could maybe use the inspiration.”
Chapter 5
When they reached the cookie cutter street of shops where the Amber Dragonfly was located Clytie began to get a little nervous. When she saw how many cars were parked in the employee section of the parking lot she groaned. Oh no. “What day is it?” Please say it’s not Wednesday. Please say it’s not Wednesday.
“Wednesday, why?”
“I am in so much trouble.” She sank down in her seat and wondered what had happened to her brain in the last 24 hours. Oh yeah, mind blowing sex. “Uhm Demon, it might be best if you waited in the truck, or maybe went to get a cup of coffee at the cafe, and I’ll walk over when I’m finished.”
Demon pulled the truck into the parking lot, parked, turned off the engine, set the brake with a little more force than necessary and turned to study her. He was aware of a pressure in his chest he had never suffered before. He didn’t like it. “I thought you wanted to show me your shop?”
“I do, but its meeting day! And from the cars in the lot, everyone showed up for once.”
“Afraid the employees won’t approve of your new boyfriend?” His voice, so cold the chill snapped Clyties head around, buried the hurt he tried to conceal.
“What? No. You don’t understand.” She unbuckled and pulled her legs up until she sat facing him on her knees. “They aren’t employees, well they are but they are also family, as in my sister, brother in law, my niece, my nephew, and with my luck they will have my crazy Aunts on the speaker phone.” O.K. probably an exaggeration but the remote possibility struck fear in her heart.
If possible, he got colder. “So it’s your family I’m not good enough to meet. Fine for a fuck but you wouldn’t want to be seen with me.” He grabbed her by the arms and hauled her into his lap. His grip hard but careful enough not to bruise. It was the pain in his eyes that really hurt. “Fuck that Clytie! You hear me?” He shook her so hard she had to hold his thighs for balance. “You’re mine and everyone’s going to know about it, so you better get used to it.”
She almost blasted him for his poor opinion of her, if he thought she was capable of… On the other hand they had only known each other a day and in his position she might have made the same assumption, asinine though it was. She’d hurt his feelings. It hadn’t occurred to her that she could and that made her want to kick her own ass. She tried to think of something to say that would make it better. She shook off his hands and he let her, seeming to brace himself. She placed one hand on his scar and one hand on his neck over his tattoo.
“I am not ashamed of you. I’ve never been in this situation before and I’m not sure how everyone is going to react. Plus, I was supposed to call after my date last night to let my sister know I got home safe and now,” she said her voice becoming more adamant with each point she ticked off. “Now I missed the Wednesday morning meeting and everyone is here, no doubt to begin organized searches for my mutilated remains!” By the time she finished she held his face in a vise grip. “You think I want the first guy who ever made me feel like you do to walk into that the first day? Absofreakinlutely not!” She placed a hard kiss on his mouth and rubbed her hand along his scarred cheek in apology. “Now go get some coffee.”
He studied her face for a long minute and gradually the ice left his eyes and he buried his face in her neck and breathed deep as she stroked his head. He nuzzled her neck and lifted his head. “No.” He kiss
ed her lips, placed her back on her seat, undid his own seat belt, and stepped out of the truck.
“Please?” She said frantic. He met her eyes across the seat right before he closed the door. “Pretty please?!” She yelled.
Instead of answering, he rounded the truck and pulled her door open, reaching in to lift her from the truck.
“Seriously Demon, Coffee good. Meeting overprotective insane family bad.” He just placed her on her feet and pulled her behind him as he headed for the shop. “Oh lord.” Her voice became a little frantic. “We should just go home and have sex, come back later.” Demon stopped, as if he seriously considered it, then shrugged. “Too soon.” She opened her mouth, then shut it again allowing him to pull her along.
The Amber Dragonfly was what he had expected. Classy and girly, it was the type of place geared entirely toward women and gay men.
The building itself was one shop among many on a quaint little old-fashioned cobbled street. Situated between a pastel candy shop and a toy store. The deep burgundy paint job and shiny amber dragonfly drew the eye. Two big picture windows opened to a virtual treasure trove of home decor, and dark wood furniture. The selling floor opened wide and flowed from living room to dining room, to bedroom without any obvious effort. Affluent looking browsers wandered both the streets outside and the store. Two associates in burgundy aprons with amber dragonflies above the pocket helped customers and rang up sales.
Everyone to a man stopped what they were doing when Demon and Clytie walked in the room. Of course, he did look a bit like a seven-foot bull in a china shop. Clytie smiled brightly. A little too brightly actually.
“Hey Ruth, I take it you came back for that chandelier.”
The customer, a blonde in her forties in a silk suit and heals glanced from Clytie and Demon to their clasped hands. “Yes. I decided Sarah’s right. Definitely the final touch we need.” She stared at Demon, then Clytie. Before Clytie could form an introduction, another woman, a red head resembling Clytie around the eyes came out from the back room and gaped at them.
“Where have you been?!”
Clytie flinched but continued to smile at the customer. “Excuse me Ruth.” She dragged Demon through the store to face the sister, who had her hands on her hips and blood in her eye.
“I know you’re angry but can we at least get off the sales floor before you start yelling?” Clytie whispered from where she stopped right before her sister. Her sister was too busy examining Demon and didn’t seem to hear her. In the full shop, he looked even bigger. He towered over Clytie and the rest of the room, doing his best to look inconspicuous. Yeah right.
“Sarah Mary!”
“What?”
“Let us through.”
She stepped back and had to keep going when Demon ducked under the doorjamb to follow. A small storeroom meticulously organized stood beside a door open to a breakroom and employee bathroom. Down the hall through another door, they entered a fenced in garden.
Five people in all, besides the sister, began talking at once when they saw Clytie. They shut up when Demon ducked under the door behind her.
“Everyone. This is Demon.” She said sweeping her arm out to encompass the whole yard. “Demon this is everyone.”
“Cool name.” The teenager in the back jumped up from a twisted metal bench. “Check out the scar.” A young woman reached over and slapped him upside the head.
“We were trying to decide whether we should call the cops when you finally decided to show up.” Sarah Mary tapped her toes, eyeing Demon as if she weighed his possible value, and found him lacking.
“Sorry. I forgot to call last night after my date ended.”
“Did it?”
“Did it what?”
“End?”
“My date lasted a record ten minutes.”
“Seven.” Demon interjected, it was the first time he spoke.
Clytie shook her head at him in warning.
Sarah looked doubtfully at Demon. “So how do you know Meg?”
“He doesn’t.” Clytie answered for him. “I met Demon after the blind date ended. Maybe I should take care of the paycheck situation before we get acquainted.”
“I figured it out. The paychecks are being printed as we speak. Where did you two meet?”
“At a bar.”
“Go Clytie!” The teenager pumped his fist making Clytie laugh but nobody else seemed to find it amusing.
Sarah was not distracted, though she did throw her teenage son a warning glare before continuing the interrogation.
“You went home alone with a strange man?”
“Actually no.”
“You didn’t go home with him?” Sarah relaxed slightly.
“Not that this is any of your business, Mom, but we didn’t go home alone.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means we were never alone. Demon lives with two guys.”
“Excuse me?!”
Before Clytie could answer, Demon placed a hand over her soft mouth. She turned and peeked up at him with a twinkle in her eyes. She was doing it on purpose.
“I share a compound with two other members of my old military unit. We built the house together but we each have separate wings.” The little vixen licked his palm, the hard on that seemed to be a regular occurrence around her sprang to life. He whipped his hand away glaring at her to behave.
“Isn’t that what I said?”
He pulled her in front of him by her shoulders so as not to flash his erection at everyone. “No.” He said his voice a rough growl. Everyone but Clytie stepped back. “It was not.” Clytie laughed, forcing him to smile, which caused everyone to take another step back. Clytie reached up and patted his scarred cheek. She lost her smile when she turned and noticed her family was nervous around him.
“You think he’s scary, you should meet his roommates.”
He clenched his jaw. “They are not my roommates.”
“But they are scary?”
He was not about to continue this conversation. Instead, he growled and brushed his hand down Clyties neck in soft warning. The small shuddered reaction from Clytie was lost on no one. The sister narrowed her eyes even further.
“Clytie, can I talk to you for a minute? Alone?”
Clytie sighed.
“Of course.” She held up her purse, eyeing Demon. “You want to hold my bag?” He didn’t but either he held her purse or everyone was going to see how happy his dick was. That was all he needed with the family eyeing him so suspiciously. He took her purse and ignored the fact she was trying not to laugh. He was so going to spank her sweet ass when he got her home.
As soon as Clytie and Sarah were back in the building, the lanky teenager came closer. He stood next to Demon reaching no higher than his armpit. “So you and Clytie huh?”
Another man approached, about five foot nine with brown hair and eyes, he had the unmistakable air of career military. “So what exactly do you do for a living?”
“Security.”
“Bouncer?”
“Computers. Security systems mostly.”
“What branch of service did you serve?”
“Navy.”
“Air force. What did you do in the service?”
“Special Ops.”
“Seal teams?”
“Yes sir.”
He mulled that over. “Clytie is special.”
Demon met the warning in those eyes directly. “Yes, sir. She is.”
He studied Demon for a solid minute. “Good.”
“Enough.” The young woman had no make-up on and her hair back in a messy ponytail; she came across about sixteen. In his opinion, she needed more curves but she was undeniably beautiful, and from her bone structure would be even more so as she matured. Demon catalogued her features and her penchant for leather clothes liking the kindness and lack of guile in her smile. “Let the poor man breathe.
I’m Jordan by the way. This is David, married to the lady giving you all the dirty
looks for daring to date her sister, and this brat,” she said, thumping the teenager on his shoulder “is Boone, baby brother extraordinaire.” She pointed behind her. “Joseph, and Maggie, friends and employees.”
Aware he had passed some type of test, if only grudgingly, Demon nodded his thanks.
“Are you out of your mind? That man is a thug.”
“Excuse me?” Clytie stopped suddenly and turned in the short hall to look at her sister. That was not what she had expected. “You met him five seconds ago.”
“And you met him when? Yesterday?”
“I like him.”
“Did you sleep with him?”
“So not your business.”
“You did! Oh my God!” Appalled Sarah’s tone had Clytie gnashing her teeth. “Please tell me you made him wear a condom. The man probably has every venereal disease known to man.”
“He does not.” She was not going to tell her sister she had been so mindless with pleasure that first time she had not even considered making Demon wear a condom, and after that, well she was on the pill, and any other possible damage had been done. See, absolutely logical, except it was only blind luck that she was on birth control to stay regular, not any great thinking on her part. No, she would definitely not be mentioning that to her sister. Clytie held up a warning hand, “I am so not having this conversation with you.”
Her sister grabbed her arm, stopping her from stomping away. “This is not like you at all.”
Clytie recognized the worry behind the anger and breathed out. She rolled her shoulder to relieve the pressure and turned back to her sister fully. “I think he’s the one.”
Sarah opened her mouth, closed it, then repeated the procedure. “You can’t be serious. He’s…”
“Do not say it. You don’t know him at all.”
“But he’s …” At a loss for words this time, it was Sarahs turn to catch her breath. “What do you even know about him, other than he calls himself Demon?”
“Enough to know I want to know more.”
“Because it sounds like you’re planning on jumping in without a thought.”
“Maybe I am, is it so bad I finally like someone enough to jump in without thinking it to death?”
Keeping Her kh-1 Page 5