“I came to see if you were ready to leave,” Keenan said to her, his voice deceptively calm. He wasn’t going to be an ass toward her and, in doing so, punish her for his pointless jealousy.
Her brow furrowed. “Is it closing time already?”
“Almost,” he replied.
“Well, we’re talking, as you can see,” clipped Teague.
Keenan didn’t even look at him. “You need more time, baby?” he asked her. Yeah, he’d used the endearment on purpose, hoping to prick at the hellhorse’s temper. Immature, yes, but Keenan had never liked him.
“Baby?” echoed Teague. He snickered. “Oh yeah, I heard that you two are dating,” he said, going for nonchalant, as if not wanting Keenan to know just how much it got to him.
“You heard right.”
“It’s … nice that she’ll have you around to protect her if need be.”
Yeah? Teague didn’t sound like he thought it was nice.
“But there’s no need for you to be around her so much anymore,” the hellhorse went on. “I’m here now.”
“That doesn’t fill me with confidence. You don’t exactly have a good track record of keeping her safe.”
Teague rumbled a growl and stood. “You son of a bitch.”
Keenan shrugged. “It’s only the truth. She’s a magnet for trouble. And if she’s not attracting it, she’s causing it—most of the time, she does it on purpose. I’ve pulled her out of far more scrapes than you have.”
Khloé rolled her eyes. “Ugh, can you two not engage in one of your dick-measuring contests again? I mean, I know hell-horses are naturally extremely well endowed, but Keenan has one monster—”
“Stop,” both he and Teague said.
She just shrugged.
Keenan cut his gaze back to Teague. “I get that you don’t want me in her life—you made that clear a long time ago. But I’m not going anywhere. You can support her in this, or you can just stay out of it and give me and Khloé a chance to make this work. But what you won’t do is give her grief over this. She’s got enough to deal with. She doesn’t need any more shit being thrown at her, especially not from her anchor.”
Teague watched him closely, seeming … impressed. “I never intended to give Khloé grief. But you? Yeah, I’ll give it to you when I’m in the mood.”
“Knock yourself out.” Because Keenan couldn’t care less.
Teague’s phone buzzed. He pulled it out of his pocket and looked at the screen. Cursing, he turned to Khloé. “There’s something I need to take care of. If you need me for anything, call me and I’ll come straight to you. Okay?”
“Okay,” she replied, pushing to her feet.
Teague pulled her into a tight hug. Keenan’s chest burned and ached like a bitch. He couldn’t even say the hellhorse was doing it to get a rise out of him. No, it was a genuine display of affection. Teague might be an ass, but he cared for her.
Pain spiked along Keenan’s jaw from how hard he was clenching his teeth. Seeing another man’s hands on her was hard enough. But seeing her looking so relaxed in said man’s arms, her affection for him clear on her face, made it hurt for Keenan to breathe … as if his ribcage was too tight.
Fairly vibrating with the same black jealousy, his inner demon seethed. It had never despised anyone as much as it did Teague in that moment.
The only reason the entity hadn’t surfaced to attack the other male was that, as Khloé’s anchor, Teague’s death would cause her actual physical pain—a pain that could even become chronic. The demon would never do anything that would bring her harm.
Pulling back, Teague stroked her hair away from her face. “You take care of yourself.”
She saluted him. “Will do.”
Snorting, he let her go. Only then did Keenan’s demon stop pacing. Teague shot him a narrow-eyed look as he passed. Like Keenan could give a fuck.
Khloé sighed. “I want a donut.”
Keenan blinked. She could be so random, but he found he liked that. He held out his hand. “Then let’s go get you a donut. After that, we’ll have dinner.”
“Where?” she asked, taking his hand.
“Wherever you want to go.”
*
Meandering around Keenan’s living room later on, Khloé said, “I just knew your place would be swanky.” It was all style and luxury with the elegant décor, the quality furnishings, the ridiculously wide TV, and the high windows that provided a truly great view. The layout seemed very similar to Tanner’s apartment. Oh, how the other half lived.
Standing near the doorway, Keenan frowned. “Swanky? Is that a compliment, or a criticism?”
“Neither. Simply an observation. I like it.” It wasn’t the stylishness that gave it her tick of approval, though, it was the cleanliness. That ticked Khloé’s acceptability box.
“Then why are you making that face?”
“I’m just surprised that you don’t have any antiques. I mean, you’ve been on this earth a long time. I figured you’d have kept some pieces of furniture.”
“I never developed an attachment to any of it.”
She got the sense that Keenan rarely developed attachments to anything or anyone. Knox owned quite a few antiques which, according to Harper, he’d collected over the centuries. But the male Prime was a demon who liked to own and possess things.
“How many rooms do you have?” she asked.
Stalking toward her, Keenan replied, “Aside from this one, there’s the kitchen/dining area, the master bedroom, the office, the workout room, and the spare bedroom.” He tilted his head. “Want a drink?”
A little bloated from the ethnic meal they’d just eaten at the Underground, she said, “Nah, I’m good.”
He curled his arms around her and drew her close, his steel-blue gaze snaring her. “I’ve wanted to get you alone all day. Wanted to bring you here so I could fuck you in my bed.”
She’d never known anyone who made such bold, direct eye-contact. Keenan didn’t just look at you, he stared right into your eyes with a laser-focus that made you feel the center of his world.
She would have thought that being the focal point of such intense attention would make her uncomfortable. But to have someone look at you as if, in that moment, they found you the only person worth their notice … it was a heady thing. “Is that so?”
“Yes, it is so. I’ve lay in my bed many times, jacking off to the thought of you.”
“Now I feel bad.”
“Why?”
“Because you only had your hand to make you come. When I got myself off thinking of you, I had my vibrator.”
Keenan froze as all kinds of explicit images exploded through his brain and made his cock throb. He felt her wicked smile in his balls. The little minx knew exactly what she was doing to him.
“It’s not nice to tease me that way.” He scraped his teeth over her lower lip, liking her little gasp. “You’ll have to introduce me to your vibrator. We can have some fun with it.”
“Not sure if—”
The intercom beeped, and he inwardly sighed. If that was one of the sentinels needing his help with something, he was going to be pissed.
Keenan dabbed a kiss on one corner of her mouth. “Just give me a sec.” He crossed to the small screen near his front door that showed who was on the doorstep of the building. An unfamiliar female stood there, looking edgy as hell. Curiosity alone made him push the “speak” button and ask, “Yes?”
“It’s me. Thea,” she added, lowering her voice. “Can I come in?”
Anger spiked through Keenan, and his demon spat a curse. If he was looking at someone on a photograph or video feed, he couldn’t see through their glamor. It hadn’t occurred to him that it could be her; that she would actually come to his building again.
She had some fucking front to turn up here and expect him to welcome her inside. Those days were long gone. “No,” he said. “You need to leave.”
Her face fell. “Please? I just want to talk. I won’t stay l
ong.”
“No. Leave.” He turned away from the screen and headed back to Khloé. The intercom beeped again, but he ignored it. He rested a possessive hand on her hip, not liking the blank look on her face. “Sorry about that,” he said.
“Want to tell me who Thea is?”
No, he really didn’t. “It’s complicated.”
Khloé’s scalp prickled. If he’d said something like, “Just some woman who wants to get in my pants,” Khloé would have been pissed, but she wouldn’t have demanded more info. He was an incubus; he’d always have women wanting to get in his pants, which meant Khloé would be delivering bitch slaps for years to come. But hearing the words “it’s complicated” made unease churn in her belly.
She stepped back. “If a guy came knocking at my door, asking to come inside, you’d—”
“Beat the shit out of him so he didn’t repeat that mistake.”
She rolled her eyes. “You’d want to know who he was, so don’t be a hypocrite and blow me off. Look, it’s not that I expect you to answer to me. You’re a grown man. You don’t have to tell me your every secret. But if there’s a woman sniffing around you and the situation is ‘complicated,’ I’m going to want to know about it. So give me something.” Or she’d walk. She would. She needed to be able to trust that he’d be upfront when it counted.
Sighing, he crossed to the sofa and sank onto it. “All right.” He patted his thighs. “Come sit here and I’ll tell you about her.”
Khloé frowned. He looked so tired all of a sudden, and she sensed that this conversation might take a lot out of him. She considered letting him off the hook and saying it didn’t matter, but it did matter. Her demon, pissed that another woman would come here, wasn’t going to let it go. So Khloé did as he asked and settled her hands on his chest.
He cupped her hips and pulled her closer. “That’s better.” He slid his hands up her back. “You know that me, Knox, and the sentinels spent most of our childhood at an orphanage for demonic children, right?”
She nodded. “Yes.” She’d heard enough about the place to know it had been a hellhole, and she admired them all for surviving it.
“Thea was there, too. I cared about her, and she claimed to care for me. But she refused to come with us when we left—she wanted to go her own way; didn’t want to belong to a lair again. She didn’t have great experiences with those. Plus, having spent so long under the control of militant staff, she needed to feel free. Needed to make her own decisions and not answer to anyone, which I can understand. She asked me to go with her, but I wouldn’t. I needed to feel grounded just as much as she needed to feel unbound.”
Getting it, Khloé nodded again and moved her hands to his shoulders.
“She’d turn up now and then,” Keenan went on. “Every few years or so. She’d always give me the same spiel—she was ready to settle down now, to put down some roots, to try ‘lair-life,’ as she called it. But a few weeks would go by, and then she’d be gone again. She never said goodbye, never even left a note. She’d just disappear.”
Khloé’s lips parted. “That’s fucking cowardly, not to mention a total bitch-move.”
“I’d call her on it the next time she showed up, and she’d always say the same thing—she found goodbyes too hard. She’d also always claim it wouldn’t happen again; that she was back for good this time. I bought it, because I wanted to. I don’t like to give up on people, and I hated that she seemed to have given up on herself, so I gave her more chances than I should have.”
“What made you stop giving her chances?”
He slipped his hands under Khloé’s tee and splayed them on her back. “When she turned up at my doorstep nine years ago, I’d already decided I was done—I’d accepted that she wasn’t going to change. I was also involved with someone at the time. It was just a fling, nothing serious. But it was exclusive.
“Thea cried. Claimed to love me. Claimed she really meant to stay with me. She made me all kinds of promises, and she may have even meant them for a short time. Or maybe she just didn’t like that I was involved with another woman and wanted to be sure I ended it.” He sighed. “I should have known better than to buy her bullshit.”
“She disappeared again?”
“Yes. And then I was officially done. My demon had already given up on her long before that, so it was pleased that she’d be out of the picture from then on.” He trailed his fingers down Khloé’s back, tracing the bumps of her spine. “She turned up again six years ago. She came out with the same spiel, but her words meant nothing to me. I wasn’t even tempted to buy her promises. I told her I was done, and I wasn’t nice about it. She could see that I meant it, and she left in tears. I wasn’t moved by them. The sad thing for her is that … her promises might not have been empty that time.”
“Why do you say that?”
“A few weeks later, she joined another lair. Soon after that, she took a mate, and she eventually had a child with him.”
Ah. Khloé fingered the small, bumpy logo on his tee. “Do you regret not giving her one last chance?”
“No. I was glad she was done with the stray lifestyle—it’s fucking dangerous. But little by little over the years, she’d killed everything I felt for her. I’d never have been able to trust a word she said. Trust is important to me.”
Khloé had sensed that much for herself. “Why did she come to your building just now?”
He pinned her gaze with his. “If I answer that question, you’d need to keep the story to yourself. Only a select number of people in my lair know about this. If you don’t feel comfortable keeping secrets from your Prime or your girls, you need to let this go.”
“I would never betray a person’s confidence. Whatever you tell me stays between us.”
Keenan figured that, given how jaded and cynical he was, he should have experienced a moment of doubt. But he found that he trusted Khloé to keep his secrets, and so did his demon.
Nodding, he started doodling circles on her lower back. “Thea came to our lair recently, seeking sanctuary.” He told her everything—about the death of Thea’s mate, about Gavril’s accusation, about Thea’s claim that her Prime was telling lies and simply wanted to get his hands on her son. “It makes me a bastard, I know, but I probably would have turned her away if it hadn’t been for her kid. You see, I know what it’s like to be that kid.”
Khloé smoothed her hands over his shoulders. “What do you mean?”
He hated revisiting his past. Hated it. But he worried that Khloé would think he hadn’t objected to Thea’s request for sanctuary because he still cared for her. He needed his little imp to understand why he’d felt unable to turn his back on the boy.
“My mother got pregnant to a mated demon in her lair,” he said. “The son of the Prime. He’d seduced her with his gifts, putting her into a suggestible state—incubi can do that. My mother was a chameleon. She could change her appearance, become anyone. And he lied and said that she had posed as his mate. Said mate believed him and insisted on her being tossed out of the lair.”
“Fucking assholes.”
Keenan couldn’t agree more. “We mostly lived on the streets. She sought help and protection from many people, especially if we encountered trouble with other demons, but they always turned her—us—away. Being a stray demon is shit, Khloé. There are so many dangers out there, and you have no protection at all. If my mother had been given help, maybe she wouldn’t have been assaulted and killed by a group of twisted male demons.”
Khloé gasped, her face a mask of compassion. “And you feel that turning away Thea and Lane would make you as bad as the people who turned their backs on you and your mother.”
“Yeah,” he replied, relieved that she got it.
“I think you’re right; I think Thea was counting on that. Manipulative bitch.”
“She isn’t a bad person, Khloé, she just—”
“Oh, I disagree. I’m sorry if she had a bad childhood. I can’t even imagine how hard life a
t Ramsbrook must have been for you guys. Every one of you is strong for surviving it. But having issues doesn’t give a person the right to trample over others. She knew you had issues too, and she didn’t let that stop her from playing you again and again.
“Maybe she wanted to mean the spiel she fed you, but she didn’t mean it. And she shouldn’t have made promises to you if she couldn’t be sure she’d keep them. Hell, she didn’t even have the decency to tell you when she was leaving—she’d just up and go. If she was really a good person, she’d have had more respect for you than to do that shit over and over. God, I feel like slapping her.”
Keenan felt his mouth twitch, touched by her vigorous defense of him. “It’s not a thing anymore, Khloé. I’m over it.”
“Yeah? Well maybe she’s not so sure you’re over her, because why else would she turn up at your apartment, expecting entry?”
He frowned. “I’ve given her no reason to think I’m not done with her.”
“Except not object to her seeking sanctuary from your lair. She might be thinking it means you still care for her.”
“I only care if you think that, because it couldn’t be further from the truth. I was looking out for the boy, not her. You believe that, right? You understand?”
“Hearing about your childhood, yes, I understand. And if you say she’s not who you want, I believe you.”
Keenan hummed. “Good.” He dragged his fingertips down the sides of her breasts and bit her lower lip. “Because the only woman I want is sitting right here, exactly where she’s supposed to be. So, can we move on from this topic or do you have more questions?”
“No more questions. I appreciate you telling me all that. Trusting me with it. I won’t repeat a word of it. Not to anyone.”
He pressed a kiss to her mouth. “I know you won’t.” His imp was reckless, impulsive, and crazy at times, but she was also loyal to the bone, and her word was gold. “Now that we’ve got all that out of the way, are you ready to get to the good stuff?”
Omens (The Dark in You Book 6) Page 18