Page 1 of Demon's Heart
1
DANTE
Dante’s heart stopped.Nothing existed except the pair of bright-hazel eyes pinning him down.
“Hey, glad you could make it.” Ollie Hudson smiled, dimples cutting into his soft, pale cheeks, his tumble of blond hair surrounding him like divine light.
Dante’s heart restarted, thudding so hard it reverberated through his body. The apartment around Ollie came back into focus. Dante cleared his throat. “Uh. Me too.”
Ollie’s lips quirked. “Want a drink or something?”
“That would be wonderful, thank you.” Dante rubbed the back of his neck, butterflies rioting in his chest. Had that sounded all right or was he being too formal?
Ollie turned away, navigating around a well-worn couch and heading for the kitchen in the small apartment he shared with Harper.
Dante’s gaze cut to his demon brother Ash, finding an assessing look in his eye. Dante had to get it together. He was powerful and thousands of years old. Self-control was easy. Or it would have been if not for the man eagerly returning with two beers.
Damnation, that smile. Ollie pulled off angelic beauty so naturally that it wasn’t fair. Angels weren’t even real.
Dante couldn’t do this. He shouldn’t have come to dinner.
Ash, whom he’d known for millennia, recently found his mate, Harper, the young witch living with Ollie. Ash and Harper were the first mated pair out of the Fallen. Before Ash, most demons believed they’d never find their mates.
Being around Harper and Ash breathed new life into Dante’s tired soul. Seeing their bond strengthen as they doted on each other was everything Dante imagined finding your mate to be. But letting the pair drag him into Ollie’s presence was complicated.
Dante ached for his mate. His heart bled. He’d never lost hope he’d find his fated love, damning him to a wait that had become more agonizing with each passing century.
His gaze cut back to Ollie, snagging on his lovely curls. They’d be soft under Dante’s fingers. His skin too. Ollie’s round face gave him an air of innocence, even as mischief gleamed in his green-and-brown-flecked eyes.
He was perfect.
“How do you and Ash know each other?” Ollie asked as he handed Dante a beer, his keen gaze dragging slowly down Dante’s body.
Dante’s blood heated, and he willed his demon fire to calm. “We’ve known each other since we were young. We…uh…” He paused. “We moved here together some years ago.”
Ash snorted, and Harper elbowed the bulky demon in the side.
Dante couldn’t tell Ollie he was a demon, or that he and Ash hadn’t so much moved as fallen to Earth in search of their mates thousands of years ago. Ollie was human and unaware of the magic world. He had no idea beings other than humansexisted, and with their wings, tails, and horns hidden, Dante and Ash looked like nothing more than large men.
“You picked a good place to move. I love Shearwater Landing.” Ollie’s dimples reappeared. “It’s such a great city. Coming here for school was the best decision I ever made.”
Dante shifted closer to Ollie, pulled by an invisible force strangling his heart. Ollie’s subtle scent of sandalwood on a fresh early morning filled Dante’s lungs, urging him to embrace Ollie and breathe him in.
It could only mean one thing.
Dante stood next to his mate. His damned demon soul screamed with the truth of it, a gut feeling so strong his whole body was electrified.
His wings itched to come out, the tattoos on his back prickling. Dante rolled his shoulders, his legs threatening to give out. What if he gave in to relief and dropped to his knees, reached for Ollie’s hand, and pressed his lips to Ollie’s skin?
He’d be right where he was meant to be.
After thousands of years of searching, he could finally be home.
“I can’t imagine living anywhere else,” Ollie went on, oblivious to the way he’d changed Dante’s life.
“Me either,” Harper agreed, throwing an adoring look at Ash.
Dante swallowed past the lump in his throat. He had to get his shit together. He’d freak Ollie out if he kneeled and professed his eternal devotion.
