Page 7 of Demon Queen
I stiffened up. That last reaction was completely off the table. “You know Honey and Lucy? They’ll be waiting for me, so we should hurry things up.”
He looked up at me while those eyes flared brighter, and I had a sudden flashback of being with him so many years ago when he’d been my everything. His hands were not the tapering graceful things they’d been so long ago. They were the sort of hands that could grab and crush a skull. Easily. Somehow I found that thought more attractive than disturbing.
“But we have so much to discuss.” His voice was a low purr that gave me goosebumps.
I swallowed hard at those words. “Right,” I said, lamely and pulled out my phone. “Look, I have a hundred thousand in the account that I can transfer right away if you give me your information. After that, I can work off the loan, er, debt, I mean…” What did you call stolen money?
His hands stilled from their movement with the papers. “You have a hundred thousand in your account? From another poor demon or have you branched out to stealing from vampires and werewolves?”
I forced a laugh. Ah, he was being funny. Apparently, he had the same sense of humor. Not sure I’d missed that. “It’s what I had left over when I bought the shop. It’s doing quite well, so it would be a pity to sell it to pay off the debt, but if you’d rather have everything now…” Then I wouldn’t get the chance to hang around and figure out if the winged person was my son. “But if you add interest, there’s no way I’d have enough, so it would be much better if you let me pay it off in installments. I can work here along with giving you my monthly profits from the shop.”
I froze. No. I wasn’t going to work with Dorian. I couldn’t, not when he was so dangerous to my delicate heart. But the words were out there, apparently freezing him too.
We stared at each other, like we’d never seen such a terrifying monster before.
He finally said, “You can work here?” his brows furrowed with suspicion. “The better to steal from me?” He thumped his fingers lightly on the desk, but I still flinched. It was probably the spikes. Or the glowing eyes. Or the wings.
He really pulled off the demon look incredibly convincingly. So convincing that for a second I wondered if it was real. Right. Because the love of my life had been a real demon. The truffles were getting to me. I knew how to do costume and I deeply understood the power of atmosphere.
I licked my lips. “No. You’re far too clever to let me know the combination of your safe and leave me alone with it for weeks while you flirted with every other woman in the club. Again. I know that I don’t look like much, and I don’t have glowing contacts currently in my costume box, but I’m sure Honey can hook me up if you aren’t willing. Not all monsters need glowing eyes. I have a fabulous zombie costume, a vampire, and a wraith-like thing with a fog machine in the skirt. How do you scent the fog so well? Usually when you scent fog it gets overpowering and nauseating, but yours is perfect.”
“That’s very reassuring to hear Miss…Did I hear you addressed as Candy? I suppose you’ve changed your last name as well.”
I’d spent a decade and a half hiding from this monster, and now I was supposed to take down all my defenses? I needed answers even more than I needed him to not know who I really was. It was done. I straightened up and tried not to notice the spikes glistening in his hair. “I’m legally Sandra Simons. I always have been, but back when you knew me, I used an alias.”
“Ah. And this shop you own?”
I flinched. My precious, beautiful, wonderful haven. Did I have to tell him? I forced out the words. “It’s a candy shop up in the loop.”
“A candy shop?” He raised a brow. His brows were still incredibly suggestive. No, communicative. Both.
“Yes.” Was my voice trembling along with my hands? Yes, and he hadn’t even tried to shake me down. Of course not. I was cooperating.
How long had I been out of my Candy Kingdom? Too long. I might break down in hysterics at any moment. His desk seemed solid. If I climbed under it would that keep the rest of the world from caving in on me?
“You seem nervous,” he murmured.
I let out a hysterical gurgle before I clamped it all back down. “No, of course not, although your demon presentation is incredibly well done. I’m very impressed. You look like you’re going to eat me.”
“You were delicious,” he replied soberly with burning eyes that brought everything back in an avalanche of aching that felt like being stabbed in the gut.
I stared at him for a second, not breathing, just staring at the most dangerous creature in the world, and that was without spikes. “Cherries are always delicious. The closest fruit to Candy,” I mumbled through numb lips. I dragged myself to standing and forced a smile. Look at me, not bursting into tears or throwing myself out the window. “I should get back before my sisters worry. As for working, I could clean the fight cage. I’m not really the best cleaner, but I do all right. And I can serve drinks, although I’m not as good as the hang glider guy with the drinks tray. He’s so coordinated. How long has he been working here?”
His brows furrowed. “Hang glider guy? He’s been here for close to a year. You called Honey and Lucy your sisters. Which are they, friends or sisters?”
Only a year? He hadn’t kidnapped him when he was three then. Unless he was lying. It didn’t seem like he was lying. “Foster sisters. We grew up together.”
He nodded. “Interesting.” He stacked papers together and stood. “It would take you forty years working full time as a waitress to pay off your… We’ll call it a debt. Your life expectancy, particularly if you surround yourself with monsters, would be significantly shorter than that.”
“Usually people who do costume are pretty easy going. Oh, you mean the guests. I suppose men attracted to fights would be more dangerous than ones looking for women.”
He smiled, showing his fangs. They were so perfectly monstrous, reflecting light just like his other teeth. “The womenyou saw serving drinks are not as delicate as they look. This is not a place for humans, not like the Mirror.”
I stared at him, heart beating faster, his words screaming ‘I’m a real monster’. “You really do know how to play a role convincingly.” That was true. I’d really thought that he loved me right up until the end. I blinked quickly because I wasn’t thinking about that. “I mean going from strip club to fight club so easily. You really look the part. The supernatural angle is really well done.”
He studied me then cocked his head. “You don’t think the spikes are too much? Over the top as it were, literally and figuratively?” He raised a brow and showed me a streak of the man he’d used to be, the one with a bit of whimsy that had been my undoing.
I looked up at the crown of spikes coming out of his hair. “King of demons. No, it’s perfect. It suits you.” I gave him a sweet smile, like that would diffuse the tension radiating out of him. And me.
