Page 13 of Demon Hunger
He pushed his fries around. “Honestly, I thought you would beat her, and she would finally leave you alone.”
“You thought—” Jenna started, but I cut her off with a look. This was my fight, not hers. She pouted and stared at her mac & cheese.
I narrowed my eyes. “What gave you the idea that she would play fair, huh?”
“I don’t know. I just…” He ran stiff fingers through his honey blond hair, which I knew to be as soft as silk.
“Did you do it because you’re angry at me?”
“What? No!”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course, I’m sure,” he said, raising his voice.
“The Sage doth protests too much,” Jenna put in, looking amused by her own wit.
Sage turned curious eyes in Jenna’s direction and opened his mouth to probably say something he would regret. Except that, after a quick look at Benjamin, he seemed to reevaluate. It seemed he wasn’t a 100% percent asshole. Merely a 99.99999.
He stared at me pointedly. “Can we talk outside?”
Fair enough. Jenna was having way too much fun at his expense. I walked out of the cafeteria, passing through several tables. Regina sat at one of them and made sure to give me one of her usual death glares. Sage followed me to a small sitting area at the end of the hall, which happened to be unoccupied at the moment.
“Sorry, Jenna was getting on my nerves,” Sage said. “I have no intention of starting another fight, especially since we’re meeting later.”
Drevan had already sent the details for our planning session tonight. Sage seemed excited about it. He had enjoyed all the action with our last subject since he’d played a major role in redeeming Solar.
“Sure,” I said. “I shouldn’t have started this conversation while she was there. I’m sorry, too.” He was right. It would be best to dispel any tension between us before we got started on our next mission. It was only smart to apologize to him.
“And to clear the air, I’m not angry at you, Lucia.”
Where in the cafeteria his expression had seemed aloof, he now appeared more open.
I smiled. “I’m glad to hear that.”
“I know that something is between you and… Drevan. And whatever it is, I’m sure it’s complicated.”
Crap!Maybe I preferred the aloof Sage. This wasn’t something I wanted to discuss with him.
“I can’t understand why you would pick a demon over me, or anyone else for that matter, but you should be careful.”
“There’s nothing between us. Not… now.” I wasn’t going to offend his intelligence by pretending that his deductions were wrong. “I made a mistake. Not my first, but I shut that door, and believe it or not, he respects my wishes.”
Sage narrowed his eyes, looking unsure, but in the end, he nodded. “Good.”
He started to turn to leave, but I snatched his hand and stopped him.
“I’m sorry if you feel I deceived you somehow.”
He shook his head. “You’ve always been honest, Lucia. That’s the one thing I can say about you. I’ve tried to do the same.”
I took a step closer, scanning his handsome face. He was everything a girl could want, his biggest quality being the fact that he was human. His hazel eyes lowered to my mouth. I licked my lips and pushed to my tiptoes for a kiss that would erase the aftertaste of demon from my palate. But just as his lips were about to touch mine, Drevan seemed to appear out of nowhere. He was crossing from one landing to another, pretending to read a book. When he noticed us, he glanced up, acting surprised.
“Oh, sorry for interrupting. Carry on with your… lunch.”
What the hell?!
Sage stepped away from me and shook his head. The last time we’d been this close, Drevan had threatened him and, judging by Sage’s wary expression, the fucking demon had gotten under his skin.
