a few errant locks back from his face. He’d probably freeze me solid if I touched him.
“I promise not to try to kill you while in your apartment,” he said solemnly, then tacked a smile on the end.
“Fine.” I stepped back and let him by. “You’ve met Lacy.” Lacy gaped, eyes wide.
“Yeah.” Stefan cleared his throat, ridding himself of the guttural accent. “Last time we met, I told you Akil likely wanted to wear your skin as an apron.”
She climbed down off the arm of the sofa and straightened up to her imposing five feet of Boston-Irish pride. “Yeah, that’s right. Asshat.” She stopped short of poking him in the chest, but the fire in her eyes said she wanted to.
He tucked a thumb over the waistband of his sweatpants, the epitome of chilled, and held out a hand, inviting her to shake it. “Maybe we should try this again?”
Lacy looked down at his hand, scrunched her face, and glared back at him. I’d told her the good and the bad when it came to Stefan, but even I had to admit the bad outweighed the good. Stefan didn’t retract his hand but returned Lacy’s glare with a casual expression of good humor. “I was—”
“Rude. Arrogant.”
“Out of line.”
“Damn straight.” She caught his hand, gave it a tight shake, and pulled back. “Dude, whatever, but if you hurt Charley, I’ll ruin you on the Internet, and the Internet is like forever. Got me?”
Stefan’s lips twitched. “I think so.”
“Good.” She crossed the room to me and handed me her empty ice cream tub. “Think about what I said, Charley, please.”
I offered what I hoped to be my most compliant smile and waited until she’d closed the door behind her before pinning a hardened stare on Stefan. He stood by the couch, chin dipped, blue eyes sharp behind fair lashes. He could project outward calm all he liked. It wasn’t fooling me. No sword. No coat. No drama. I could convince myself he was just a guy—built like an athlete honed for stamina, with a stubborn jaw, wicked sensuous lips and eyes that pierced the soul. Who was I kidding? He’d never passed for normal, and I wouldn’t have him any other way. So there we were, the two of us. Bad things happened when Stefan and I were together. Workshops exploded. Truths and lies blurred. People died.
“Ice cream?” I asked.
He puffed a sigh. “I thought you’d never ask.”
Turning my back on him, I busied myself in the kitchen, fully aware of exactly where he stood, how long it would take me to get to the front door, and how many side steps before I could reach the gun in my cupboard. “What’s with the sweats?”
“I got back from the netherworld and landed in someone’s back yard. These were just lying around…”
“You stole them. From someone’s clothes line?” I’d seen Stefan naked, both in human and demon form. I’d delighted in his sinewy muscles and teased my tongue over the entwined scorpion tattoo low on his navel. I’d tasted parts of him that brought a rush of heat to my cheeks. It felt like years ago, and yesterday.
“Considering our…volatile relationship I wasn’t sure how you’d react if I showed up sans clothes.”
Funny guy, ha ha. I turned and tried to will the heat from my face as I handed him a bowl of ice cream. His fingers brushed mine, launching a snap of raw chaos energy up my arm. Flinching, I pulled back with a tight hiss.
Chaos. If my demon hadn’t already been paying attention, she sure was now. The elements of chaos made up everything demon. And Stefan was chaos giftwrapped in a delicious body.
“Sorry… It does that sometimes.” Something like concern and resilient acceptance passed over his face before he turned away, opening a void between us that felt bigger than the physical space allowed for. “The way we left things last time wasn’t ideal,” he said, the master of understatement. Last time, Akil had used his ability to reality-jump from one place to another, and snatched me out of Stefan’s arms right after Stefan had dumped the ‘Prince of Wrath’ bombshell on me. By the time I’d convinced Akil to take me home again, Stefan had vanished.
I dug into my ice cream again, dampening down the desire to cross the space between us and…what? Devour him? Hug him? Hit him? My demon wanted all the power wrapped up in Stefan, and I wanted someone to hold me and make me