on her hand.
Purely because Devon knew it would annoy her, she said, “Happy birthday, Reena. I hope you all enjoy your meal.”
Outside, Adam gave her shoulder a supportive squeeze. “I wish we’d picked another restaurant.”
“It’s our ritual to come here. They don’t get to ruin that.” Devon gave both him and Hunter a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you so much for dinner. Love you both.”
Adam smiled. “Love you, too.”
“Back at you, Clarke,” said Hunter, pinching her cheek.
And then Tanner was literally dragging her down the Underground “strip.” When he didn’t head in the direction of the studio, she frowned. “Harper—”
“Is riding with Knox tonight,” he finished.
People cast them curious stares as they walked through the Underground toward the elevator, hand in hand, his body language as boldly possessive as it was protective. And it was a true struggle not to plant her palm in his face and shove him out of her personal space.
He didn’t say a word during the short elevator ride. Nor did he speak as he led her to his Audi. He maintained said silence as they drove to his apartment building.
She sighed. “You gonna tell me why you’ve got a bug up your ass?”
“I’m fine,” he clipped.
“Oh. Okay.” She turned to the window, deciding to let him brood.
Finally inside his building, they slipped into the elevator. And he was still a silently seething mass of anger. When the elevator paused at his floor, she didn’t step out. “I’ll be upstairs—hey, let the fuck go.” But he didn’t. He all but dragged her to his apartment and into the kitchen, where he switched on the coffee machine. “Christ, pooch, what is your damage?”
He didn’t answer. Just stared out of the window.
She slipped onto a stool and rested her folded arms on the island. “What did Adam say to you? You’ve been pissy ever since you spoke to him outside the restroom.”
He glanced at her over his shoulder, his brows drawn together. “I don’t get pissy.”
“Dude, you’re pissy.” She tapped her nails on the counter. “If you’re not going to tell me what he said, you can at least tell me how serious this thing is that you and the other sentinels are all in a tizzy over.”
His face blanked. “It’s lair business.”
Yeah, she got that. And she wouldn’t expect him to share such information with someone outside of his lair. “I never asked you to tell me what it is. I asked how serious it is.”
He turned to fully face her. “Very.”
“Then you should be concentrating on that, not on what’s going on with me.”
“I’m focusing on both.”
“But you feel disloyal dividing your attention this way.” Sensing he didn’t like that she’d read him correctly, she shrugged. “It’s not hard to sense. And it’s understandable.”
Tanner almost laughed. Understandable. Levi’s ex-girlfriend had used that word, too. She might have even meant it. But it hadn’t been long before she’d grown resentful of the time, attention, commitment, and loyalty that Levi showed to Knox. Neither Levi nor his inner demon had been able to accept someone into their life who didn’t truly understand and accept their dedication to the role of sentinel.
Devon was a very different creature from Levi’s ex, though, wasn’t she? His hellcat didn’t rely heavily on others. Didn’t hold them responsible for her happiness. Didn’t need a man to feel “complete.” Devon had her own life, and she lived it fully.
It hadn’t been easy for Tanner to wangle his way into said life—even now, she held him on the periphery of it. He didn’t like that, but he couldn’t exactly blame her for it. What reason would she have to open her life fully to him when he wasn’t offering her what she needed?
Tanner crossed to her and twisted her stool so that she was facing him. “Next time you feel like going somewhere during work hours, you tell me,” he said, his voice low.
“So that you can tag along?”
“Yes.” Insinuating himself between her thighs, he placed a kiss on the gentle curve of her mouth. Her lips parted on a soft sigh, but he didn’t accept the silent invitation. He pressed a kiss to the other corner, breathing in her delectable scent.
Catching sight of the small black infinity symbol on the hollow of her ear, he flexed his grip on her hip. Whenever demons formed the anchor bond, they left such symbols on each other as a message to the outside world that these people were under the protection of someone who’d fight to