Bat Out of Hell (Promised to the Demons #2) - Lidiya Foxglove Page 0,25
about how I would decorate the shop and what I would wear and I was already pairing in my mind what I knew of baking ingredients and spells.
After a few days, much to my astonishment, a beautiful box tied with a ribbon was delivered to my room. I opened it only to find the Lavender Cloud.
“Bevan!” I turned to where he was lounging on the bed we shared here now, reading a book. “Did you order this for me?”
“I wish I had that kind of money, but I expect the queen heard you’ve been taking an interest and decided to order you a get well present,” Bevan said.
“I can’t wait to thank her,” I said, drinking in the scent of the pastry, savoring every aspect of it before I dared to eat it.
I had never been so free in my life. The ladies all said La Serenissima was a safe place to stroll, and Bevan was often busy in the archives with Piers, while Variel...well, I avoided him as much as I could.
I was still nervous about this upcoming ball held for me and the idea that I was supposed to decide Variel's punishment. One day I walked by the Bridge of Sighs and I heard a prisoner wailing as he was led across the bridge. It struck me as a terrible, Medieval sort of sound, in a city that was otherwise so lovely.
It just doesn't seem right to lock people up all alone without any love or friendship... It seems to me that would make Variel worse, not better. But then, what would make him better? He's so stubborn about this demon business. What would possibly show him that he doesn't need to be cruel to anyone in order to be respected?
I was so caught up thinking about it that I looked up and realized Variel was right in front of me walking out of one of the flower shop.
His eyes shot right to my chest and I remembered that I had left my cloak unbuttoned and I was wearing another dress from Polly--all of them cut just the same, and showing too much of my cleavage.
I snapped my cloak shut around me.
"My lady," he said. “You look even more lovely today than usual."
“I knew this dress was trouble,” I muttered.
“It’s just that you are so much more beautiful than any nymph I have ever fucked. Your breasts are every bit as ample, but your face is much nicer.”
“Do you really think I take it as a compliment to be compared to some nymph you fucked?”
“Have you ever seen the breasts of a nymph?” Variel asked. “They are quite famous.”
“I already told Bevan I want to be appreciated for my personality.”
“Ah, even Bevan was caught appreciating your other charms, I see…”
“No! I mean—not like you.”
“I told you that your face is much nicer, and your face is the window upon your soul, and beyond that, I have never pursued a nymph. I actually find them very boring. And I must admit…the more I speak to you, the more I realize that you aren’t boring.”
And the more I talk to you…the more I get flustered.
I kept hitting a point with Variel now where I ran out of words entirely. I was no longer timid with him. I didn’t know how it happened. He never got upset at me for anything I said; in fact, he seemed to relish it. But what came next? I had never spoken to anyone like that before without being reprimanded.
Worse, I felt a certain strange warmth in his presence that came right from the core of me. Not like I hadn’t noticed it before. He was a handsome demon, I’m sure anyone would grudgingly admit that he probably had the most perfect body I would ever see, with his sculpted arms and shoulders and hard stomach that tapered to a trim waist, and…that bulge. I had started to realize the value of what a bulge might contain.
But he was still the man who tried to wreck my true love. He was still a monster.
“I must get back to the palace,” I said. “Bevan is waiting for me. Good evening.”
“Good evening, little maiden, fair of face,” he said, and I nearly ran away from him then, before he could see my cheeks turn pink.
Chapter Twelve
Piers
Days flew by holed up in the library. Across the table, Bevan rubbed his eyes. "I've been at this too long. I hope the queen knows something we don't, because if we