passes the news onto Satan so that he can show up.”
“You’re not going to rest until I’m insane, right?” Tilting his head, Reed pressed his lips to hers. The kiss started out short and sweet, but swiftly heated. When he straightened, she made a small sound of protest.
“You owe me,” he said. “Dinner. Hot dress. No underwear. High heels.”
“You’re a pig.”
“Can’t help it. I think I’m in love. Why else would I agree to this shit?”
He shifted away before she could reply. She sat there for a moment, considering. Another tall, dark figure filled the doorway to her office.
Alec came in with a mug of hot coffee and set it on her desk. From the café au lait appearance, she knew he’d fixed it perfectly. From the look on his face, she knew he’d heard Reed’s declaration.
“Good morning,” he said.
“To you, too.” She lifted the mug. “Thank you.”
“Anytime.” He managed a ghost of a smile. “I thought I’d come over early. Get the day started.”
“You’re always Welcome here.”
He moved to the futon. “I followed your orders. Looks like I’m too valuable to kill.”
“I could have told you that.” She smiled against the rim of her cup.
“But I would lose the firm.”
Eve swallowed a mouthful of perfectly creamed coffee, then set her mug down. “I’m sorry. I know how much you wanted it.”
Alec sat back and crossed his arms. “I want you, too. Can’t have both, so something’s got to give.”
She knew what that was like.
He sat with widespread legs, his booted feet resting flat on the carpeted floor. His jeans were worn in all the right places and the arms of his T-shirt stretched around gorgeous biceps. He hadn’t aged a day in the ten years since she’d first seen him.
“You’re not upset?” She studied him for hints of underlying disappointment or frustration.
“You know I’m not doing well with it,” he said gruffly. “I have to be collared like a dog to get a grip on myself.”
“Did you talk about that to whoever you went to see last night?”
Alec shook his head.
“Why not?”
“I thought he might change his mind and decide to knock me out of commission after all.”
Eve stood and moved to sit beside him. She set her hand on his thigh. “What is it with men not wanting to ask for help?”
“I’ve been asking for years, angel. No one’s talking.” His foot tapped restlessly atop the carpet. “For a long time there’s been speculation that my mother was unfaithful and the result was me.”
“Do you believe that?”
He glanced aside at her. “You won’t tell me about the necklace, and I couldn’t get anything out of my parents either. It’s never good when you can’t get answers. If there was nothing to worry about, there’d be nothing to hide.”
“Alec.” She squeezed his leg, which was like stone beneath her hand. “What are you thinking?”
“You said this necklace suppresses Infernal traits, and the ugliness inside me shuts up when I wear it. What does that tell you?”
“That you think you’re half-demon?”
“It’s not like my mom had a lot of choice in men back then,” he said dryly. He leaned into her. “Maybe the ascension triggered some repressed asshole genetics. What if they can’t be locked up again? Like Pandora’s Box or something. I’d be too great a threat to keep around.”
Wrapping her arms around him, Eve pressed her lips to his forehead. The scent of his skin and the feel of him beside her was familiar and beloved. “I don’t know the answer to your question.”
“I can see that,” he said, reminding her that if she didn’t work actively to keep him out of her mind he had free access to everything.
She pushed him out, gently but firmly. “If there’s a story there, it’s not mine to tell. And I don’t want secrets like that between us.”
Alec slid an arm between her and the futon, then tugged her into his lap. “I don’t want anything between us. I want to fix us. You and me.”
“Are we broken?”
“Abel slipped into a crack, so we must be.”
“You wanted this promotion. My understanding is that you had to bargain for it, probably with unfavorable terms for you. Don’t give it up for me. I want you to be happy.”
“I’m unhappy without you. We’ll get Raguel back, and life will return to the way it was before and I’ll be okay with that. More than okay.”
“Are you sure?”
“Completely.”
The phone rang. Eve scrambled off his lap and returned to her desk, picking up the cordless