The Lure of the Devil (The Demons' Muse #4) - Auryn Hadley Page 0,47

to hurt, but not me." And I stood, crossing my arms to make it clear that I wasn't about to budge on this.

"Because I have always hurt. This is how I was made. When you experience that burning? It means that you're damaging your potential to use aether. It's not your natural state of being, ok?" Then he pulled in a long breath. "And because this is how I can take care of you."

"You take care of me in so many ways," I shot back. "Teaching me is only one. Fighting beside me when we pushed angels out of Vesdar is another. You want me to go on? Because I can."

He caught the side of my face and kissed me before I knew what was happening. "Compromise," he offered, the words spoken against my lips. "If Nick agrees, then I'm in. If he thinks it's too soon, then we wait."

"Nick's sleeping," I told him. "Maybe Luke?"

"Nick," Ron said. "Now, I could make it both of them, but let's be honest. Luke would let you get away with anything you wanted. Nick, on the other hand, tends to be a little overprotective. This time, you have to convince him."

"Fine." I stole one more quick kiss, then pulled away, heading for the house.

Behind me, Ron gasped in surprise, because that clearly wasn't what he expected. I was smiling when I stepped into the house, but Luke and Sam were still in the room. That made me worry, so I walked a little faster. Was something really wrong with Nick? He'd said he was just low on aether, and it wasn't like this was the first time it had happened to him. Was I being the least sensitive girlfriend in the world? But when I opened the door to my bedroom, the sound of three men laughing made me feel a lot better.

"Oh, she was lying all across me to get to that cock," Luke joked. "They're pretty amazing together."

"Yeah, they are." That was Nick, and he sounded exhausted. "Hello, dove. We're talking about you."

So I came the rest of the way in, my eyes immediately jumping to Sam. "Should I be embarrassed?"

"Not at all," he promised. "Should we?"

"Why?" I wasn't sure I was keeping up.

Sam gestured from himself to Luke and then to Nick. "Kissing and telling? Comparing stories so we know who likes what?"

"Oh." I waved that away. "No, I already figured out that y'all did that. Otherwise, you and I would be in a lot of shit for talking about Nick, right?"

Sam grinned. "Told you she wouldn't care."

Luke just chuckled. "What is it Bel says?"

"Modern women!" Nick said, trying to mimic Bel's deep voice and making me sound like one of the wonders of the world.

"Or maybe I'm just kinky," I assured them, "but Nick? Um, I want to take Ron to Daemin and see if I can fix him up. You didn't want my aether, so he says we shouldn't go. He said that if you're making Bel reap for you, then clearly you're still worried about me, but it's been days now, and I'm feeling fine. Besides, how am I ever going to know if I'm all 'healed up' if y'all won't - "

"Yes," Nick said, cutting off my poorly thought out argument before I could even warm up. "I didn't want your aether because you told me yesterday that you wanted to do this, and I figured it would be less strain for you to just try to heal him than to refill me, reap a few dozen humans, try to heal Ron, and then come back."

"Oh," I said, because I honestly hadn't expected that.

Nick reached back, moving one of his pillows so it wouldn't get stuck on his horn. "I'm fine. The Vale is protected. Sam and Luke are going to check the defenses once Bel's back, so go." Then he grinned. "And you might want to test that body while you're at it."

"Period," Sam fake-whispered.

"Um..." I scrunched up my face. "So, yeah, that's done. Um... yeah. I'm gonna..." And I jerked my thumb over my shoulder at the door, even as I backed toward it.

"Don't mess up his dick!" Luke yelled after me.

I managed to close the door before my face started to feel hot. It had been a long time since I'd blushed this much, but these demons knew exactly which buttons to push. The sad thing was that I really liked it. No, I loved it. I couldn't get over how well all