Epilogue
Lydia
“Are you sure about this?” Fifi asked, staring doubtfully back at the building.
Hallowed Homes didn’t look like much from the outside—just a one-story office building with innocuous white siding.
Fifi had recently had the outside remodeled to reflect the changes she’d made inside.
I’d been told the open floor plan was an improvement to the cubicle hell Fifi’s former boss liked to inflict on her employees.
But I was mated to Angelo, not them. And coming back to life had its own perks, making the changes I’d begun permanent.
My skin glowed a light amber, even though the bespelled pendant I’d been gifted kept me looking human.
I wasn’t good at keeping human shape on my own yet.
Not enough to reliably keep my store, Occult Oddities, open anyway.
Fifi was working with me on it, but I was a few months away from steady control.
Without the glamour, my skin was even ruddier, shining, and supple.
I’d gone from a middle-aged woman to a fumbling half-demoness overnight.
It was a learning curve. Thankfully, I wouldn’t need to wear the itchy glamour for long.
“I’m sure. I want to do this. I’m tired of him treating me like I’m a porcelain doll.”
At first, Angelo’s gentle handling of me had been cute. It wasn’t every day you had a sex god waiting on you hand and foot. When he’d started turning in early and silently refusing to touch me even when I wore my best lingerie, it had crossed the line from endearing to annoying.
Yeah, I didn’t know how my body worked anymore, but I’d learn.
It wasn’t like holding me at night was going to break me in two.
If anything, I’d gotten stronger since coming back to life.
The powers I was starting to display were a little frightening.
But what frightened me more was doing all of this alone.
If it was a problem with my demon half, I’d hash it out with her the best way I knew how.
I’d been good for weeks. It was my turn to be bad now. Couldn’t let my mate hog all the fun.
Fifi shrugged. “It’s up to you. I owe you for saving my brother’s life. Just don’t make too big a mess, okay? I have work in the morning.”
I frowned. “Saved him? No, that was Indigo.”
Fifi’s smile was soft and a little sad. “You saved him a long time before Indigo took a turn. He’s the happiest I’ve ever seen him, Lydia. Do you know how much of a miracle it is that he’s so fixated on you? I never thought he’d find the one.”
The one. Two words with an uncomfortably weighty meaning.
I wanted to tell her that it wasn’t that serious yet, but that would have been a lie.
I’d been head over heels for the incubus from the first moment he’d batted his unfairly long lashes my way.
It was still astonishing to me that Angelo felt the same.
That I’d ensnared him, not the other way around.
“But more specifically,” Fifi continued.
“I mean that you saved him when you let him feed. He was in bad shape after Andrea’s attack.
I’ve never seen him that low energy. If he hadn’t had a glut to draw from, she might have killed him.
I can tell just from a handshake that your aura is strong.
Feeding on you is more filling than a regular human. It helped, trust me.”
Heat prickled up my neck in a wave, and I prayed she couldn’t see the flush beneath the new, hellish glow that tried to shine from my skin.
The fact that she’d given me a thorough once over and stamped me with her seal of approval was both flattering and creepy.
But hey, what could you expect from a demoness?
“Erm... you’re welcome?”
Fifi’s eyes sparkled with good humor when she held up a key ring. I took it gingerly by the largest of the keys. The one for the front door. I wanted to be damn sure I locked it. No one was interrupting my covert mission tonight.
“Keep the destruction to a minimum if you can.”
The knowing tone and sly smile made me want to melt into a puddle of mortified goo.
Instead, I straightened the ties of the coat she’d loaned me.
I didn’t have any that fell to my ankles.
The leather substitute felt slippery and cold against my flushed skin.
I ran hot these days. The night was chilly and only my new and improved status kept me from freezing in the kitten heels I’d dragged out of the back of the closet.
The two-inch heels weren’t as impressive as I’d like, but they were the best I had on short notice.
The business I had to discuss with Angelo couldn’t wait.
I made a dash for the front door, not stopping to watch Fifi climb into her car and leave the lot.
I couldn’t think about her for long or the desire to squirm with embarrassment grew too great to handle.
It took a couple of tries to get the key in the lock and let myself inside.
The interior of the building was dark but for a solitary square of light near the back.
Angelo’s office lamp let out a soft, diffused glow.
If I’d been purely human, it wouldn’t have been enough light to see by.
The demon within me though could follow even a pinprick in the gloom.
The slow, predatory grace of that powerful beast flowed through me and I let it. It felt incredible to glide forward, utterly sure of my purpose for once. We were in agreement. It had to happen tonight. Enough stalling. Enough excuses. I’d found my prey and by God, I was going to catch him.
Angelo was bent over a letter with a frown on his face.
It didn’t make him one iota less lickable.
If anything, the stern patriarch thing was a good look on him.
He’d loosened his tie sometime since the office closed, sorting through the busy work Fifi had foisted onto him at the last second.
At my request, of course. I had to make sure he’d be waiting inside after hours somehow.
His gaze flickered up to me after a second.
I’d been silent, but there was no way I could escape his notice for long.
We were a mated pair. He could pick out my scent from a crowd of thousands.
And with my new nose, I could pick out the smell of his skin beneath the musky scent of his cologne.
It was like woodsmoke when the embers stirred and spat fire into the air.
Heat bubbled in the air between us when he deliberately set his pen aside.
“Lydia,” he said, tone roughened by whatever he wasn’t letting himself show. It was the closest that he’d come to sounding like a normal man since I’d met him. His voice was usually a velvet assault on my reason. “I’m sorry. I should have texted. Fifi gave me extra work and—”
I flicked the door closed with my heel and leaned my back against the wood. For the first time in my life, I felt utterly at home in my skin. The insecurities weren’t gone, but at this moment they didn’t matter. Not when we were both here. Both alive. That would be enough for me for a long time.
“Shh,” I said, pressing a finger to my lips. His gaze flickered down to my mouth, noting with a soft curl of lips that I was wearing a shade of lipstick he’d never seen before. I’d borrowed the ‘harlot’ red from Wanda. It looked better on my new complexion than I’d ever dreamed.
Angelo leaned back in his chair, the slow perusal of my person heated enough to make the tips of my fingertips tingle with nervous anticipation.
“Are you cold?” he asked, voice low and sincere. The note of concern in his voice made my heart ache. “You’re shaking.”
“No,” I whispered. “I’m not cold. Not yet, anyway.”
I undid the sash of the coat, meeting his eyes with a defiant look before dropping the thing entirely. It slid off my shoulders to puddle at my feet. He’d ignored subtle. So I’d go with something a little more overt.
I hoped walking in without a stitch of clothing would be enough of a hint.
Angelo’s eyes widened for just a second before a slow, satisfied smile graced those perfect lips.
Want flickered far back in his eyes and his shoulders angled forward.
He kept the rest of himself in check, but I could feel an answering hunger in him.
We shared that appetite now. His demon. Mine.
He’d made a half-succubus out of me. I’d never have the same ravenous consumption, but I understood it. Liked it. Wanted to feel more.
“Come here,” he said, holding out a hand to me.
The note of command made me twitch. It took effort not to move toward him on reflex. I stayed where I was, heels firmly planted in the carpet. I gave him an arch look.
“Or what?”
“Or I am going to take you against the door. You’ve already earned a spanking for talking back.”
Another, more violent tremor seized me and I started forward, feeling like I was being pulled by an invisible leash.
He watched me move, with particular emphasis on the sway of my hips and the jiggle of my breasts.
He reached out a hand to roll one nipple between his finger when I drew close enough, smirking at the sound I made.
A little yelp escaped me when he pulled me onto his desk, arranging my legs to either side of his waist when he stood.
The material of his dress shirt was probably nice, but it felt coarse against my sensitive skin.
I let out a shuddering breath when he swept his fingers of his other hand from my ankle up the curve of my calf.
It felt like he left glowing tingles in his wake.
Every nerve ending came alive, and I scooted closer, trying to erase the scant room between us.
A paper crinkled uncomfortably under me and I pulled it out, prepared to toss it away. I paused when I spied an official looking crest on the letterhead.
“What’s this?”
“It doesn’t matter,” he said, feathering kisses across the edge of my jaw.
“Angelo—”
“It’s just an invitation to a family function from mother. She’s trying to score grandkids. I’m not taking you to a family event unless I’m damn sure you’re okay with being pregnant. The orgies and fertility rights make it pretty much a guarantee.”
That splashed a little cold water on my raging libido. I drew back with a frown. “Pregnant?”
He rolled his eyes. “Mother is obsessed. I finally got Fifi to agree to go, now that she’s settled with that sasquatch. They want kids. I don’t know if you do, so I’m turning the invitation down. I can keep turning them down, if you want that. I know it’s a big ask.”
I leaned a little further away, considering it. He let me, though the frustration of unmet desire was evident when he ground his arousal against my thigh.
“I... I wanted kids. Rodney was the one who was infertile. I guess I thought I was past that stage in my life. I’m perimenopausal.”
He shook his head. “You’re half succubus now. You can get pregnant if you want to.” He looked away for a moment, trying to hide whatever he was feeling. I had the intense urge to turn his face and plant a wet one right on his mouth. “Do you... do you want to?”
Have a kid? I had Bluebell now. She was family.
Flighty and eccentric family, but family nonetheless.
She’d been beside herself when she learned what had happened to me while she was spending a weekend away with Astrid.
It had taken me the last two weeks just to get her to calm down and act normal again.
“Maybe in a few years,” I answered after a lengthy pause. “But I want time with you before that. Kids make having fun like this harder.”
I slid off the desk and into his lap, ignoring the pile of paperwork I displaced. Angelo didn’t seem to care. His hands found my hips automatically, steadying me before hauling me closer.
“Oh, Mr. Stedham,” I said with a girlish simper. “I’m afraid I’m late on my rent. I was wondering if I could... convince you to give me an extension.”
Angelo didn’t beam, but it was a close thing. There was definite pleasure in his eyes when he leaned closer, capturing my mouth in a single, scorching kiss before murmuring, “I’m sure we’ll work something out, Miss Morton.”
The End