Chapter 15 Temptation #2
“Dav.” Leave it to this human to not flinch at his possessiveness but instead rebuke it with a chiding tone.
“Before me, your friendship was platonic. If there’s a future for us, it’s going to be intimate and emotional in ways it wasn’t before.
I don’t want you hiding this or resenting me or feeling like you’re only living half of the life you want. It’s not fair to us… or to you.”
He brushed a hand over her cheek. “I know. I just… need a little time to figure it out. After the fundraiser. And your pitch to the Horn.”
The look she gave him could have cut glass.
“I’m not putting it off like that,” he said with a sigh. “I just… need those things out of the way, okay? So we can sit down without the additional stress or let that get in the way.”
Rose twisted in his lap to face him. “Can I ask something?”
Dav gestured around them, then to himself, as if to say might as well, I’m already fucked.
She flicked his nose. “What were your plans here today if you weren’t fucking someone?”
He clicked his tongue. “Right to the point.” Rose shrugged. “Watching.”
He could see that word make its way through her mind, spinning around as she processed it without response.
“I sit in the corner and observe others who like the idea of being watched. Or ordered around. I get drunk enough to make it seem like I’m actually into it, but since we’ve been together, I’ve never touched nor let another touch me.”
Rose hummed, and while her brow was still crinkled, there was no judgement on her features. “Did you… or do you enjoy it?”
“Sometimes. In the moment. Not… not lately.”
“But there were aspects?”
He nodded.
“Like the other night?” she prompted. “When, umm…”
“When I slapped your ass and you were very much into it?”
Her cheeks turned a dark pink. “Yeah. That.”
Dav studied her, remembering the way she’d moaned in his bed. The things that had crossed his mind and the way he’d wanted to know every little thing she might want to try.
“This sort of place… it doesn’t make you nervous?”
Because she wasn’t ashamed or disgusted, with herself or with him. That wasn’t the reason her cheeks were flushed and her eyes darkened.
She was curious.
And that healed something in him. Something he didn’t even realize was a wound he’d been carrying.
“No,” Rosalind said softly. “Only that… maybe I don’t know everything.”
“Would you want to?”
She tugged her lower lip between her teeth. “Would you bring Laz here, too?”
“He can never know about this.”
“Why not?” she pressed. “You think he’d care?”
“I care less about Temptation. He can’t know about the money.”
Rosalind leaned back, mouth parted and blinking like the separation of the two had never crossed her mind.
“That shop means the world to him. He already feels guilty about the contracts and the demons taking advantage of him. We fixed that moving forward, but if he knew that I was putting money in for his dream, he’d feel terrible.
” Dav hung his head. “Lovable Loaf deserves to thrive. It should thrive. The bakery’s struggles were not his fault, and I…
I couldn’t let him lose something he loves so much. ”
“You.”
His brow pinched as Rosalind tipped his head up.
“He can’t lose you. That’s what would destroy him, not the bakery.”
And that was exactly what Davarox feared most.
Rosalind either didn’t notice or chose to ignore his silence.
Likely the latter. “You care so much—care for him so much—but you should know that it doesn’t go unnoticed.
” Her touch was gentle. Reassuring when he thought nothing could be.
“I won’t say anything, I promise. And whatever you need from me, I’ll be there, okay? ”
Words felt too hard, too heavy, so he nodded. Let her hold his face in her cool hands and lean forward to press a kiss on his lips that he didn’t deserve but coveted like the selfish asshole he was.
Until she leaned back with a wince. “Oh, you weren’t kidding about getting drunk.”
No wonder he’d spilled his truths so easily. “And you still taste like cinnamon sugar,” he teased. “I thought you said you liked wine?”
It must have been that word, the buzz loosening his lips, that he remembered the other part of what she’d said that first night.
Now Rosalind was the one to avoid his gaze, but Dav didn’t urge it to return. Because after a slow breath, she was strong enough to face him with her vulnerabilities. No hiding or shame.
“I do. But you’ve probably noticed I can get a little… intensely focused.”
Dav nodded.
She took another breath. “It can also blind me to things, like losing sense of time or drinking something too quickly just because it’s there.
I like the taste, but I hate how it makes me feel.
” She picked at her nails. “I’m very nervous about the fundraiser.
Running around, making sure everything is as it should be, getting stuck in conversations with demons who have money that could make a difference.
You already have so much to worry about, it feels selfish to ask if maybe… ”
Davarox curled his arms around her, pulling her tight. “I’ll take care of you, too, Rosalind. I promise.”
He meant the words with every fiber of his being, but sitting on the floor of Temptation, in a room where he was familiar with some of the acts that had happened between demons on the bed behind him, there was one thing he hadn’t expected.
For a human to hear those words from his lips and choose to sink further into his embrace. To tuck her head against his chest and relax her entire body.
That after learning all his secrets and seeing his scars, she still wanted him.