Chapter 21 #3
She nodded, then undid her own seatbelt and got out of the Range Rover.
He exited the vehicle as well, going around to the cargo compartment in the back so he could get out the basket and wine tote.
Soon enough, he’d joined Delia, who was standing a few feet away from the front end of the SUV and looking around in appreciation.
“This is beautiful. You’re right — it does feel good to get out and away.”
The air here was probably twenty degrees cooler than it had been down in Las Vegas, and the breeze that rustled through the pines smelled amazing.
Maybe he should think about getting a cabin up here. He enjoyed Vegas, but, as Delia had just said, sometimes it felt damn good to have a change of scenery.
First things first, though.
“Glad to hear it,” he said. “Let’s go ahead and get all this set up.”
They wound along the path, skipping past the picnic tables that were closer to the parking lot.
Caleb had inspected the layout as best he could using Google Maps, and he knew there was one table set at the very end of the picnic area, one where the forest crowded close on almost all sides and would give them the privacy they needed.
However, he hoped Delia wouldn’t suspect he had any ulterior motives for choosing that table over all the other ones, except maybe a desire to get as close to nature as possible.
To his relief, no one else had claimed that table. The forest wasn’t silent, not with the breeze murmuring in the treetops and birds singing happily among the pines and junipers, but still, a quiet existed out here that they would never have been able to enjoy in the city.
He was also glad they’d come…even if this ended messily.
But he put those doubts aside as best he could, and laid a cloth over the tabletop and set out all the goodies he’d bought at the deli and at Sprouts. Delia looked on with an appreciative eye, but when he set out the bottle of wine, one eyebrow lifted slightly.
“I thought you weren’t supposed to drink in these picnic areas.”
“You’re not,” he said blithely. “But I didn’t see hide nor hair of a park ranger as we came in, and if we get busted, well, I’ll deal with it then.”
Her mouth twitched, although she didn’t offer any other protests and merely said, “This all looks gorgeous.”
He had to admit that it did. At first, he’d thought of simply getting them sandwiches, but he’d thought that didn’t seem very romantic and that it would be better to set up some kind of mini charcuterie board.
“Well, I’m not a pro at this,” he said, “but that deli has some great stuff.”
“It definitely looks that way.”
She sat down on the bench attached to the picnic table while he got out the wine and poured them a couple of glasses. Since she hadn’t turned it down and told him she only wanted water — which he’d also brought along — he guessed she was fine with breaking that teeny little rule, too.
After all, they weren’t going to hurt anything. They’d clean up the site when they were done, and no one would be the wiser. It wasn’t as if they were a couple of high school kids who’d snuck up here to drink beer and leave a bunch of bottles behind.
He handed one of the glasses to her. “I think we need to have a toast.”
Her blue-gray eyes glinted at him. Although she had a pair of sunglasses tucked into the neckline of her shirt, she wasn’t wearing them now, probably because her baseball cap with that fun little hummingbird shielded her from the sun well enough.
“Sure,” she said as she held her glass high. “What’re we toasting?”
He wanted to say, You, but guessed that wouldn’t go over too well, especially since he hadn’t made any declarations of love yet.
“To beating the bad guys,” he said.
“I’ll definitely drink to that.”
They clinked glasses and drank some of the pinot noir. It was fruity and medium-bodied, something he thought should go well with the bread and cheese and meat and the fruit as well.
For a minute or so, they were quiet as they put various morsels on their plates, then ate.
He wanted to drink in every detail of Delia’s appearance — her smooth ivory skin, the coppery shimmer of her hair as her ponytail hung down her back, her graceful fingers as she picked up pieces of bread and meat and cheese.
But he knew staring at her would only make her wonder what the hell was going on, so he did his best to act casual and as though this outing wasn’t anything more than a friend taking another friend to a place where she could relax and truly breathe.
“You really think everything’s going to work out in Laughlin?
” she asked. She’d paused to wipe her fingers on a napkin and take off her baseball cap, probably because a few clouds had drifted in and were doing a decent job of blocking the sun.
“Do you think Aaron’s cousin will be able to handle the responsibility of being the river guardian? ”
At least Caleb thought he could reassure Delia on those points.
“Her family’s been doing this for generations,” he said.
“Also, you had a vision of her being chased away by Sellers’ minions.
They wouldn’t have bothered to get her out of the way if she weren’t a threat to them.
And, like I told her, I can come give her a hand if she needs one…
even though I doubt it’ll come to that. So I think she’s going to do just fine. ”
A nod, and Delia reached for her glass of wine and sipped from it. “That’s good. Because I really wasn’t looking forward to having to drop everything and relocate to Laughlin just to hold back a bunch of demons.”
Did he dare hope that part of the reason she wanted to stay in Las Vegas was because he lived there as well?
That was probably presuming too much. Delia’s whole life was in Vegas — she’d been born there and gone to school there, her friends and family were there.
Still….
“I don’t think Sellers is going to be a problem anymore,” Caleb said. “I’m starting to see a pattern here. When we banish one of these guys or defeat their plans, they don’t seem to make a repeat appearance.”
Delia tapped her fingers against the side of her stemless wine glass. It was actually plastic, since bringing fragile wine glasses out to a wilderness area like this wasn’t a very good idea, but it worked well enough.
“But new ones keep cropping up,” she said. Her mouth pursed for a second or two, and then he could almost see her force herself to relax. “I really should stop borrowing trouble.”
“It’s a lot, I know,” Caleb replied. “The thing is, when we’ve kicked their asses, we usually get some breathing space afterward. So I think we need to focus on that for now.”
“To breathing space,” Delia said, and they touched glasses again.
For just a second, their gazes held. Her eyes widened ever so slightly, as if she thought she might have seen something in his face that she hadn’t been expecting.
Rather than drink to finish the toast, she set her glass down.
Very quietly, she said, “Was there some other reason you asked me out here besides just getting some fresh air?”
There it was. She’d asked point-blank, and while he could try to obfuscate, he knew that wouldn’t be very smart.
Delia Dunne was the sort of woman who expected the truth, no matter how uncomfortable it might be.
Don’t be a chickenshit, he told himself.
“There was,” he said. “I wanted — that is, I needed to know where things stood between us. Because I’m getting the sense that there’s something more than friendship here. If I’m totally off base, then just tell me, and I’ll leave the whole thing alone. But if I’m not….”
For a long moment, she only sat there, her entire body still, as though she thought that if she moved the slightest bit, if she opened her mouth, then everything would change.
But he knew it already had, simply because he’d told her he thought there was more than friendship between them.
Then, the words barely above a whisper,
“You’re not off-base.”
Some women might have looked away. Delia, on the other hand, held her gaze steady, those blue-gray eyes so deep and clear, he thought he could get lost in them forever.
Somehow, he found his voice. This was exactly what he’d hoped to hear, but now that she’d all but told him she had feelings for him as well, he wasn’t sure what to do next.
Be honest, he supposed. Ever since the moment he’d met Delia Dunne, he’d vowed to be truthful with her, and he wasn’t going to change now.
Or rather, he’d already changed a whole hell of a lot from the man he used to be, and he wanted to stay the course. He might have been a quarter demon…but he also wanted to be the sort of person that Hell would vomit right back up because Satan knew he didn’t belong there.
“I’m pretty sure I’m in love with you,” he blurted, and she actually smiled at him.
“I suppose that’s a good thing,” she said. “Because I know I’m in love with you.”
He wasn’t sure which of them moved first. All he knew was that they were both standing now, a few feet away from the picnic table with its charcuterie spread and half-drunk bottle of wine.
His hands reached for hers, pulled her close. A tremor went through her, but she didn’t resist, and instead took a step toward him so they were only standing a few inches apart.
Her face tilted up toward his, and he knew there was only one thing he could do.
He bent and kissed her, touched her full, beautiful mouth and tasted the sweetness of wine on her tongue.
There were probably a million ways he’d imagined this moment, but he knew none of them had come anywhere close to this, to breathing her in and understanding that this amazing woman knew the worst about him and didn’t care.
Or at least, she cared…but not that he was part demon.
The kiss lasted for uncounted seconds. Eventually, though, she pulled away.
Not very far, however. Her fingers were still laced in his, telling him that she hadn’t ended the kiss because she was having second thoughts about being with someone who wasn’t completely human.
“What now?” she asked softly, and he bent and touched another kiss to her mouth, a gentler one this time.
He smiled. “I suppose we’ll figure that out together.”
The Vegas Slayers series continues with Devil May Care, releasing in January 2026!