How to Love a Blue Demon (10 page)

He would
have rolled off her to spare her his weight, but she resisted. She wanted him crush her into the bed. She wanted to imprint herself on him, and she lifted wobbly legs around his waist to squeeze him tight.

He grunted, a pleased male noise when her sleek inner muscles clenched his softening cock in time with her legs. He rooted sleepily beneath her ear, sucking gently on he
r ear lobe before he rolled off, pulled her on top of him and went to sleep.

They left the next day.
And when he took her hand to hold in his lap on the plane, she could tell that something between them had changed. She trusted him more, seemed even to love him more. She certainly loved him differently. Why she was prepared to worry about later. For now she would assume it was an afterglow of the wonderful sex they’d shared last night and again this morning.

She
even jerked him off on the plane, covering his lap with a magazine while she stroked him into a quietly gasping mess right under everyone’s sleeping nose. He would have pulled her out of her seat and onto his lap, but she just laughed at him, her dark eyes making wicked promises that he knew she would keep once they were back on terra firma.

******

“Where’s my dog?” Cass asked, the minute she walked in her door.

There was a sharp, deep bark, then a sleek black streak launched itself at her.

She laughed happily, staggering under nearly 85 pounds worth of jet black German shepherd.

Lee watched as the creature’s tail wagged madly. He smiled
at a beautiful older woman who’d appeared, and she smiled back and inclined her head. This was Cass’ mother, Melini. She was a lovely older version of her daughter, though at least six inches shorter and quite slender.

“Hello, momma,” Eyoen
said, recalling his hosts usual greeting, and kissed her cheek.

“Lee, you grow more handsome every time I see you.”

“Thank you, my lady. I was just about to say the same thing to you.”

Lini laughed, charmed, and her eyes returned to her daughter who was now rolling on the floor with the dog cooing, “Hey, stinky boodie. I missed my Bullet!”

“He was starting to pine,” she said as Cass got to her feet, one hand still stroking the dog’s head, its tail thumping Lee’s leg rhythmically.

“He knows I always come back,” Cass said easily, kissing her mother’s cheek. “How are you?”

“Good, daughter. You look good.”

“You staying?”

Lini shook her head. “I have an engagement.”

Cass shrugged. “Thanks for watching Bullet.” It was the same thing she said every time. “Come for breakfast this week.”

Lini nodded and with a last wave took her leave.

Bullet was sniffing around Lee’s legs now, and
Rierdane panicked.

“Get away from it, sire!”

Eyoen laughed in his head.
Don’t be silly,
he told his servant.
It’s not dangerous. The dog is just reacquainting itself with me.
He reached out a hand, and Bullet sniffed it curiously then gave it a lick before he allowed himself to be stroked.

Cass watched as the dog flopped onto his back and bared his belly for a brisk, thorough rub.

“Look at that,” she said. “He’s mellowing in his old age.” Eyoen petted the animal thoroughly, and the dog followed them down the hall. “He doesn’t usually let you touch him.”

Eyoen
’s step faltered. Uh oh. The dog obviously sensed that he was different. He forced himself to relax. It wasn’t like the dog could share what he knew.

In the living room
Cass was examining the contents of a shopping bag. She began to hum happily as she extracted several plastic wrapped packages.

“What have you got there?”

“I asked momma to get me some cream colored drapes so I could switch things up in here. I’ve had these up forever.” She gestured to the pale green curtains that currently hung at the windows. “Ooh! These are nice.”

The
thick, lined drapes had a subtle sheen. He thought they would look very elegant at the windows. They made a nice foil against the dark, hardwood flooring.

Eyoen
picked up another plastic package. It was a gold curtain rod with large cut glass balls on the edges. Seeing Cass get into the curtains he opened the rod and spread out the various pieces.

He needed a tool. He searched his memories and asked Cass for a screwdriver.

She laughed. “How ‘bout a hand drill?”

He smiled and nodded,
wondering what she found so funny. He couldn’t remember a similar situation, so he assumed there was no memory attached to this sort of activity.

He was right and he was wrong.
Cass came back with a step stool and handed him a sleek zippered toolkit. Then she sat on the couch to watch.

Eyoen
moved slower than he normally would have because of the stiffness in his leg, but in less than 15 minutes he had the old rod down and had replaced its brackets with the new ones. He adjusted it then removed the new rod and sat down next to her. He examined the picture on the package and reached for the curtains in her lap. He turned them this way and that and after examining the seams began to thread them over the rod. A few minutes later they hung at the windows and he was grinning at her, pleased with his efforts.

“It looks alright?”

“Perfect,” she told him, audibly impressed. “You didn’t even need a ruler or a pencil to measure things. When did you get so handy? I usually have to wait for Boyd.”

He frowned. He didn’t seem like much of a mate.

“You had some talents, sire.” Rierdane said diplomatically. “Electronics, for instance. You installed the system in the cabinet.”

Eyoen
turned to look.

“You wanna hear some music?” Cass asked, misunderstanding.

“No, my dear,” he said.
I seem rather dim, Rierdane.

His servant sighed. “No
t dim, exactly. More, um.” The servant’s voice trailed away.

I couldn’t manage basic
tools?

Rierdane
kept silent, but Eyoen could practically see his servant’s helpless shrug.

“You tired after the flight?”

He shook his head, wondering if he could woo her into bed for a few hours.

“I asked my mom to pick up these bookshelves I ordered. You wanna help me put them together?”

Eyoen nodded eagerly. He never got to do this sort of labor on his star. The servants acted mortally offended if he tried to do anything for himself, and he let them have their way because he felt bad denying them what they wanted. Now, he felt the need to redeem himself. He’d scanned his borrowed memories, and it was glaringly obvious he hadn’t been much help to her.

“Cool,” Cass said, and they held hands as they walked to the office.

He kissed her fingers, basking in her happiness. It took so little to please her.

“Maybe we should wait for Boyd,” she said. “I forgot they’d be heavy. You’re still not 100 percent.”

“Nonsense,” he said, scowling. He ripped open the box and lifted out 100 pounds of ebony colored wood shelving.

Ordinarily this would have been like lifting a flower to him, but he had to hide a wince as his battered
human body protested the activity. He had a feeling Cass knew it too, for she insisted on doing some of the lifting, which made him frown ferociously. She ignored him.

Despite this h
e enjoyed assembling the pieces. It was like putting together a puzzle, and they worked well together. He especially adored her proud grin as they stood back and admired the completed shelves.

“Can you believe I’ve lived here for three years
, and I’m just now getting my damn books out of these crates?” she asked as they put the books in place.

“Well,” he said slowly. “You’ve been touring a good bit of that time haven’t you? You aren’t home for very long. Isn’t that why you’re having your mother help you?”

Cass nodded, accepting another stack of paperbacks from his hands. “True enough. Feels good, though, to feather my nest.”

The front door slammed and Priti called out a greeting.

“Who put up the drapes?” she asked, sticking her head around the door.

“Lee,” Cass said proudly.

Priti’s brows rose, and he scowled at her so fiercely she began to laugh.

“He help me put up these shelves too,” Cass told
her friend, who nodded again, so impressed he had to laugh.

“We need to get some of th
ose hooks to hold the drapes back and the valance.”

“Huh?” Cass asked.

Priti rolled her eyes. “Momma went to Penney’s?”

Cass shrugged, and Lee surmised from
her tone that the store was not up to some internal standard Priti had set. “Probably. You know she keep coupons.”

“I got some too. Although I still say custom is the way to go,”
Priti said. “Let’s go.”

Cass’ brows
hiked again, but she obligingly rose from the floor where she’d been gathering the debris from the shelves.

“Wait for me,” he said when the women seem
ed about to leave without him.

And so
Eyoen had his first visit to a mall and the store called J.C. Penney’s.

Rierdane
sniffed when he saw some of the merchandise – “Surely Cass can afford better than this?” – but he grudgingly approved the hardware they picked up.

“Offer to pay, sire.”

You don’t have to tell me that,
Eyoen said sternly, whipping out a credit card, and shaking his head when Cass, who already had her wallet out, opened her mouth.

She subsided with a shrug.
“Thanks, baby. Let’s go to Auntie Anne’s and get a pretzel.”

“What does it taste like?”
Rierdane asked curiously as Eyoen bit into the cinnamon covered treat.

Delicious.

“And the drink?” he asked of the lemonade.

Fruity and tart
. Very refreshing and cold. I shall find some of these lemons
– he’d heard Cass ask if they used real lemons or powder –
and bring them home for you.

Cass offered him a bite of her raisin pretzel, and watched him intently as he chewed.

“Good?” she asked softly.

Eyoen
caught her eyes as he swallowed the treat. “Wonderful.” He kissed her deeply right there in front of the straws on the counter.

“OK, you two. Break
it up before we get spotted,” Priti said. “It’s a miracle no one’s noticed us yet, and I do not feel like watching you sign a few hundred autographs or having the public know your rich ass shops at raggedy ass Penney’s.”

Cass laughed.

“What time is it?” Priti asked suddenly.

Cass lo
oked at her watch. “Almost two.”

“Let’s go trick off some time at Merz. You said you were running low on soap,” she wheedled when Cass frowned.

“I’m not spending all day downtown shopping, Priti,” she warned, as her best friend began to haul her high speed toward the exit.

“
Okay, okay,” Priti said, and Eyoen laughed as he jogged to keep up with them. “Come on, Lee! I wanna be on the highway before she change her mind.”

Eyoen
had never enjoyed himself more. He sniffed countless bars of soap in an apothecary and was absurdly pleased when Cass chose to purchase his favorites.

“Lotion,” Priti reminded, sniffing candles. She
held one out for Cass. He took his turn next, nodding appreciatively.

It was the same on his star. His mother and sisters were very concerned with scent
, and as a boy he’d spent many hours at the shopping stalls with them offering his opinion on parfums.

“Nice,” Cass said looking at the bottom of the candle
and raised a brow.

“Diptyque,” Priti said, like duh.

“Two, no more.”

“We gettin’ different ones. We can switch,” Priti said, adding two candles
to the already loaded basket Eyoen was carrying.

“Priti
, don’t load him down like that!”

“Shit! Sorry, Lee. I keep forgetting you were just in a wreck. You’re hardly even bruised anymore.”

“Stop it,” he told them both sternly, actually baring his teeth when Cass would have taken the basket. “You’re being ridiculous,” he growled.

She threw back her head and laughed. “All right, tiger. But you get tired, you let me know?”

He nodded, though of course he wouldn’t. Unless it would get her into bed faster. He would play the baby or the invalid in a minute if it meant he could get her on her back. In this he and Lee had been in agreement. His host had often pouted and played on Cass’ motherly tendencies to coax her into doing some extremely unmotherly things.