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Evan opened his mouth, but instead of words, another wheezing cough slipped out of him. A warm hand wrapped around his ankle and slipped upward, into his pant leg. Heat rocketed up his body.

A vein surfaced in Evan’s forehead as he hunched over the counter, suppressing the urge to knee the fucker under the counter in the face.

Celie’s eyelids fluttered as she inched closer to the counter. “You okay?”

“I’m fine,” Evan quickly said, pressing two fingers to his temple. “Just a little tired from work today.”

He cleared his throat rather loudly as Xen’s legs locked tighter around his ankles and hands caressed their way up his calf, kneading the skin with curious, almost greedy fingers.

When a hard bulge pressed against Evan’s toes, his control threatened to snap.

I’m going to castrate you with the blunt end of a rusted butter knife!Evan mentally sneered at Xen. And unexpectedly, for the first time since Evan had started spewing telepathic profanity at Xen, he heard a response echo back in his head.

Please keep threatening me…A nose brushed against Evan’s knee, warm through the fabric of his pants.It’s turning me on.

Heat rocketed down Evan’s body, gathering and bubbling in an area he had long left dormant. A tightness clenched low at his spine, making his toe twitch. If he didn’t die of embarrassment over getting a boner in front of his sister, Evan would rid this world of the demon currently latched onto his legs.

Celie reached over the counter, poking a finger at Evan’s shoulder with wide eyes when a shiver wracked his body. “Hey, you’re scaring me. Are you really okay?”

Mouth pressed into a straight line and eyes narrowed at the counter, Evan picked up the tray of snacks and almost shoved them into Celie’s hands. “Why don’t you take this first? I’ll join you shortly,” his voice came out more strained than normal. More sharp.

When Celie looked hesitant, he urged her with a nod of his head. A look of uncertainty crossed her features before she turned around and headed out of the kitchen.

As soon as Celie left, Evan blindly jammed his knee forward, the brute force enough to crack a human skull open. But instead of a skull, a warm palm greeted his attack, cupping his knee and squeezing it. A light tug on Evan’s bound feet and he tumbled backward with a muffled gasp.

Xen flashed out from below the counter, his lap cushioning Evan’s fall. His hand wrapped around Evan’s mouth to trap another series of curses. “Shh…”

Adrenaline rushed through Evan’s system as he sat panting in the confinement of Xen’s arms, his back pressed against a hard chest. And for a few moments, he remained slumped into him, thankful he’d not made a fool out of himself in front of Celie.

With a puff of breath through his nose, he finally found his equilibrium, then mumbled against Xen’s palm, “ltt gg oofi.”Let go of me.

Enclosing his free arm around Evan’s middle, Xen pulled him completely into himself, dropping his forehead against his shoulder. His palm slipped from Evan’s mouth to wrap around the rest of his body. It seemed as though he wanted to engulf Evan in his arms, to hide him away and never let him go.

“A moment,” Xen’s voice trembled against Evan’s skin like it might sink beneath the surface any moment. “Just a little bit more.”

Evan’s brows lowered as his shoulders slumped in defeat.

Did demons have attachment issues? If not, why was this mountain of a man clinging to him like a puppy?

“This wasn’t in the contract,” Evan muttered to himself but sat still, feeling warm under all the limbs and muscles. He’d become a silkworm, wrapped in a cocoon.

He’d damn himself to hell before admitting it, but being held like that actually wasn’t bad. It’d been quite some time since he’d willingly let anyone embrace him so intimately. The last time that happened was years ago, and he couldn’t distinctly remember whose bed he was in—

A growl stirred low in Xen’s chest, the rumble of it running along Evan’s shoulder blade. His pulse stuttered, breath hitching involuntarily, suddenly aware of just how intimate their position was.

If he just shifted his hips a little, his ass would be flush against Xen’s crotch, where he could undoubtedly feel a hard muscle poking him. If Xen decided to drop his hand lower down Evan’s body, he would definitely feel his—

With a twitch in his lower body, Evan shook his head to ward off the demon’s influence on his thoughts.

No, no, no. That wasnevergoing to happen. What was worse than defying the rulebook of his ancestors and shaking hands with a demon?

Fucking the said demon.

He wasn’t going to walk in the footsteps of Florence the witch, no matter how tempting it may seem in his head.

With much effort, he pushed off Xen’s lap. Surprisingly, Xen didn’t object, his hands lingering a moment longer on Evan’s hips before falling away.

But Evan’s legs seemed to have turned to water because before he could stand, he landed back on his ass on the floor.