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The blush that spread across Dove’s cheeks and down his neck felt like heaven. “Uh, n-no? But…”

“But?” Melchom taunted.

“I don’t usually parade naked around other people.”

“Good thing I’m not people.”

The human chortled. Melchom was not going to think about how the sound made him feel, because that was stupid and not a very demonic thing to do. “Okay.”

The human was still scared, with fear coursing through his veins and coming off of him. It was subtle yet, just a hint of what Melchom could get if he stuck around and dug a little deeper.

His nostrils flared as Dove turned around, grabbing the hem of the dress to pull it off.

“Did I say you could turn around?”

Melchom heard him gasp. He knew the human would be swallowing down the dread filling his nerve endings.

“So this is sexual for you,” Dove surmised.

“No.” Melchom found the human alluring, but the lowly demons who thought assault was the only way to feed were just that—lowly. There was no need to wreck someone like that if the mere threat of it happening led to the same result. “But it’s fun, isn’t it?”

“Sure.” Melchom could just picture the human rolling his eyes.

Dove didn’t turn back as Melchom had implied he should, but he took off his dress and the lacy underwear he’d been wearing underneath in one sweep. It was impressive that he hadn’t lost the garment sooner.

Now that the human was naked, Melchom observed the expanse of clear, smooth skin, the limber thighs as they flexed when he bent over. Blood rushed to Melchom’s cock as he pictured what it would be like to have him straddling him, readjusting his body to fit all of him.

No demon was as tiny as his human was, so Melchom didn’t have lots of options to explore his fantasies about completely covering someone’s body, someone’s soul, about completely destroying the most fragile of bodies and putting it together again.

“Are you just gonna stay quiet?”

Melchom looked up to see his human had already sunk inside the barrel and was now staring at him with a furrowed brow.

He noted how he was trying to keep his distance, too, back plastered to the end of the tub farthest away from where Melchom stood.

“Don’t you like silence, Dove?”

“I…” Melchom watched a few mirrors glinting, images passing by, as Dove hesitated. “I’m not used to it.”

Melchom guessed it made sense.

If only his Dove wasn’t so naively eager to reveal all the insecurities Melchom could exploit. It would border on annoying if it didn’t work so well in his favor.

“Does it make you uncomfortable?”

Dove squirmed, bubbles of soaped water popping on the surface. “You know it does.”

“Do I?”

Hazel eyes met his gaze in response, then squinted. “I know you keep getting in my head.” The human buried himself up to his nose in the water before he resurfaced again. “You know everything, don’t you?”

Melchom wished. If he had the kind of time to really bury himself in that addictive house of mirrors, he would. Alas, his discovery had to be done in sections, little by little.

It was a good thing he had patience in spades, he supposed.

He was wondering how much he should disclose to his precious gift when he caught the tail-end of a passing thought.

His tiny human was full of surprises.