Page 25 of A Summoned Husband

They all stopped what they were doing to look at me.

My bare toes tapped on the marble floors that had taken me over two weeks to choose. The ones that were still slightly sticky from all the wine I spilled while dancing around in here in the low lighting of last night before my life decided to punch me square in the face.

Somehow, tackling all this high seemed the only way I could do it.

I huffed a frustrated breath as the man I knew to be a demon but who looked like he was more fit to be strutting down a red carpet stepped into the kitchen. I held my hand out as my eyes roamed over him.

“They couldn’t make him ugly?” Imani whispered.

“Girl,” Alicia dragged out the word as she kept wary eyes on Asmodeus.

Fuck, how I wished he was. Looking at him, I could understand why attractive people could be assholes. If they looked half as good as he did, it was no surprise people let them get away with everything short of murder. Sometimes, they even got away with that.

His looks somehow made him less demon as he stood in my kitchen.

The gummy in my hand seemed too small. It looked so normal when the whole of my world had been shaken up with an intensity that rivalled a snow globe in the hand of someone trying to shake the structures loose.

I stared at the little red treat as though it were a choice that had to be made. Then I tossed it in my mouth and chomped away. I wanted the high it would bring. I wanted so badly to be detached from this moment and proclamations that I was somehow married to a demon.

Because no.

I just could not.

Nope.

Sarika rubbed soothing circles on my back as I leaned into her and waited for it to kick in. For all the hype edibles got, they really should work immediately. I should feel the vibrations of something stirring in my mouth as I chewed. It would have been faster to down some shots and find a place under the table where I could lie on the floor and contemplate all my bad choices.

Dark brown eyes honed onto me too intently. I felt my skin pebble under his gaze.

“Stop it!” My lips curled.

All my girls looked at me, but the pursed lips of Alicia told me she knew just who I was talking to.

Asmodeus planted his hands on the opposite end of the island. His shoulders were too broad as they flexed, drawing way too much of my attention as I tried to keep a stern look on my face, my chin rested on Sarika’s shoulder as I looked at him.

“Yes, you!”

“Me?” He asked questions without the emotion that should be behind them. That annoyed me. Didn’t he care we were somehow married? That he had crawled out of whatever dark holes demons lived in and somehow, with all my bad luck, he was married to me in whatever weird ritual made that a thing?

“Yes!” I barked, my voice too high and weird in my ears.

“What is it I’m supposed to be stopping?”

“Stop staring at me!”

A pregnant pause filled the space between us. His eyes stayed where they were, glued to me before the corner of his mouth lifted slightly. “I find you fascinating enough to warrant my attention.”

Olivia set the broken glass into the bin before she started the task of clearing the table.

Breakfast was ruined. There was no way we would sit down to Sarika’s food with splinters of wood in it after I had been forced to roll around on the french toast with a demon between my legs.

She worked with her back to the kitchen, like avoiding the scene behind her long enough would somehow make it all go away. A part of me wanted to behave like Olivia. Scream my head off until someone forced me to shut up and then curl into delusion.

Delusion sounded real nice right about now. Avoidance sounded even better.

With her hands planted on her hips, Olivia looked at the table with its broken dishes and smeared food. A sigh left her as she grabbed the corner of the tablecloth, folded it over and then lifted the tablecloth with all the contents inside. She side-stepped the table, eyes still everywhere but on Asmodeus, and disappeared down the hall.

The sound of the door that led into the garage closing behind her was the last thing I heard as I remembered I was confronting a demon.