Page 12 of Cooking Up a Demon (Ghostlight Falls #5)

Chapter Twelve

Twelve

“ T hanks for coming,” I tell the last of the readers who came to see the guest author, Mona Lotz, who is travelling through the area. Mona is a popular paranormal romance author, and I am lucky she reached out to me. I am also lucky Delia was willing to jump in and help with crowd control.

I lock the door and lean against it before blowing out a breath. Mona and Delia are long gone, and now the last of the readers are gone, I can get cleaned up and head home.

Not that home holds much appeal. Another night eating at the island by myself doesn’t exactly sound like fun. Nor does another night reliving the single night I spent with a demon.

It has been almost a month since he left. I am tired of calling myself an idiot for still hoping with every cup of tea or pot of soup he’ll appear. I’m definitely an idiot for still wanting him.

Delia has pointed out demons are kind of notorious for shitty behavior. There is something about my last moments with Kallax that eats at me. He’d been so sweet, and I believed he was coming back.

I quickly count down the drawer, store everything in the safe and head home. I know I should take care of the table and chairs and do a general cleaning, but tomorrow is Monday. I can come in on my day off. Again.

It took a little, but I’ve realized there is no such thing as a day off when you own your own business. I haven’t taken a single one since I arrived in Ghostlight Falls.

I stop by the grocery for salt and lime before heading home. I take a moment to appreciate Nonna’s gardening before I head inside. June has early flowers blooming. I can’t name most of the flowers or plants, but they are pretty and bring me peace.

A peace I need before heading inside and to the kitchen where memories linger. I’ve been through Nonna’s recipe book from front to back, and there’s nothing about summoning demons in there. Everything appears to be old family recipes.

I’m after a different type of recipe tonight. I pull the tequila and Cointreau out of the cabinet. It takes no time to slice the limes and mix myself a margarita. I’m adding the agave syrup when it begins to smoke.

I drop the bottle of agave to the counter and spin around to see the demon forming. I don’t even have it in me to be mad at the waste of good liquor.

As he forms and solidifies, a fine rage starts simmering under my skin. He fucked me five ways to Sunday and then left me for a month without a word. Now here he is showing up uninvited like nothing ever happened. What the actual fuck?

The smoke clears, and there he is standing and staring at me. For a long moment, we look at each other. Then he reaches for me, and I step to the side, out of his grasp.

“Oh, no you don’t.” I hold up my hands to ward him off. “You don’t get to just materialize in here.”

He cocks his head and then nods. “That’s reasonable.”

“Where the hell have you been?” I cross my arms over my chest and glare at him.

“Hell.” He shrugs and comes to stand next to me at the counter and begins mixing a drink. “I was forbidden from coming topside.”

“What? Why?”

He doesn’t say anything as he finishes mixing the drink before pouring it into a heavy glass tumbler. He offers it to me.

“I broke the rules.” My stomach clenches, and I set the drink I just accepted back down on the counter.

“Are you okay?” I can’t imagine the punishment for breaking rules in Hell is pleasant.

“I’m fine, love.” He picks up my drink and downs it in one gulp. “It took me some time and effort to make my way back.”

“What did you do?” Equally, breaking rules in Hell has to be something terrible, right?

“Demons aren’t allowed positive emotions. They beat them out of us in the early days. Feeling them is forbidden, forming attachments because of them is a punishable offense.” He begins to mix another drink, and I think about his words.

“Positive emotions?”

“Demons feed off of people’s negative emotions and sinful thoughts and deeds. We survive off deals we make with good people.” He doesn’t meet my eye as he pours the drink into the glass and pushes it back to me.

This time, I drink it down. Kallax survived because of his deal with Nonna. The one he transferred to me. Our deal can’t be enough to sustain him.

“So, you show up because I’m your meal ticket.” It hurt to think that’s all it was. Would fucking someone you were feeding off of earn him some kind of bonus? It hurts too much to think about to ask.

“No, I tried to not come. I didn’t want to hurt May. I enjoyed her. But summons must be answered and if not me, then it would have been someone else. I tried to help as much as it hurt.”

“And me?” I grab the bottle of tequila and take a shot straight from the bottle.

“A summons must be answered.” He takes the bottle and downs half of it in one go. I snag it back before he cleans me out.

“Got it.” I think about the Fix Shit Soup and Bit of Sunshine tea. How many ways had Nonna been summoning the demon? How much time had he taken?

“You don’t, though.” He takes the bottle from me and sets it on the counter before cupping my face in one large hand. “Someone was going to answer your call, and I wanted it to be me.”

“I never called you though.” He winces, and I smack him in the chest. “I never summoned you! I knew it!”

He shifts until his palm presses against my neck. He isn’t gripping, but I still swallow against his hand.

“You summoned me.” He tightens his grip a little, pulling me up onto his toes. He leans down until his lips press against mine. “The first time.”

“And the rest?” I ask against his lips.

He takes my mouth in a bruising kiss that leaves me breathless.

His hands move to cup my ass and raise me up against his body until our faces are level.

I love the easy way he handles my weight.

I’ve never been a small woman and have never had anyone able to lift me without risk of straining something.

The way Kallax makes me feel small and dainty does something fuzzy to my chest.

“I couldn’t keep away.” Kallax says, breaking our kiss. He nuzzles into my neck and breathes me in. I grip his shoulders and push him back.

“Is that why you’re in trouble?” Black eyes meet mine, and I can tell he doesn’t want to tell me.

“Demons aren’t allowed to feel good.” He presses a kiss to my forehead. “You make me feel good.”

My heart sinks. I imagine all kinds of scenarios of Kallax being hurt because of me. I think of all the ways I treated him and talked down to him when he was risking everything to be here. Realization dawns, every visit puts him at risk.

“You shouldn’t be here then.” I push back, trying to get him to put me down. “You should go. Don’t put yourself at risk. Not for me.”

“You’re the first person I’ve wanted to risk everything for in five centuries.” He holds me closer to him and shifts his grip until he’s drawing my legs around his waist.

“I’ve seen civilizations rise and fall, kings and self-proclaimed gods die. I’ve seen the best and worst of society and have never wanted anything like I want to be with you.”

My heart seizes. He hardly knows me, and I’ve mostly been terrible to him. It makes no sense he would risk everything for me.

“It’s not worth your safety.” My grip on his shoulders tightens. “Please, don’t risk yourself.”

“I’m not.” When I start to shake my head, he shifts his grip again until he’s boosting me with one hand and using his other hand to grip my chin. He uses his grip to force me to meet his eyes.

I blink back tears and try to resist his gaze, but his grip is firm and demanding. There’s no escaping it.

“I’ve spent the last month calling in every favor, searching for every loophole, and bending every rule I’ve ever come across, but I’m here. And, if you’ll have me, I’m not going anywhere.”

“What do you mean? Won’t you get summoned back? I can’t do this again, Kallax. I can’t go on not knowing where you are and if you’re okay.”

“Oh love, no. Not again. Never again.” He presses a gentle kiss to my mouth and sets me down on the counter, but maintains his position wrapped between my legs.

He uses gentle fingers to wipe at the tears that start falling without me noticing. His gentleness has my throat tightening.

“You summoned me. Which binds us together. If we reverse the deal, we’ll be able to stay together.”

“What do you mean? Reverse the deal?” I try to remember the exact deal he told me, but I hadn’t really been paying attention. I knew every time he showed up he stole a day off my life. Which, at thirty, isn’t a big deal. It will be one day.

“Every day, you do me a favor and you take a day off my life.”

“Kallax, no!” I’m horrified he would even suggest it. I don’t want any of his days.

“I have a lot of days, love. And can always get more. It’ll be a hundred years or more before we go through my life span. I don’t want to live in a world without you in it, and this way I get to stay with you.”

He pauses and takes a deep breath. “That is, assuming you want me around.”

“Of course I do.” I can see how he wouldn’t know that.

I’ve given him very little to believe I want him around.

Sure, we fucked every which way but, before then, I’d resisted his presence.

I’ve had time to think about how I felt about him and know the last month without him sucked. I missed his interfering presence.

“It would mean you can’t have children.”

“Don’t want them.”

“You could change your mind.”

“I have an IUD and I’ve tried for the last decade to get a hysterectomy. It isn’t changing. What else?”

His forked tongue sweeps out to dampen his lower lip, and I figure I’m really not going to like this next part.

“A favor for a day.” He repeats.

“What counts as a favor? Me making you breakfast? Doing your laundry? Giving you a blowjob.”

“Yes.” His eyes drop to my mouth, and I flush hot as I think about the first and last time I’d had my lips wrapped around his huge cock. “That would do it.”

I press my hands against his chest until he takes a step back. I slide off the counter, trapped between the cool laminate and hot demon.

“I guess you’d better let me get started then.” I drop to my knees.