Page 49 of Demon Dating Service

“Asshole!” He punched him in the arm. “You scared me to death.”

“I couldn’t help it.” Matteo cackled. “You’re too adorable. Plus, Harper told me to do it.”

“Ugh. I’ll get even with her.” Luke settled onto the sofa, drinking his coffee and leaning against Matteo. He still had another twenty minutes before he had to head to his next class, and he was determined to soak in every second of his Matteo time while he could. The rest of the world could wait.

Chapter 19

Libraries Are Fun

LUKE

Luke went into his morning classes with renewed energy thanks to Harper’s nonsense and Matteo’s adorableness. He did appreciate Harper’s need to be a protective mother hen. He had the world’s worst dating luck. In the past, the relationships he’d been in had lasted no more than a few months at most, and the majority hadn’t lasted beyond a few dates.

But with Matteo, he had hope!

He wasn’t sure, though, if the added demon assistance was a hindrance or a bonus. Their enthusiasm was nice.

At the very least, he’d made some interesting friends. No matter how late he returned home from work, there had always been several of them awake and ready to watch a movie with him or play some video games. And they never seemed to mind when he felt the need to vent about his coworkers or bosses.

However, he did need to learn to watch his words. After Tog’s enthusiastic intervention to give his boss at Burger Hut explosive diarrhea, he had to make sure he was clear that he didn’t want to hurt any of them or make them sick even if they were annoying, thoughtless assholes who’d taken him for granted.

Yet, even that was done now. No more part-time jobs flipping burgers or stocking shelves. Keeping up with the house wasn’t so bad. He’d had to introduce the demons to what a vacuum cleaner was and explain why bleach couldn’t be used to clean everything, but other than that, it was a job the demons made enjoyable.

Not to mention, his bank account had a good chunk of change in it now. He could take Matteo out for a nice dinner without counting his pennies or giving up meals for the rest of the week.

After a few classes, Luke grabbed a sandwich from the campus cafeteria and headed to the library. He thought he’d do a bit of reading and maybe text Matteo to see what classes he had left and if he had any free time. It wasn’t likely, though. It was already November. Thanksgiving break was fast approaching. From there, it was all papers and exams with little to no room to breathe, let alone have dates. They had to steal their moments when they could.

As Luke crossed the library and headed for the stairs that would take him to the second floor, his gaze caught on a familiar head bent over a book. The table was covered with a variety of other books, his laptop, and an open notebook for writing his thoughts as he read.

With a smirk, Luke walked briskly along the edge of the room so he could get to Matteo without the chance of being noticed. He circled around, dodging other students as they grabbed books from the shelves for their studies, while student librarians pushed heavily laden carts back to the stacks to return other books to their proper spots. Sunlight streamed down through a series of skylights, making the library appear to be a magical place.

An internal debate raged within him. What should he do when he reached Matteo?

Cover Matteo’s eyes with his hands?

Kiss him on the cheek?

Tickle him?

Ugh, all of that was too corny and silly. He didn’t want to scare Matteo away before they could go on their first date.

He was still debating when Matteo stood and turned toward the stacks, so that they nearly ran into each other, surprising them both.

“Luke!” he said in a whispered gasp.

“Crap!” Luke cursed. “I was trying to surprise you.”

“You succeeded.” Matteo grabbed Luke’s hand and pulled him to the table he’d been using. Luke fell into the seat across from Matteo and smiled the moment he noticed Matteo had yet to release his hand.

“I don’t want to disturb your studies. I stopped in to check out a book and I saw you studying.”

“Research for a paper,” Matteo grumbled. “Are you done with classes for the day?”

Luke nodded. “You?”

Matteo’s shoulder slumped, and his expression became pained. “I’ve got one more in…” he glanced up at the clock on the wall, “about thirty-five minutes.”

“Oh, then I should leave you to finish your research before class.” Luke started to pull his hand free of Matteo’s hold, but Matteo only tightened his fingers around Luke’s.