Page 7 of Demon with Benefits (Hell Bent #3)

A moment later, Belial spun and stalked out of the room.

At the corner, he turned back. “I’m not lifting a finger in regard to this, so don’t ask me again about my goddamn contacts that don’t exist. And I don’t want to see a single fucking dog hair in my kitchen, you got it? Not one. Goddamn. Hair.”

And then he was gone.

Everyone exhaled in relief. Eva laughed. “Well, that was fun.”

Meph suddenly strolled into the kitchen. “Hey, suckers. What’d you do to piss off Bel? He nearly ripped my arm off when I bumped—”

He broke off when he saw Iris.

Their gazes finally locked, and for the briefest moment, she felt their last conversation hanging between them like a storm cloud.

Then, his eyes traveled right over her and took in everyone else, and his smile came back like it had never left. “It’s a kitchen party, then? What’s the occasion?”

“Iris got a puppy,” Lily said.

Meph scooped the dog out of Raum’s unwilling grasp and held him aloft. The puppy dangled submissively, content to be held. “He’s cute.”

Shit, their eyes really are the same color , Iris thought.

Where had Meph been this whole time? He’d walked down the hall as if he’d been in his bedroom, but earlier, Raum had made it sound like he was out. Maybe he’d shifted to demon form and flew out the window as Mist often did?

“He’s a hellhound,” Eva said.

“So he is.” Meph inspected him a moment longer and then passed him back to Raum. “You got any food?”

Just like that, he dismissed the fact that the puppy was a creature from Hell. Iris had nearly had a panic attack, but to him, it was no big deal. She gritted her teeth. Must be nice to be that annoyingly ignorant.

“You missed dinner,” Ash said.

“Got any leftovers?”

“Not for you.”

Meph pouted, sticking out his lower lip. “Pretty please?”

Ash shoved him hard enough to send him staggering into the stove. “Never make that face again.”

Meph just laughed, turning and opening the fridge to scan the contents. He found leftover pizza on the bottom shelf, dug in to grab a slice, and ripped a bite off like a wolf digging into a carcass.

The fridge door slammed, and he spun around, mouth still full of food. “W’ll ’av fn n’ll see’o guys la’er.”

And he was gone as abruptly as he’d appeared.

Before Iris knew what she was doing, she was muttering, “I’ll be right back,” and following him down the hall.

Why, she couldn’t say. She had so successfully repressed all emotions regarding Meph that she couldn’t identify them anymore.

“Meph.”

He stopped and turned back moments before he was about to disappear into his bedroom. His left brow, the one with the piercings and tattoos, rose in question, but he didn’t speak. He still had half a pizza slice crammed in his mouth.

Damn it, why was he so hot? Why couldn’t Iris think about anything else— literally anything else —when she was around him?

“Um...” She had no idea what she planned to say. She had no idea why she’d followed him.

Meph swallowed his bite. “You need something?”

His face was blank. No mischievous glint in his eyes, no sardonic tilt to his mouth or quirk of his lip. Just blank.

“How... are you?” God, no. That’s just bloody terrible.

“Fine. You?”

“Fine.” It was the most awkward conversation she’d ever had.

“The puppy’s cute.” His face was still blank. No jokes, no teasing, nothing.

She hated it.

“Yeah. He—Someone left him on my doorstep.”

“Good thing you found him, then.”

“Yeah. It is.” This is the worst. Someone just kill me now. Why had she thought this was a good idea?

“’Kay, well, gotta go.” He turned without a backward glance. “See you around.”

And the door closed in her face.

Iris stood there rooted to the ground, and it finally hit her why she’d chased after him.

She’d wanted him to tease her and make her mad. She’d wanted to snark at him for always following her around. She’d wanted him to flirt and push her buttons until she snapped and told him to leave her alone.

From the moment they’d met—him showing up at Lily’s to demand where Mist was and laughing when Iris threatened him with a kitchen knife—that had been their dynamic.

He flirted with her, called her mildly offensive pet names, and teased her until she got pissed off enough to tell him to shut up.

And she rolled her eyes at his stupid jokes and acted like he was the bane of her existence.

He was the most unserious person she’d ever met.

His stupidly gorgeous face was perpetually split by a shit-eating grin, he was loud and insensitive, and his maturity level was on par with the average teenage boy.

The fact that he was a demon had only made her more determined to stay away from him.

To refuse to admit he had any redeeming qualities.

She knew she had crossed a line the night of her birthday, but it had worked. She’d finally gotten her wish. He was doing what she’d told him to do. He was leaving her alone. He wasn’t teasing her or laughing at her or doing anything at all.

She wandered into the bathroom down the hall just so she had an excuse to offer if the others asked where she’d been.

This was what she needed, she told herself as she washed her hands and stared at her face in the mirror. This was what was best. She was trying to make positive changes, cutting toxic people out of her life.

You’re a shallow piece of shit with no substance or personality.

She was still staring at her reflection, so there was no way to miss the guilt that flashed across her face, making her flinch. And with that realization came another.

Meph was doing the same thing as her: cutting toxic people out of his life.

And in this case, she was the one who was toxic.

The truth was, the only reason she “hated” him so much was because she was so attracted to him.

She could say it was because he was a demon and because his jokes annoyed her, but she knew it was bullshit.

She’d accepted Mist and the other demons, even if she was still a little wary of them.

And she wasn’t a complete downer and appreciated someone with a good sense of humor. Normally, she liked to laugh.

But Meph... intimidated her. As much as she was loath to admit it, it was true.

The tattoos, the piercings, the red eyes that sometimes glowed dangerously, the tousled black hair always falling in his face.

.. The man looked sexy eating cold pizza, for god’s sake.

It wasn’t fair to the world that he was that hot.

No one should be allowed to be that irresistibly fuckable.

So... she was mean to him. In what universe did that make sense?

She was like those little boys who bullied the girls they liked because they were the next generation of misogynists, and that was the only way they were taught to express emotion: with cruelty.

In primary school, a boy had bullied Iris like that, pulling her hair and throwing sand in her face, so she’d kicked him in the bollocks.

He’d lost his lunch right there on the playground for all to see, and she’d been forced to read a written apology in front of him and his parents and been suspended for a week.

She’d always resented that she was the one who’d gotten in trouble. Yeah, okay, she probably shouldn’t have tried to pop his prepubescent testicles, but shouldn’t he have gotten some backlash for bullying? Shouldn’t he have been scolded for taunting her and making her feel unsafe?

But now, twenty years later, the roles had been reversed. Wasn’t that a bitch.

When she couldn’t hide in the bathroom any longer, Iris wandered back out into the kitchen and stood silently while everyone socialized.

She watched Eva and Lily, glowing under the obvious adoration of their demon boyfriends, and she had the thought that the world was a weird fucking place, but it still didn’t feel like she fit in anywhere.

Even the puppy that had turned up on her doorstep looked happier in another’s arms than with her.

She was living a double life. Witch by day, demon-fraternizer by night.

She couldn’t betray her sister by outing the demons to Suyin, but she didn’t want to cut ties with the coven either. It was the only place she’d ever felt she belonged, and the only thing that had given her life purpose after her parents’ passing.

All Iris had ever cared about was keeping her twin sister safe and becoming a powerful enough witch to one day find and destroy Valefor, the demon who’d killed their mam and dad.

Now... she didn’t know who she was anymore.

Eventually, Iris made up an excuse to leave and managed to extract her new pet from Raum’s reluctant grasp. Bundling up in her parka by the door, she was almost ready to make her escape when Lily caught her. “See you on Friday?”

Iris fought back a groan. Why the hell did I agree to that? “Yeah, I’ll be there.”

“It’ll be fun, I promise. You can bring your puppy.” Lily considered the squirming animal. “You need to name him.”

“His name is Faust,” Iris decided right then and there.

“Faust?” Lily made a face. “That’s awful, Ris.”

“Why? It’s cute.”

“How is that cute? It’s a legend about a horrible man who makes a deal with the devil.”

“Yeah, with Mephistopheles the devil. And I can’t name him that, but his eyes remind me of Meph’s, so...” She trailed off, realizing she may have inadvertently exposed herself.

Lily gave her an unreadable look. “So, really, you’re naming him after Meph, then.”

Iris remained silent.

But when she expected her twin to start teasing her or perhaps ask unwelcome probing questions, instead, Lily sighed. “I’m kinda worried about him.”

“Meph?” Iris scoffed to cover her interest. “Why?”

“I dunno. Maybe I’m imagining things, but he’s never around lately, and when he is, he seems quieter. He’s always hurrying off somewhere, and I think he’s hiding something.”

Iris told herself she didn’t care. And yet she asked, “Is he coming on Friday?”

“I think so. Why?”