Page 18

Miri

M iri stared at her empty water bottle. Kaz had shooed her away for some quiet time with promises of handling the dishes, and just when she had managed to put on her comfiest sweater and shorts, her water had run dry.

She poked her head out of the door frame and eyed the stairs. Was it worth wading back into the fray of rowdy demons? She really didn’t want to have to drink water from the bathroom sink.

Soft voices drifted from the living room. Maybe she could slip into the kitchen and back without any handsy claws being the wiser.

And maybe pigs would sprout wings and take over the airline industry.

Sighing, Miri started to tiptoe down the stairs. Her demons had some kind of Miri-radar. She was halfway convinced that they could smell her every time she was in the immediate vicinity. Why else would they beeline for her just to press their noses into her hair?

She really should consider switching up shampoos. Clearly, coconut was some kind of monster aphrodisiac and she had slept through that lesson in health class.

Miri crept down the stairs, careful to step over the creaky step near the bottom. Their voices carried into the hall. Pausing, she listened to the idle chatter. She definitely wasn’t going to eavesdrop… much.

“How does one person go through so much laundry?” Kaz asked.

“She doesn’t go through that much,” Nico argued.

“I was talking about Ace.”

Covering her mouth to stop her laughter before it could leave her lips, she peeked around through the doorway.

The three demons had managed to empty and fold all the laundry baskets and now stacks of neatly folded clothes rested on every flat surface.

A pile of of unmatched socks mounded in the center of the floor.

Nico raised a pair of her yoga pants in front of him, his dark brow serious as ever. He frowned. Dipping his fingers into the pocket, he freed a crumpled ball of paper.

“I hope this wasn’t important.”

Miri held her breath as he did his best to smooth out the waterlogged lump. For once in her life, she was actually hoping the washing machine had destroyed the contents of her pockets.

“What’s it say, Nicotine?” Ace asked as he matched a pair of socks.

“Don’t call me Nicotine, asshat.” Squinting at the paper, somehow Nico’s frown grew even darker. “It’s all smudged up. ‘Share the eve bras’?”

Kaz leaned over and snagged the paper from his hand.

“I think it’s supposed to say ‘shave eyebrows.’”

He turned to look between Ace and Nico, utterly bewildered.

“Does Miri shave her eyebrows? Is that some secret girl thing they all do or something?”

She crammed her fingers into her mouth and bit down to stop herself from laughing. Her shoulders shook as the silence dragged on.

“I mean legs would make more sense,” Kaz continued. “But this definitely says eyebrows.”

“I think Miri would look good without eyebrows.” Ace dumped a pile of paired socks onto the small mountain beside him. “It might give her a permanent air of surprise, but it could be cute.”

She watched Nico rolls his eyes at the pair of demons and focus on his laundry. The crumpled paper found its way to the coffee table, discarded in a pile of used dryer sheets.

Miri let out the breath she’d been holding. In all the chaos of having her house stormed by hunky demons, she had completely forgotten about Ashley’s demon deterrent list. At least “poison ivy in their boxers” hadn’t still been legible.

“So, Kneecap—“ Ace said cheerfully.

“Nico.”

“—the tattoo business, what’s that like?”

He shrugged his broad shoulders. “It’s fine.”

“You paint with words, my dude.”

A ball of socks bounced off Ace’s head. Quickly backing away from the living room, Miri continued her quest to the kitchen before the three demons could erupt into chaos. At least they had managed to sit quietly for a little while. A sock fight was progress as far as she was concerned.

Though, it hadn’t escaped her notice that Nico wasn’t any more comfortable with the others than he had been the day they all met. He might sit in a room with them, but he didn’t relax. He didn’t banter. He didn’t even make small talk.

Miri’s stomach knotted. The tattooed sourpuss was the one she worried about the most. Kaz and Ace had dove headfirst into this relationship with ease—even Duke didn’t seem to be struggling much with the polyamory dynamic—but Nico was barely dipping his toes in the water.

She was definitely going to have to make time to check in on him. Preferably before he snapped and crammed a basketful of socks down Ace’s throat.

Filling her water bottle, Miri finished her business in the kitchen and made her way back to the stairs. As she tiptoed past the living room, one set of golden eyes met her furtive gaze. Miri froze in place. Raising a finger to her lips, she smiled at Ace.

For once, the demonic chatterbox kept quiet. He shot her a quick wink and turned his full attention on his cousin.

“Who the hell taught you to fold panties, Kazoo? Helen Keller?” he asked loud enough to cover her soft footsteps.

“Bite me.”

Miri shook her head as she slipped back up the stairs, a small smile on her lips. At least they were entertaining themselves. Maybe if she stayed quiet long enough, they would put the laundry away too.

With her demons tackling the mountain of laundry, she actually had a shot at some quality alone time.

Dipping into her bedroom, she grabbed the book off her nightstand and headed down the hall.

Her house might be on the smaller side, but she had utilized every cozy inch of it.

Since Nicole and Ashley’s sleepovers usually ended up in her living room—or piling onto her giant bed— the second bedroom had been turned into a small library.

Nudging open the door with her water bottle, she paused in the doorway. A brooding purple demon sat in the middle of the floor, wings shifting every time he reached to highlight a line on one of the papers scattered around him.

So much for alone time.

Duke had probably come up there to escape the noise of the other demons, just like her.

If anyone in the bunch was a fellow introvert, it was him.

It hadn’t escaped her notice that he was quietest demon of the four, or that he cringed the louder the others became.

Being social was definitely not the quiet giant’s strong suit.

Miri waited. When Duke didn’t look up, she shrugged and picked her way through the maze of papers. It was her reading nook. If he had a problem with it, he could relocate his paper explosion to another room in the house.

Craning her neck, she blinked down at the numbers on his reports. Gibberish. It was all random nonsense to her. It must have made sense to the dour demon because he nudged his glasses up his nose and highlighted another line of zeroes.

“I’m just gonna scooch this pile a bit,” Miri said quietly.

Duke didn’t look up. She nudged a set of papers out of her way and snagged a cushion off the squishy chair in the corner. Tossing it on the carpet, she laid down on her stomach and dropped her book open in front of her.

Well, it wasn’t alone time exactly, but the demon’s quiet presence would be fine for her introvert soul.

Miri flipped through her book to the right page and dove back in to the story. The only sound in the quiet room was the occasional turn of a page and the gentle shifting of wings as she wondered exactly how the enemies in her book were going to become lovers.

A warm hand folded over her ankle, dragging her out of her reverie. Duke’s thumb absently stroked her ankle. Miri peeked over at him. Pinching his nose and growling at a spreadsheet, the demon didn’t even seem to notice that he had grabbed hold of her leg.

She shrugged and went back to her book. As much as it might pain her to admit it, this was better than her usual alone time. Sitting there quietly with Duke was warm and comfortable. Like falling into their own cozy, little cocoon.

In fact, it was so cozy, she was starting to get sleepy. Miri closed her book and folded her arms. Resting her head on her arms, she curled up on the floor and closed her eyes.

A strong grip squeezed her leg. Blinking at the dying light, Miri raised her head and frowned at the window. How long had she been asleep? Had everyone else gone to bed already?

She rolled to her side and yawned. Duke still sat beside her, but she had managed to wiggle closer to him in her sleep. The clawed hand massaging her shin had slipped higher up her leg to accommodate the fact that she was practically plastered to his thigh.

The purple demon didn’t look up from his reports.

At some point, he had switched from highlighting to underlining, the bright yellow marker cast aside in the piles of paperwork.

He was lost to the world, completely oblivious to the way Miri had curled herself over his thigh as his hand gently absently rubbed her leg.

His thumb hit a tender spot and Miri couldn’t stop the small moan that escaped her lips.

Fuck. If he kept it up, she was going to turn into a boneless puddle of goo.

Not that Duke would notice. He’d probably just keep rubbing and underlining, completely ignorant to the fact that she was melting like a popsicle.

Duke looked over at her, dark his brows rising.

“That feels good,” she mumbled.

She wasn’t usually sore after yoga, but she might have been showing off a bit in class the other day… not that she would ever admit it. Miri would happily live with a little muscle ache just to see the shocked and tortured looks on their faces one more time.

Besides, hearing Kaz pray for mercy under his breath had been the highlight of her week. If it were possible to have negative flexibility, the poor guy would be in medical journals.

“Here?” Duke asked, folding his fingers to scrub his knuckles over the spot.

“Mm-hmm.”

His pen hit the ground. Grip tightening, he dragged her legs into his lap and set to work with both hands. Her eyes rolled back and she buried her face in the floor cushion to hide a groan.

Apparently, the buttoned-up demon was good with his hands. Go figure.

He carried on rubbing, his eyes drifting back to the papers in front of him. Every now and then, Duke would pause to flip to the next page in his endless pile and Miri would grumble to herself until the hand reappeared on her shin.

“If you keep making noises like that, I’m never going to finish these reports.”

“I’m not the one with magic hands,” she gasped when he stroked a sensitive spot behind her knee.

Duke chuckled. Work forgotten, he massaged his large hands up her thighs.

“Fuck, that’s good,” Miri groaned.

If he kept it up, he was going to have to carry her to bed. Not that it would be much of a struggle for the behemoth— she was pretty sure he could pick her up and carry her with one hand and not even break a sweat.

Gripping her ankles, Duke shifted her legs off his lap. Miri was left blinking at his back as he abruptly rose to his feet and walked out the door.

“Okay, bye then,” she grumbled to herself.

Miri knew he wasn’t the chattiest demon, but damn. A simple “goodbye” or “see you later” wouldn’t have killed him.

Pushing herself up to sit, she made a mental note to give one of his wings a tug later. It was the least he deserved for turning her legs to jelly and disappearing without a word. Miri tossed her book on the squishy chair in the corner and started to stretch.

A surprised squeak burst out of her as Duke strode back into the room and shut the door behind him. He sat down on the floor, a small bottle dwarfed in his large hands. The demon gripped Miri’s ankles and dragged her feet out from under her.

Back landing on the cushion, she frowned at the handsy creature.

She was really going to have to work on communication with the horned lot of dummies.

Between Duke and Nico, Miri had a better chance of finding a mermaid living under her kitchen sink than she did of getting the two silent demons to give her a straightforward answer.

Duke uncapped the bottle and reached for her thick, knitted socks.

“What are you?—?”

“My reports can wait until tomorrow.”