Page 22

Duke

U nlocking the front door with the spare keys Ace had had made, Duke nudged it open with his foot and shuffled the bags of takeout in his arms. He had volunteered to grab dinner on his way home from work.

Mostly because he was craving french fries and had a long night ahead of him, but if it earned him some kudos from the rest of the group he wasn’t going to say no.

Duke left the greasy bags on the kitchen counter and hurried upstairs to change. He didn’t mind wearing a suit to work every day, but sometimes he could barely manage the drive home without tearing off his tie and hurling it out the window.

Today had been no exception. The longer the afternoon had drug on, the more his tie had started to feel like a noose.

It didn’t help that Duke’s current case was taking twice as long as he had anticipated—why anyone thought hiding their money in the Cayman Islands was a foolproof, he would never understand.

It was going to take weeks to untangle the mess of accounts in the embezzlement file.

At the rate he was going, Duke was going to be spending more time with his highlighters than he would with Miri. Hence the french fries. If he was going to suffer, at least he would have a mountain of greasy, salty fries to fall back on.

The demon dragged a t-shirt over his head and gave his wings a shake. On days like this, he almost wished that he wasn’t carrying the enormous weights on his back. It was bad enough that he sat hunched over a desk all day, but add wings to the mix? Duke kept his chiropractor on speed dial.

Sighing his way down the stairs, he headed back to the kitchen for dinner. Kaz and Ace stood over the takeout bags. The two demons took turns elbowing each other out of the way to peek inside, neither daring to actually open the bags.

“Back, you vultures.” Miri padded into the room, her feet clad in fluffy pink socks. She shooed them away and started to unpack the bags herself.

Leaving with a disgruntled bird screech, Ace opened the fridge and started pulling out sodas. Duke shook his head. Where did he find the energy? Were they pumping him full of IV espresso at the coffee shop?

“Are these all the same?” Peeling back a burger wrapper, Miri peeked under the bun.

“Nico’s doesn’t have onions, but the rest are the same.”

“This one must be his then.”

Miri continued her foray through the takeout bags, setting burgers and fries on paper plates as she worked.

Duke passed her plates and watched her from the corner of his eye.

He couldn’t help himself. There was something about her that soothed the constant static in his brain—what it was, he had no idea.

The fluffy curls on her head? The way she wrinkled her nose when she was thinking? Her soft smile and teasing laughter?

It was all a balm to the buzzing in his head.

The short human lifted a plastic container from the bottom of a bag and raised an eyebrow.

“A salad?”

“Kaz’s order.”

“Ah.” She nodded and dropped a plastic fork on top of the lid.

Duke nodded at the remaining bag. “There should be an extra order of fries in there.”

Fishing through the bag, Miri pulled out the extra fries and passed them to him. Her fingertips brushed over his and her eyes rose to look at his face. A rosy flush spread across her cheeks.

It didn’t take a mind reader to know what she was thinking about… mostly because he was thinking the same thing. Their tryst in her little library had been more than he could have ever hoped for… right up until he had turned her into an itchy patient zero.

His gaze followed the golden freckles glowing on Miri’s pink cheeks.

Duke loved when she blushed. He especially loved when the red flooded all the way down her throat and over her chest—just like it had last night.

Even thinking about the sweet flush on her breasts as he pounded into her was enough to make his cock demand an encore.

Plunging his hand into his pocket, Duke thumbed the silky fabric of her panties. Was it weird that he had stolen them off the floor? Probably. Was it going to stop him? Definitely not.

His sweatpants suddenly weren’t feeling as loose and comfortable as they had a minute ago.

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

Getting a hard on during dinner had to be some kind of faux pas.

He’d never read a book on dinner etiquette, but the big demon was willing to bet not getting hard over a burger and fries was somewhere near the top of the no-no list.

And wondering what kind of panties your girlfriend was currently wearing was probably right below it on the list.

“Do we have any fry sauce?” Ace interrupted the tempting thoughts in Duke’s head.

Leaning around Miri, the cheeky demon pawed at the empty bags. His hands dropped to her generous hips. With a gentle squeeze, Ace picked her up and moved her a few inches to the side. The sweet human blinked. Her face was blank as he fished his tail through the bags in his hunt for sauce packets.

Duke cocked his head to the side and studied her pretty face. Miri looked like her brain had just had a hard reset. He knew the feeling well. Every time she put one of her small clawless hands on him, his heart skipped a beat and his brain turned off and back on again.

“Ugh, just ketchup packets?” Ace grumbled. “Stingy bastards. We should boycott.”

Miri caught Duke’s eye and pulled a face. He looked down quickly to keep from laughing. It was nice to know he wasn’t the only one who thought the tailed demon was a drama queen.

Plates in hand, they scattered around the living room.

Ace flopped onto his stomach on a floor cushion, his burger propped in front of him.

Duke was lucky enough to snag a spot next to Miri on the couch, Kaz sandwiching her on the other side.

Nico was furthest away. Sprawled across an armchair, he balanced a sketchpad in one hand and a handful of fries in the other.

“So, what are we watching tonight?” Kaz—the salad king— asked as he leaned over and swiped some of Duke’s extra french fries. “Wait, who has the remote?”

The purple demon nudged a small pile of fries to the edge of his plate. It wasn’t his first rodeo. The health nut was a known fry thief. Even when they’d been in their past relationship, house rules were to get an extra order to stop him from pillaging every one else’s fries.

“Seriously, where is the—No! Absolutely not.” Kaz lunged forward to make a grab at the remote control clutched in Ace’s flexible tail. “You don’t get the remote again. You always pick garbage.”

“But Real Housewives is on!” Ace stretched his tail out of his cousin’s reach.

“No.”

“It’s the tell all! They’re finally going to reveal Kristy’s texts to the group!” Planting one foot on Kaz’s chest, he shoved him back onto the couch. “Get back, you monster!”

“We don’t want to watch your shitty reality show!”

“Speak for yourself,” Nico muttered under his breath.

Duke raised his eyebrows. It was rare that Nico offered an opinion on a group activity.

Miri leaned around Kaz’s grabby hands, and easily plucked the remote from Ace’s hold.

“The tell all first, Kaz. Then you can pick next,” she said in a firm, soothing tone. “You need to take turns.”

Duke smiled to himself as Kaz grumbled. She’d just used her disapproving teacher voice on him and he hadn’t even noticed. He tossed a couple fries to the whiner and settled back into the couch cushions. It wasn’t the most comfortable on his wings, but nothing every really was.

He watched the group as the opening theme played.

Ace’s tail wrapped around Miri’s ankle as his litany of smart ass comments began in earnest. Even Kaz settled down as the show began.

He could pretend all he wanted, but his golden eyes were locked on the drama playing out on screen just like everyone else’s.

Duke’s chest clenched. He scrubbed his knuckles over the ache.

It was so… cozy. He’d done the group thing once before, but it hadn’t been like this.

It hadn’t been comfortable hanging around the other males in the group for long periods of time—and they certainly wouldn’t have been caught dead watching garbage television together.

Duke had slipped into the group like a crooked puzzle piece. Never quite fitting comfortably enough.

When their ex had cheated, he’d been just fine walking away from them all. If anything, he had been relieved.

Duke looked around the small living room again. He wasn’t sure he could ever do that with them. The other demons were all working their way under his skin. Even the standoffish Nico.

No one was starting drama or fighting for more of Miri’s attention. They all seemed to genuinely like each other. No one had even laughed at him for missing the punchline of a joke or some mysterious social cue they all inherently understood. It felt safe… and that worried him.

Sooner or later, something—or someone—was going to get caught in the gears and bring this smoothly running machine to a grinding halt. Duke really hoped it wouldn’t be him.

A small handed patted his thigh. He blinked at the freckled skin.

Miri rubbed her palm over his leg, her eyes never leaving the tv.

Duke took a breath and released the swelling tension.

There was no use worrying about how things would crash down around them.

He just needed to enjoy it while it lasted.

Miri shook her water bottle and sighed. “Damn, I forgot to fill my water.”

All four demons started to get up. She waved them down before any of them managed to get to their feet.

“No, no. I can get it.” Miri wiggled out of the center of the couch sandwich and hugged her water bottle to her chest.

As soon as her bouncing ponytail cleared the corner, Ace raised the remote and turned the volume up. He leaned in and waved them all closer.

“Okay, listen up. A little bird named Ashley let me know Miri’s birthday is next week.”

Any grumbling fell silent as they stared at him with laser focus. Duke silently adjusted his monthly finances in his head, shifting more funds from his discretionary account would give him plenty of extra cash for a gift without dipping into savings.

How much was one supposed to spend on a girlfriend’s birthday? Was there a difference in accounting when she had more than one boyfriend? What about?—?

“Should we throw a party?” Nico asked hesitantly.

Duke shuddered. That sounded like his personal version of hell, but most people liked parties. And he liked Miri. He could weather a some small talk with strangers if she was involved. And cake. He definitely needs a solid corner piece for withstanding that much socializing.

“Maybe.” Ace nodded to himself, his fingers already tapping out a text. “I’ll message her friends and get some more details first. She might not like parties.”

Duke could only hope.

“What about presents?” Kaz whispered. “Do we want to do a group thing or fend for ourselves?”

“Fend for ourselves,” the other three answered in unison.

“Okay, then.” Kaz snorted. “We’ll need to get a cake too. She can’t bake her own birthday cake. That’s against the rules.”

There were birthday cake rules? Duke shook his head. Of course there were. There were secret rules about everything in life and, in his experience, they weren’t written down anywhere for a confused demon to find easily.

“Definitely not a strawberry cake,” Nico said, throwing a small smirk in his direction.

Heat crept up the back of Duke’s neck.

“It was an accident!”

His wings shuffled uncomfortably on his back. How was he supposed to know she was allergic to strawberries? It’s not like they’d all sat down and exchanged allergens on the first date.

He had been lucky it was only a mild allergy. The red hives were already disappearing from Miri’s pale skin—not that the guilt was doing anything to make its own timely exit. Duke still felt terrible. Their fun had gone from blissful to horrifying in the blink of an eye.

She had squawked and complained the whole time as he forced her into the shower to scrub the oil off of her flesh.

“ Not that bad,” she’d said to him… Miri was a damn liar.

The curvy human looked like she’d used a beehive as loofah.

Duke had spent an hour pinning her squirming hips to the bed with one wing while he apologetically painted her body with itch cream.

“I’ll figure out the cake with her friends,” Ace interrupted. The flat spade at the tip of his tail patted Duke’s knee. “Don’t worry, big guy. Any one of us could have made that mistake. And knowing Miri, she’ll probably want chocolate cake.”

Their girl did love her some chocolate. It was a group effort to keep the pantry continuously stocked with varieties of chocolate goods without her noticing.

Miri’s soft footsteps grew louder as she finished up in the kitchen.

“Leave it to me, boys,” Ace whispered. “I’ll commune with the bestie council and get back to you.”

They all quickly leaned back and resumed their nonchalant positions in front of Real Housewives.

Miri padded back into the room, her icy water bottle in hand.

Curling up in the middle of the couch, she tugged a blanket over her lap.

Sock-covered toes poked out from under the blanket and wriggled to rest in Duke’s lap.

He absently stroked her ankle, a small smile on his face. The sound of the television faded into the background as he started to make a list of potential gifts in his mind. As far as Duke was concerned, a birthday gift for his favorite human was more important.