Page 24

Nico

N ico sanitized his studio for the tenth time. Scrubbing a hand over his head, he gave one of his horns a frustrated tug. Short of ripping out the floor tiles and scrubbing the cement floor underneath, there was nothing left for him to clean.

He could always go home…

Nico snorted. He hadn’t gone home last night, he certainly wasn’t going home now. After he had stormed out of Miri’s house, he hadn’t wanted to go back to his apartment. It didn’t smell right anymore—even walking through the door to pick up some more clothes the other day had felt wrong.

But Nico couldn’t go back to the house either. It was too crowded, too loud, and just too much. He had never done the whole group relationship thing and the constant chaos was eating at him. Clearly.

Why did Miri even want four dipshit boyfriends? One wasn’t enough for her?

Nico picked up his phone. He should call her and explain that the group thing wasn’t for him, that it would be better if he walked away. A nice clean break before he got in too deep. Thumb hovering over the contact icon, the demon gritted his teeth.

He couldn’t do it. He wasn’t ready to say goodbye yet.

Avoiding the inevitable, he swiped open the MONSTR app instead. His stomach churned with guilt. It might have just been his imagination, but Nico was pretty sure the little fanged logo was judging him.

He was going to swipe for a minute. Just sixty seconds to take his mind off the mess he had left behind at Miri’s house. He ignored the guilt gnawing at his gut and started to swipe.

Too blond. Too tan. Nico grimaced as he swiped left again and again with barely a glance. No pink cheeks. No bouncy curls. That one’s hips were too thin.

Miri had bountiful hips for him to hold on to. How was he supposed to go back to anything less than her soft flesh spilling out of his hands?

This definitely was not working. Nico tossed his phone aside and rose from his seat to pace the small studio. His hands itched to do something, anything at all. Doing any kind of art when he was this worked up would be a waste of time.

Someone knocked gently on the door frame.

The familiar scent of coconut and sugar teased his nose.

Head whipping around, Nico stared at the woman standing awkwardly at the door.

Had he summoned her with his thoughts? Or did she sense the second he had opened the dating app and come by to personally call him an asshole and permanently kick him out of her house?

With his luck, it was definitely the latter.

“May I come in?” Miri asked softly, her warm brown eyes searching his face.

“Uh, yeah. Yeah, of course.”

Guilt clawed at his gut as she closed the distance between them. Nico quickly turned away and made a show of tidying up his work space. As long as he didn’t look at her, he could stop himself from blurting out what he’d done.

“Can we talk about what happened last night?”

“I’m not sure what there is to talk about. Ace was being an ass and I left to avoid strangling him with his own tail.”

Was that a good enough explanation? Not if he wanted to stay with Miri.

Nico gritted his teeth to keep from elaborating. Not even five minutes ago, he’d been determined to end things with the sweet human and free himself from the the rest of the horned idiots… and Duke… who was technically hornless.

“Nico.” Her hand caught his elbow and gently turned him to face her. He studied the floor. With every passing second, he could feel the intensity of her gaze burning into his face.

If he met her eyes, it was all over. Nico would never be able to walk away—and he definitely wouldn’t be able to keep his mouth shut about scrolling MONSTR.

“What’s wrong?”

“It was just a fight?—“

“No, its not that.” He didn’t even have to look down to know that she was studying his face. Her freckled nose all scrunched up with worry. “You haven’t looked at me once since I walked in.”

Damn it. Did Miri have to be so friggin perceptive all the time?

“I did something I shouldn’t have,” Nico admitted.

“What do you mean?”

His eyes finally dropped to Miri’s face, the worry in her voice reeling him in. Her freckles were stark against her pale skin as she frowned back to him.

“I was swiping through MONSTR before you came in.”

Her round face shuttered. Her confusion and worry vanished behind a blank mask. Nico nearly took a step back. In one sentence, he had somehow managed to suck all the light and warmth out of the room.

“I guess we really hadn’t talked about boundaries or being exclusive,” Miri said quietly. A bolt of panic spiked through his heart at her empty tone. “I mean, I’m dating four men, so it’s not like I have much room to complain. If you want to see other people?—“

“I don’t,” Nico cut in.

As much as he was feeling somewhat smothered by the other demons in the house, he didn’t want to see anyone else.

Swiping on the dating app—even briefly—had made that abundantly clear.

No one had appealed to him. Not even a little.

He had to figure out how to make this work, because at the end of the day, they weren’t Miri.

Nico sat down on a stool and caught her hands in his. Her pale, clawless fingers disappeared in his tattooed grip. He tugged her close to stand between his legs. The panic in his chest eased the tiniest bit. Better. Not perfect, but better.

Lifting his chin, he looked at her properly for the first time since she’d entered his studio. Shadows ringed her eyes, barely managing to hide behind her round glasses. Her teeth worried at her plump lip. Even as she maintained her blank expression, her shoulders were beginning to slump.

Fuck. Nico needed to fix this and fast.

“I’ve never done the group thing,” he admitted to the quiet room.

“I know it’s common for monsters, but I’ve managed to avoid it until now.

I’ve had threesomes and that kind of thing, but never in relationships.

I don’t like drama—or most people, for that matter—so I try to stick with monogamy. Until you.”

For Miri, he was willing to break every rule he’d ever made for himself. Ever since Nico had stormed out of her house, his chest had felt painfully empty. He’d spent the night staring at the ceiling and rubbing his knuckles over the void to soothe the ache.

Truthfully, he hadn’t realized just how bad it was until she was standing there in front of him. For the first time in hours, the demon felt like he could breathe again.

“I wasn’t expecting the jealousy to hit as hard as it is.

Turns out, I’m not great at sharing.” Nico winced.

That was putting it mildly. He wanted to tear off the other demons’ hands on a daily basis.

“As for the dating app, I was trying to convince myself I could walk away from this. It was an epic failure by the way. I couldn’t stop comparing everyone to you. ”

He picked up his phone and showed Miri the screen as he deleted the app in front of her. It’s not like it was doing him any good anyway.

Nico curled his claws over her generous hips and moved her to straddle his lap. Miri was still stiff in his arms as he wrapped them around her waist.

“I’m sorry,” he told her. “That was crappy of me.”

She sighed. Hands sliding up his chest, Miri curled her arms around his neck.

“Not as crappy as me,” she admitted. “I saw you were struggling and I was going to talk to you about it, but things blew up first. I should have made time for it.”

“I’m really not good at sharing.”

Miri snorted. “Or communicating, apparently.”

Nico looked down… he definitely was not avoiding looking at her. Nope.

Gentle hands gripped his horns. Miri turned his face up to meet hers and he swallowed a groan.

He was definitely not getting turned on by that.

The demon was barely out of the doghouse, getting a raging hard on because his pretty human was sitting in his lap and manhandling his horns was not a good idea.

Now if only his dick would listen to that wisdom.

“I’m not used to having a bunch of guys stomping around and shouting in my house,” Miri said, a small smile fighting her lips.

“I deal with screaming, laughing children all day. Coming home to a silent house was how I would reset my brain after work. I’m one more yelling match from investing my life savings in ear plugs. ”

“Oh my goddess, they are so fucking loud,” Nico groaned.

How it was possible for two demons to make so much noise, he could not fathom. Duke was the only one who got a pass and even that was marginal.

Miri laughed. Letting go of his horns, she wrapped her arms around his neck. As phenomenal as her grip was on his sensitive horns, it was probably for the best if they wanted to keep talking.

Besides, with her arms around his neck, Nico had a direct view of her bountiful cleavage.

“So unbelievably loud,” she agreed, oblivious to his hungry admiration. “It’s gotta be a big family thing. They all have a ton of brothers and sisters who they probably had to scream over their whole life. Kaz told me he and Ace have, like, eleven siblings between the two of them.”

Nico blanched. “I’d rather be an only child.”

“I am an only child,” Miri snorted. “I would have killed for a sibling growing up.”

“Not me. I have one sister and we are not the warm and fuzzy type.”

No one in his family was. Being a standoffish prick was genetic, apparently.

“My point is, having all of you there in my house is a lot for me, but I’m trying. And talking about it when I have a problem.” She shot him a pointed look. Right, talking wasn’t exactly his strong suit. “Do you want to keep trying this out with me?”

“Yes.”

If his twisting heart was proving anything, it was that he was obsessed with the woman in his arms. Even the thought of walking away from Miri and made him feel ill. There was no way he could willingly end it.

“I think I just need to schedule more alone time,” Nico sighed. “Maybe hide out here for an extra hour or two before I come home every night.”