Page 25 of How Not to Charm Your Human Colleague (Falling for Demons #2)

ERRANDS

Kizros

“ T hank you for this, Rosalind,” Kizros said, nodding to the human. “And congratulations, again, on all your hard work. You ready for your presentation tomorrow?”

She blushed and tucked her chin. “I think so, just nervous.” Clearing her throat, she gestured behind her. “You’re sure about this? It’ll be a couple days if you change your mind.”

“I won’t.”

Rosalind studied him, her eyes narrowing. “Everything okay with Aofe?”

“Of course, why would you ask?” he scoffed a little too quickly.

She gave him a deadpan stare, then once again waved her hand pointedly behind her.

“Ah, yes.” Kizros scratched at the back of his head, cheeks burning. “It’s… yes.”

She raised a brow, then smirked. “Well, I guess I’ll see you in a couple days.”

He thanked her again, lingering at a nearby park bench for long enough that he started to feel guilty about lying to Aofe.

Well, more guilty.

Even if there really wasn’t anything to feel guilty about.

Except for taking advantage of her distraction this morning in the greenhouse as she tended the new seedlings.

With luck, these would adjust to her hands and slowly grow accustomed to her attention over Kizros’s.

With even more luck, the entire bed would follow suit, greeting her voice as many of the larger plants did for him after years of careful breeding.

That is, if she even wanted to be here longer.

Kizros had quickly tossed that thought into the depths of his mind earlier, particularly as one of the plants nearly uprooted itself in agitation at his uncertainty.

He’d left soon after that, worried the plants might give away his inner turmoil by waving back and forth between himself and Aofe.

She hadn’t seemed to notice his nervousness as he excused himself, nor his vague comment that he had errands to run.

There technically had been an errand—meeting Rosalind—but really, he was just stalling .

Running from himself. From his feelings. From his fears.

Last night with Aofe had… well, it had altered his brain chemistry.

His entire life, he’d been deemed too much .

He was too caring, too loud, too focused, and yet Aofe had wanted that.

She’d asked him to take control in the most vulnerable way, let him care for her, trusted him to put her well-being in his hands, and it had both fulfilled and reignited that primal desire in his chest to protect her at all costs.

It was no longer enough to press his knot inside her, fill her, wrap himself around her to keep her warm. He’d been so wild with the need to consume her, claim her, he’d started to fabricate excuses for leaving the shop so as not to frighten her with his declarations.

Aofe was already dealing with the trauma of the previous evening; he didn’t need to go blathering on about how he wanted her to be his soulbonded. How he’d almost begged her in that vulnerable state to give in to him completely and let him take care of her for the rest of their lives.

Not to mention Severath’s stare that still haunted him. The I-see-those-flowers-for-what-they-really-are stare .

It wasn’t fair that Aofe didn’t recognize the gifts as part of the demon courting culture.

She never asked, and he never clarified.

He never felt the need to bring more attention to his obsession with her for the very reason he’d learned to tone down his personality.

For fuck’s sake, she hadn’t even known the flowers he’d been blooming in the greenhouse—intentionally and unintentionally—matched her hair and eyes until the red demon had mentioned the ones on her crutches.

But now Kizros was considering stupid ideas like telling Aofe he loved her, even though he felt unworthy of her sunshine.

Any demon worth his tail should have been able to tell that she was unhappy last night at the festival, even before the altercation.

How was he meant to care for her as he’d promised if he couldn’t notice little details like that?

So he’d hatched this little plan, politely stalked Rosalind at city hall because he didn’t trust anyone else to make it possible, and was now standing outside Perennial Bloom without any recollection of the walk back.

The door was propped open to let in the fresh air, and Kizros climbed the steps to his shop, feeling an odd sense of inadequacy as he noticed all the imperfections he’d ignored before.

The cracked step he should repair, the slight fog creeping along the edges of the glass windows, the bell that he hadn’t noticed might get caught on a taller demon’s horn if they weren’t paying attention.

Inside, his magic hummed, Tim giving a half-hearted wiggle in greeting, which felt appropriate for Kizros’s mental state. But he stopped short at the sound of voices, lingering at the edge of the aisle as he spied the counter.

Aofe wore a patient smile, an elderly demon Kizros recognized as Elder Zaretha by the bangles decorating her tail standing at the counter. The orange demon read over the instructions. “And I just rub this onto my hands?”

“No more than three times a day,” Aofe answered, scratching between Attie’s ears where the creature sat patiently next to her seat. “I even put it in a better container, so you shouldn’t have any trouble getting that lid off if you’re having a particularly bad flare-up.”

“It smells good,” Zaretha observed, holding the back of her hand up to her nose. “The one from Tholvich didn’t smell like this.”

Kizros felt the pit of unease in his stomach twist at the reminder of his ledger and the maybe foolish decision he’d made this morning.

But then Aofe was huffing out an unamused laugh. “Because I guarantee Tholvich doesn’t care as much as Kizros does. Do you have any idea how thoroughly he documented the trials for this to maintain strength and have a nice scent? It’s very impressive.”

“You are not wrong about that spiky bastard, or Kizros.” The elder hummed, studying the jar of lotion. “And did you make this rune?”

Aofe shook her head quickly, and Kizros could see her shrinking in on herself in preparation just as he was gripping the shelves to keep himself from jumping the old demon in her defense. “No, I only repackaged it. I promise, I wasn’t involved in any other steps.”

“Why?”

“Well, because some demons are unhappy about a human making?—”

“No, why didn’t you do the rune?”

Aofe blinked, mouth parting like she was caught off guard. But then Kizros’s tail flicked behind him, and her gaze whipped to where he stood. Her cheeks turned a bright pink as she avoided his stare, donning another polite smile toward Elder Zaretha. “I’m not very good with them.”

The old demon huffed. “Then I suppose it’s a good thing you have the most patient and brilliant mentor in Kizros. Where is he, by the way?”

“Behind you,” Kizros said, pushing off the shelf. He shook his head teasingly as he approached the counter. “But you already knew that, didn’t you?”

Aofe folded her arms and pouted in mock offense. “You just wanted to see if I’d insult Kizros, didn’t you?”

The old demon just shrugged.

He gestured toward the door. “The bell didn’t announce me, but demons have excellent hearing. Even if Elder Zaretha pretends she doesn’t understand us if she doesn’t agree with what we have to say.”

Zaretha smiled at him, then winked at Aofe. “You’ve got a good one here, Kizros.”

“Believe me, I know,” he answered, unflinching as Aofe’s stare narrowed on him.

The old demon patted his forearm as she turned to leave. “Just be sure you’re teaching her runes in between lovemaking sessions.”

Kizros’s arm slipped against the counter, and his elbow slammed into the surface just as Aofe burst into laughter. Elder Zaretha didn’t stutter a single step as she walked toward the door and called over her shoulder, “Invitation for tea is always open, dearie!”

Kizros stared after the old demon, rubbing out his arm as his cheeks burned furiously, then glanced back at Aofe who was wiping tears from her eyes. “Wait, was the tea invitation for you or me?”

“Definitely you and one of your lovemaking sessions,” Aofe teased, remnants of laughter at the corners of her eyes. “You should take her up on it. I think her hips might be better than mine.”

He spluttered some nonsense words before Aofe finally cut him off. “I’m kidding, Kiz. How were errands?”

And just as quickly, that twist of nervousness was back. “What? Fine? Normal. Everything’s fine. How are you?”

She raised a brow at him, then adjusted the ring through her nose. “Uh, fine.” She jerked her chin somewhere behind him. “Tim is calling your bluff. Why are you acting weird?”

“I’m not acting weird,” Kizros argued, and if his twitching eye and whipping tail didn’t give him away, Tim did as he flicked soil out of his pot. Then Attie betrayed him too as she got up to rub against his legs and whimper.

Aofe folded her arms over the counter and leaned forward. “Kiz, if you don’t like what we did last night, we should talk about it.”

“What? No!” he blurted, then nearly tripped over Attie before he pressed both hands on the counter. “That was… incredible. I’ve never, well, I knew that was something I’d enjoy, I’ve just never done it , and?—”

A passing conversation drifted in through the open door, and Kizros all but sprinted to close the door and lock it behind him. When he came back, Aofe was leaned back in her chair, rubbing at her leg.

“You’re hurting.”

She glanced down, her hand pausing the rubbing motion. “Actually… no. Well, yes, but not as much as I thought I would be. Getting that gel on quickly might have been the right decision.” She shook her head. “Don’t change the subject.”

He returned to the counter, this time coming around the other side to be closer to her. “Go back to saying I was right.”

Aofe snorted a laugh, gently smacking him with the back of her hand, and that gesture—the casualness, the carefree demeanor, the friendliness—replaced all his worry. “What I’m trying to make sure of, Kizros, is that we are both still on the same page.”

His heart climbed up his throat now with a different kind of nervousness.

“The saying?” she clarified, mistaking his hesitation for not knowing the phrase. “Where we are both in agreement? On the same page .”

“Mhmm,” he managed to mumble, suddenly anxious and excited and maybe a little bit terrified for where she was going with this.

“About that dynamic,” she pressed. “Sexual preferences?” He let out his breath as quietly as he could, all while Aofe remained clueless to his tumultuous emotions.

“Kiz, I really enjoyed what we did. It was freeing, trusting you while being tied up, as ironic as that sounds. You never made me feel unsafe, and I just want to make sure you enjoyed that because I’d like to do other things.

” She hesitated, then blurted, “ With you . If you, you know, want to explore more. I feel safe. Seen. I really… I really like you.”

It didn’t matter that she mumbled the last bit, or that she turned away to avoid his gaze as her cheeks reddened, Kizros lit up at her words. It wasn’t the sex that altered his brain chemistry, but this .

And he was done pretending he wasn’t selfish for wanting Aofe. For keeping her to himself and making plans that showed her just how much he meant what he’d said last night about taking care of her.

He reached out, hooking a finger around her chin as he tugged her gaze back to his. “I really like you too, Aofe.”

Still an understatement, but he could take his time building off of those words.

She blinked, blue eyes searching his face, lingering the longest at his wide smile before meeting his gaze. Her shoulders softened. “Yeah?”

He nodded, vowing to himself he’d find more ways to remind her every day how much he meant it. “And I hope we can explore other things. Together.” He tucked a strand of blue hair behind her ear then leaned back on the counter. “After all, I need to redeem myself for last night.”

All traces of uncertainty were gone from her face as she smirked. “You mean when you came in your pants?”

Kizros flicked her with the flat of his tail, then rolled his eyes at her laughter. “I’m never going to live that down.”

His gaze snagged on her mouth, where her tongue flashed over her lower lip before she tugged that pillowy softness between her teeth. “I don’t know why you’re embarrassed. That was hot.”

“I would have preferred fucking you.”

Her grin widened. “There’s my sexy, confident demon.”

He’d be anything she asked, as long as she called him hers again. “I cleared a table in the greenhouse this morning.”

“Oh, is that why you spent over an hour wiping down the same spot while I did all the hard labor watering the unruly plants? I thought you were just avoiding me.”

Kizros grimaced because it wasn’t untrue.

“I’m teasing,” she reassured him, reaching for her crutches. “But as lovely as that idea sounds, Zaretha is right. I’m determined to get a rune to work, and I think today is finally the day.”