Page 3

“She’s tried different ways to make him admit defeat and leave her be. She’s yelled at him. Ignored him. Threatened him. Even set his hair on fire at one point. He just keeps coming back. Like the clap.”

“You want me to intervene,” Luka guessed.

“Actually, I want to fish out his gullet with a rusty spoon, but I’m pretty sure you’d have an issue with that.

I’d prefer that we weren’t at odds. So yes, Luka, I’m going to need you to intervene.

As a psi-demon, he can feed from people’s emotions and drain them dry; I won’t risk him turning that gift on her.

You make a bad enemy, but so do I,” Jolene warned, her face hardening.

“If there’s one thing imps are good at, it’s making themselves a problem for others. ”

Understatement of the century.

“I can see that Iain’s behavior has surprised you. He might not have been stalkerish in the past, but I’ll bet he has a history of being clingy and overly possessive when in relationships.”

Some of the whispers he’d heard about the demon in question flitted to the forefront of Luka’s mind. “I might have heard something to that effect.”

“Traits like that can often be problematic for male demons who get involved with sirens—their allure draws out the intensity of those characteristics.”

That was when the penny dropped. “Naomi. She’s his ex.”

“Yes.”

Agitation spiked through Luka and his demons. He straightened in his seat. “Why wasn’t I informed of Iain’s behavior before now?”

“Naomi didn’t report it to me initially because she kept expecting his obsession to wear off.

But it hasn’t, and none of her attempts made him back off.

Just about done with his shit, she finally came to me.

And now I’m coming to you. There’s little point in us having an alliance if we can’t count on each other at such times. ”

Luka gritted his teeth. If you were around a particular siren often enough, you could become desensitized to their song . . . unless you fell victim to it. He wouldn’t have expected Iain to do the latter. “I want to talk to her.”

“I suspected you would, which is why I asked you to meet me at her place of work.” Jolene’s eyes went out of focus—a telltale sign that she was using telepathy. Moments later, her gaze sharpened on him once more. “She’ll be with us soon.”

The waitress arrived first. She set drinks on their table and assured them that their food would soon follow. It was as she was leaving the room that Naomi returned. Her gaze found Luka’s, and, that easily, lust smoothed its way up his spine.

Abraxas grinned, pleased she was back. It adored women. Well, it adored the validation of their attention.

“What d’ya need?” she asked, her gaze bouncing from Luka to her Prime.

“To talk to you,” he told her. “Alone.”

Jolene stilled. “ I called you here—”

“And we spoke. Now I want to talk to Naomi.”

“You can do that while I’m present.”

“You know I won’t hurt her, so there’s no need for you to object to my speaking with her alone.”

“Why request that?”

“There may be things she’d prefer not to mention in front of you—mostly because it’s well known that you blow up entire buildings when in a rage. I want all the facts. She can always call out to you telepathically if she feels the need to.”

Sensing that Jolene might argue regardless, Naomi smoothly edged forward and said, “It’s fine. I don’t mind talking to him alone.”

Her lips thinning, Jolene stared at Luka thoughtfully for long moments. “All right,” she said eventually. “If you’re sure, Naomi.”

“I’m sure.” Naomi found Luka intimidating, yes, but she didn’t fear him. Nor did her demon. The fact was that she was no easy target. Her Prime knew that well.

Jolene rose from her seat, shot Luka a look of warning, and then swanned out of the room.

Naomi took the seat she had vacated and met his gaze steadily.

He was still, but not the slightest bit tense.

On the contrary, he was at ease, comfortable.

And so very watchful . His eyes were fixed on her face, unwaveringly intense, as if intent on not missing a thing.

It rubbed at her nerves, because Naomi didn’t like scrutiny as a rule.

She waited for him to speak, entirely too conscious of the chemistry buzzing in the air between them. It only added to her discomfort.

“You don’t need to fear me,” he assured her, clearly mistaking the source of her unease.

“Hmm, pretty sure I’d be a fool not to.”

His lips twitched minutely. “I mean you no harm. I’d just like for us to talk.” Leaning back in his seat, as if to seem no threat, he went on, “I want specifics regarding Iain. How often does he contact you?”

“Daily. Usually by text, though he sends them via spoofing websites using different phone numbers.”

“And what do those messages say?”

“The classics, really. ‘I miss you’, ‘I love you’, ‘We’re not over’, ‘You’re meant to be mine.’ That sort of thing.” It was beyond tiring.

“Jolene said he comes by your house.”

“At least once a week.” It pissed off her demon something fierce. “In the beginning, I would open the door and tell him to leave. Now I just ignore that he’s there.”

“He also sends you gifts, yes?”

She nodded. “Mostly flowers. Sometimes chocolates. The occasional plush bear. Clichéd stuff. He leaves them on my doorstep while I’m at work.”

Something dark moved behind Luka’s eyes. “How often?”

“Two or three times a month. In sum, he’s been a busy boy.”

“And this has been going on for three months now?” he double-checked.

“Yup.”

“And yet he hasn’t been beaten to a pulp by any of your relatives. Odd. Imps aren’t the type to overlook such things.”

No, they definitely weren’t. “I managed to convince them to stay out of this.”

“Really?” Luka asked, skepticism coloring his words.

“Okay, correction, I managed to talk them out of attacking him. But they’ve retaliated in other ways, as have I.” Messed with his finances, slashed his tires, had him declared dead in several states. “Nothing helped.”

Luka drummed his fingers on the table. “I wouldn’t have pegged him for someone who would be swept under by a siren song.”

“Me neither, or I wouldn’t have agreed to date him.

” Sometimes people who came across as tough and confident were hiding a fragile ego—even from themselves.

Not the demon in front of her, though. Luka Belinsky was not a guy who’d get caught up in a siren song.

Too powerful. Too steady. Too much his own man.

“Look, I know it’s not his fault that he’s in the throes of a siren-induced obsession,” she continued.

“But much as he can’t control how it’s messing with his mind, he can control how he reacts to that.

An obsession doesn’t steal your will or dictate your actions.

He could stop if he wanted. He just won’t. ”

“Has he at any point threatened you?”

Naomi’s nape tingled at the overly casual question—a hint of danger was threaded through it. “No, but I can sense he’s becoming impatient with me. He truly feels that I’m being unreasonable. It only seems like a matter of time before this gets ugly.”

Luka’s eyelids lowered slightly. “You sound as though you have experience with things becoming ugly. Other men in your past were violent?”

Her skin pebbled at his dark tone. Her demon, on the other hand, wanted to roll around in all that menace.

It had a weakness for danger and power. Oh, and diamonds.

“There were threats. Only one guy followed through with it—he tried to scar my cheeks and forehead with a knife so that I’d forever be marked as his. ”

Luka muttered a Russian curse. Asshole , she knew—one of her demonic abilities was to understand and speak every possible language. “What happened to him?” he asked.

“Many things,” she replied vaguely. “He did apologize after the obsession lost its hold on him. He was in fact deeply ashamed of his words and actions. Iain may feel equally ashamed when he’s back to his usual self.

The sooner that happens, the better, because things can escalate to a point where someone gets hurt. ” And that someone would never be her.

Right then, the door swung open and Jolene walked in with a tray balanced on her hand. “I caught Donna heading here, so I thought I’d bring our food myself.”

Probably a good thing, given how nervous Donna felt around Luka.

“I hope you two are done talking. I don’t want our pizza getting cold.”

“Naomi has brought me up to speed on everything,” Luka replied. “I will speak with Iain and ensure that he doesn’t bother her again.”

Jolene grinned, satisfied. “Just what I wanted to hear.”

“Thank you,” Naomi said to him as she stood, grateful for the excuse to escape being the focal point of his attention. “I’ll let the two of you enjoy your meal.” She walked out of the room and began making her way back to the hostess station.

As she reached it, Donna approached and asked, “Well, how’d it go?”

“Luka has agreed to step in,” Naomi told her.

Relief washed over the waitress’s elfin face. “Good. Maybe he’ll have better luck getting through to Iain.”

“Let’s hope so.”

The front door opened once more, and a cute couple entered. Focusing on them, Naomi gave them her warmest smile. Over the next hour, she greeted several patrons and showed them to tables or booths.

She was tidying the pile of menus when her skin prickled as the weight of someone’s attention settled over her. She instinctively looked over her shoulder, her stomach clenching as she saw Luka striding down the aisle with his guards in tow.

His gaze flitted over her face. “I’ll speak with Iain tomorrow morning. Be assured that he will stay away from you in future.”

She gave a slow nod.

He paused, his eyes dark and hot on hers. “I’ll be back.” With that, he and his guards were gone.

Donna rematerialized at her side. “I don’t think he meant that he’ll be back for pizza. I think he meant that he’ll be back for you .”

“He’ll want to let me know how his conversation with Iain goes,” Naomi pointed out.

“Maybe so, but I doubt that’s all he wants. It’s obvious that he’s into you.”

Just because he was attracted to Naomi didn’t mean that he intended to do anything about it.

And really, it was probably better that he didn’t.

Because she could sense that he was a perceptive son of a bitch; the kind of man who’d ferret out all a girl’s secrets if he put his mind to it.

And she had plenty to guard—one in particular was a doozy.

Setting the matter aside, she went back to work. At the end of her shift, she helped Alfie close the place down, said her goodbyes, then slipped on her jacket and left.

The pizzeria was only a five-minute walk from her home, so she arrived soon enough. Her house was small but cozy—living alone, she didn’t need a lot of space.

Inside, she kicked off her heels and tucked them under the bench in the hall. She then removed her jacket and hung it on one of the hooks high above the bench.

Intent on making herself a cup of green tea, she walked into the living room. The first floor was open-plan, the living room separated from the kitchen and dining area by partial glass walls, creating zones.

Naomi froze as she reached for the light switch, her instincts screaming at her.

She wasn’t alone.