Harper snorted, amused. “You wouldn’t have done any such thing.”
“As I once told you, I’d started to feel numb to everything. Then there was you. And it all changed. You surprise me. Defy me. Frustrate me. Amuse me. Tease me. Having someone do those things… it was like waking up after a long yet unfulfilling sleep. So, yes, I’d have done whatever it took to have you.”
“You’d have had me as your anchor,” she reminded him.
“That wouldn’t have been enough.” He slipped one bikini strap aside and kissed her shoulder. Her petal-soft skin was hot from the sun. “I was always sure I wouldn’t need an anchor. It wasn’t until our psyches connected that I realized that, for all my power, you’re truly the only thing that could stop me turning rogue.”
“Sometimes I think, given my personality, I’m also the most likely thing to drive you to the brink of insanity.”
Pulling back, he smiled. “It’s true that you can get to me in a way that no one else can.”
“That’s just what it means to love someone. They can hurt you worse than anyone, but they can also make you happier than another person ever could.”
“Which is why I’m never letting you go.”
They spent the next two days sunbathing, swimming, scuba diving, and doing other watersports that he convinced her to try. Her favorite was scuba diving. She’d done it a few times before, so she already knew how to use the equipment. Still, it felt weird breathing through a regulator, and it took a while before she could tune out the bubbling and whooshing of air as she breathed underwater. Having her peripheral vision obstructed by the face mask annoyed her, because Harper didn’t like blind spots. Still, scuba diving itself was awesome.
She loved the underwater paradise with the colorful fish, amazing coral displays, and the rock formations. Loved the freeing feeling of weightlessness – of being able to fly up, down, left and right. As always, she was exhausted by the end of it.
Her evenings with Knox included a seriously delicious meal followed by either a dip in the Jacuzzi, a movie in the theater, or simply having drinks at the wet bar with the sentinels. On their last night, after she’d showered and – exhausted by watersports – pretty much fell face first on bed wearing only a towel, she felt Knox’s warmth breath on the back of her shoulder.
“Wake up for me,” he whispered.
“In a minute,” she sleepily mumbled into the pillow.
“Come on, wake up.”
“I just need a minute. Or an hour.”
He kissed and licked her shoulder. “This is important.”
“What?”
“I have something for you.”
She groaned. Not more gifts. They were always super expensive and it still felt weird to accept stuff from him.
Knox chuckled. “Such gratitude.” Not that he’d expected a different response. He actually found her awkwardness at receiving gifts kind of endearing.
“What is it?” She rolled onto her back to find him sitting on the edge of the bed, a towel around his waist. And he was holding a small, black velvet box. “Not more jewelry,” she whined with a playful smile. Her demon was excited. It liked shiny things.
He chuckled again and handed it to her. “Open the box.”
“Do I have to?”
“No, but I’d like you to.”
She sat up. “Okay.” She carefully opened the box. And swallowed hard. It wasn’t a ring. It was two rings. One was a black-gold band that was dotted with small diamonds. The second was also a smooth black gold and it looped twice, crossing just beneath where a black diamond was set.
Harper cleared her suddenly dry throat. A demon only bought a black diamond for their mate; it was a symbol of their commitment, the ultimate brand. Couples often waited years – even centuries – before exchanging them, as demons didn’t make any commitments lightly.
“You’re that sure of me?” she asked him, astonished. “I thought it would have taken you a long, long time to get to this point.” She knew that he was so used to being alone.
“I want you to wear these. I want you to be able to look at them and remember you’re very important to someone.” Knox hated that her emotional reflex was to expect people to leave her, but who could blame her for that? Both parents had abandoned her as a child. Although she eventually went to live with her completely useless father, she’d then lived a nomadic lifestyle, always leaving things and people behind.
Knox needed her to believe he wasn’t going anywhere. He needed her to understand that it wasn’t because she was his anchor, it was because he fucking adored her. “I want you to always have these reminders that you belong to someone – me. And I want others to see them and know you’re off-limits.” Even humans would understand the rings symbolized she was taken.
Feeling a little choked up, Harper said nothing. She just stared at the rings, moved and warmed by what they meant. She just… she wouldn’t have expected… she just… wow. The whole thing was just surreal. She had no words.
“I was originally going to wait until the night of the event to give them to you. But I knew there was a possibility that you wouldn’t feel ready to wear them yet. I would have understood. Still, you’d have felt bad about it. The whole thing would have made an awkward start to what I want to be a pleasant evening for us.” Knox would like to think she was ready, but there was really never any knowing how his mate would react to anything. He’d bet she was unpredictable even to herself. “So I’m choosing to give them to you early.”
Knox studied her expression, trying to guess what was going through her head. He had no clue. “If you’re not ready, I’ll accept that. No pressure.” But if she didn’t say something soon, he was going to snap. The silence stretched on. Just when he opened his mouth to demand to know what she was thinking, she carefully plucked the two rings from the box and slid them on the third finger of her left hand. Relief rushed through him and his demon. Until amusement flashed across her face. “What’s funny?”
She somehow managed to speak past the frog in her throat. “I’m just surprised you didn’t have ‘Property of Knox Thorne’ inscribed on the rings.”
“I thought about it.”
Still stunned, Harper just stared at the diamond. Her demon was smirking, thrilled that its mate had committed so fully to it. “They’re a perfect fit. How did you guess what size I’d need?”
Knox brushed his mouth over hers. “Baby, I know every inch of that body.” It was imprinted on his brain.
Harper skimmed her finger over the black diamond. “Did they come as a set?” Mating rings usually came as a set: the diamond ring, the “her” ring, and the “his” band.
Knox took her hand and kissed her palm. “Yes, but I don’t have to wear a ring just because you’re wearing them.”
She frowned. “I want you to wear it. Not because you gave me these, but because I love you. And because it’ll warn off all those flirty heifers that flock around you.”
He curled his hand around her neck and said against her mouth, “Then that’s what I’ll do.” He kissed her. Hard. Long. Deep.
“Where’s the third band?” she asked when he broke the kiss with a nip to her lip.
“In a box in my bag.”
“Then go get it.”
“You’re sure?”
She sighed. “Would I say it if I wasn’t?”
No, she wouldn’t. Mouth quirking, he did as she requested. It was a thicker version of her black gold band and was dotted with silver diamonds. The diamond in the center, however, was black. Sliding the band on his third finger, Knox closed his fist. “Never thought I’d ever wear one of these. Or that I’d be proud to.” Or that his demon would be smug about such a thing.
Moving to the bed, Knox flipped open their towels and gave her his weight. “No psychic hands tonight, baby. Just you and me.”
He linked their fingers, feeling her rings, and pinned her hands above her head as he fucked her soft, slow, and deep. Fucked her until she screamed
into his mouth and came apart around him. With two slams of his cock, he followed her right over the edge.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“Oh my God! I will kill you!”
At Harper’s angry cry, Knox rushed out of his office, down the staircase, and into the dining room… and there was his mate, arguing with the Devil himself. Pinching the bridge of his nose, Knox sighed. “Lou, what are you doing here?”
Lucifer turned to look at him. He was dressed in faded jeans, sneakers, a baseball cap, and a Bob Marley T-shirt that read “Why Drink and Drive When You Can Smoke and Fly?”. With an innocent expression he said, “I just wanted to ask if she’d sew some skeleton heads on my new jacket. She started yelling at me, which I feel was unnecessary.”
Harper’s mouth tightened. “Look at me, I’m soaked.” Her white shirt had a huge brown stain. “You shocked me on purpose.”
“No use crying over spilt coffee,” Lou told her with a huff.
Knox sighed again as the two proceeded to argue. Lucifer actually visited her regularly. If Knox didn’t know any better, he’d think Lou liked her. But the psychotic, abrasive, sarcastic, and irritatingly mercurial male disliked everyone.
Contrary to what several human religions upheld, Lucifer was not the ruler of hell. He did have a major dispute with God, though, after which he moved to hell and brought some order to it. His laws were short and straightforward: demons must protect knowledge of their existence from humans, they must not get caught breaking human laws, and they must never harm a child of any species.
“I will send you a chain letter – don’t think I won’t,” Harper warned. It was a threat that worked, since the guy was OCD.
Lou gaped. “That’s just mean. No, that goes beyond mean. That’s —”
“I don’t care,” said Harper.
Knox stepped forward. “Why are you here?”
Lou looked at him. “I told you, I want her to jazz up my new jacket.” He slung the denim coat on the table before sinking into a chair with a happy sigh. Noticing the rings that they had exchanged the previous night, he whistled. “Black diamonds, huh. Who would have thought you’d ever be so tangled up in a female, Knox? It’s quite nauseating actually.”
“It is not nauseating,” said Harper, plucking at her wet shirt. Her skin burned from the scalding splash of the coffee.
“Hey, I heard about what happened to Carla. This Crow-guy is warped.” Looking at Knox, Lou smiled and added, “I also heard that he claims to have had a fascinating vision that Harper will have a baby that’s the same breed as you.”
“Not a vision, a delusion,” said Harper. “It was planted in his head.”
“It’s still fascinating,” Lou insisted. An excited glint to his eyes, he went on, “I can just imagine a tiny bundle of chaos, death, and cosmic power. Think of the destruction it could cause.”
“Yes, because that’s exactly what I would want my child to do,” Harper said in a deadpan voice.
Lou’s smile widened. “Me too. I will totally babysit. Hey, you could name it after me!”
And Knox knew he wasn’t kidding. He exhaled heavily, seeking patience. “Any child Harper and I have will be a sphinx and you know it.”
Lou’s brow furrowed. “That doesn’t mean it can’t be pure evil and carry an innate wish to indiscriminately wipe out everything in its path.”
Harper’s hands clenched into little fists. “If and when I have a baby, it will not be evil.”
Lou clasped his hands behind his head. “You say that now, but you might think differently when you catch it choking chickens for the pure joy of it.”
Harper made a guttural noise in the back of her throat. The guy could not be real.
Lou studied her. “You sure you’re not pregnant now? It might explain why you’re all flushed and in a mood.”
“I’m not in a mood, I’m pissed because I’m soaked in coffee.”
“Are we still on that?”
Harper raised a hand. “I need to go change. First, who’s pulling Crow’s strings?”
Lou shrugged, seeming surprised by the question. “How would I know?”
“You’re the Devil. Don’t you keep a close watch on our kind?”
“I have a life, you know,” he replied, affronted. “Hell is filled with things to do. Besides, people aren’t very interesting to watch. All they really do is eat, sleep, and shit. But a baby with the power to decimate the universe – now that would be entertaining. And you really should call it Lucifer.” He pounded his fist on his chest. “It’s a good, strong name.”
Harper looked at Knox. “He really is serious about that, isn’t he?”
“Deadly,” Knox confirmed, surreal as it was.
“Evil kids can be real cute, you know,” said Lou. “Haven’t you seen Stephen King’s Pet Sematary? When that little boy goes after his mother with a scalpel… wow, totally cute. You can’t help but want to hug him.” He tilted his head. “I wonder why King deliberately spelled ‘Sematary’ wrong. I’ll Google it later.”
Harper shook her head in exasperation. The guy was wacked. “Off the topic of babies, you must know about the demons calling themselves the Four Horsemen. Well, three Horsemen now that Isla’s dead. Who are the others?”
Lou’s brows pulled together. “There are demons genuinely calling themselves the Four Horsemen? How uninventive. And why would they want the apocalypse to come calling?”
“They don’t,” she told him. “They want to see the US Primes fall.”
“Well, that’s not very ambitious.”
“So you have no idea who they are?”
“Nope.” And Lou clearly wasn’t concerned about it either.
Harper’s shoulders slumped. “What about Crow? Do you know where he is?”
“Like I said, I have a life. I’m not like the big G,” Lou added, pointing to the sky. “I’m not interested in keeping tabs on people.”
“You just like appearing at their side and startling the shit out of them, making them soak themselves in coffee,” said Harper dryly.
“Are we back to that again?”
“We never left it.”
Knox moved closer to Lou, arms folded. “I have a question for you. How could someone have got inside my prison and taken Crow?”
“They couldn’t have,” replied Lou. “But they could have extracted him by magickal means. It wouldn’t have been easy. Probably would have taken blood magick.”
Knox narrowed his eyes. “So the person responsible is either an incantor or a dark practitioner.” One that was powerful, since blood magick was no simple thing to perform.
Harper planted her hands on her hips. “The question is… were they hired by the Horsemen, or are they one of the Horsemen?”
The answer was… Knox had no idea.
She plucked at her wet shirt again, lip curled in distaste. “I really need to change out of this shirt.”
Lou stood upright. “Before you start riding my ass about that again I’m off. Got stuff to do. People to torment. Harper, don’t forget to jazz up my jacket. I’ll see you both at the big party.”
Knox frowned. “Who invited you?”
“I did,” said Lou. He pointed at Harper. “Be safe. We don’t want anything to stop Baby Lucifer’s conception.”