“Of course.” Maverick looked up at me, an exasperated look on his face. Like I was the one who’d fed Tuddle chocolate. “I looked it up and you should never feed them chocolate.”
I threw my hands up. “Well, duh!”
“We’re supposed to watch him for vomiting, diarrhea, and…” Nix’s nose scrunched up as if he was trying to remember what else. He looked so cute. “And stuff.”
“Great,” I turned around and started down the hallway, yawning. “You guys watch the cat. I’m going back to bed.”
“Not so fast.” Maverick grabbed my wrist, pulling me back into the room. He held up the paper bag. “We should give him this. It’ll help him not get sick.”
I was immediately intrigued. Were they actually going to help Tuddle, or were they up to something more nefarious? They were demons, after all. I eyed it speculatively, then, snapping my hand out, grabbed it. Maverick's mouth dropped open in surprise. His hand was still dangling in my face, like he was still holding the bag, and he lifted his eyes to stare at the empty space. Biting down on my smile, I peeked into the bag, keeping an eye on Nix in my periphery who’d started walking towards us.
It looked like a cookie. I took in a deep sniff and… smelled rosemary, gingko, and primrose oil. Yeah, good luck getting Tuddle to choke that down. I knew it would take them forever because I’d just spent twenty minutes trying to shove the exact same ingredients down his throat.
Well, at least they weren’t trying to poison him.
I shoved the bag back into Maverick's chest. “Well, good luck with that.”
“Err…” Maverick looked uncertain. “Don’t you want to give it to him?”
“Nah.” I looked down at Tuddle, who was still stalking across Maverick's legs, his level of purring completely obnoxious. “Looks like you’ll be fine.” I cupped my hand over my mouth, faking a loud yawn. “I’m going to bed. I have to get up tomorrow and rebuild an engine.”
Nix, who had come to stand next to us, looked at Maverick. “I think she should stay up with us, don’t you think? What if the cat starts throwing up?”
Maverick nodded smartly. “You’re right. I mean, what if it gets so bad Tuddle needs to go the vet?” He turned soft, pleading eyes on me. “You wouldn’t want something bad to happen to him, would you?” His voice caught in the perfect imitation of true angst. “He could die.”
“Ugh,” I stomped my foot. “That’s why you don’t give chocolate to a cat in the first place!”
“You’re right.” His hand reached forward to pull my hair behind my ear and my chest buzzed at the contact. This time he wasn’t using his special demon magic on me. “I’m really sorry.”
Damnit. He was being nice now.
I raised my eyebrow. “What I want to know, is how you plan on getting the cat to eat that smelly thing?” I pointed at the paper bag, my nostrils flaring in memory of the smell.
“With this.” Nix held up his hand, showing me a bottle of peanut butter. My bottle of peanut butter. Well, make yourself at home, demon dude.
“If it makes you feel better,” Maverick said, “you could fall asleep next to me on the couch. I’ll stay up to make sure Tuddle’s fine.”
I opened my mouth to tell him that I could just sleep in my bed but Nix didn’t wait for me to respond. Throwing the bottle of peanut butter at Maverick, he wrapped his fingers through mine and tugged me towards the couch. I drug my feet but gave in, knowing they probably wouldn’t let me go back to bed anyways.
My apartment was pretty sparse, but the few things I’d actually spent a decent amount of money on was a comfortable mattress, a large, thin-screen TV, and the most homey couch you’d ever set your rear into. It was where I spent most of my time: in bed, sleeping, or on the couch watching TV. I’d figured I deserved to splurge a little bit, seeing as everything else went to funding Lennox’s pot habit.
Nix fell into the couch, immediately sinking into the cushions, and pulled me with him so that I was in his lap. He adjusted so that he was leaning back into the side, his legs sprawled out, with me in between his legs. I sat there stiffly, not daring to get comfortable. Maverick grabbed the blanket off the back of the couch and spread it over us. A warmth moved over me and I had the sudden desire to fall into a deep sleep.
Mmm, it was nice and toasty under here. I pulled it up around my shoulders.
Nix’s hands wrapped around me, tugging me closer into his lap. Sighing, I leaned back into his chest, discovering that yes, he was as muscular as he looked. Him and Maverick began to talk as I watched Maverick get down on the floor, coaxing Tuddle close by holding out cookie bits dipped into peanut butter. He looked completely ridiculous - a big, muscled giant of a man, on the floor, cajoling my cat to eat.
It didn’t take him long, and within two minutes the whole thing was gone. Maverick looked up at me, a knowing grin on his face.
I didn’t give him the satisfaction of congratulating him, mostly because I was jealous I hadn’t thought of peanut butter in the first place. Instead I gave him a bored look, then snuggled deeper into Nix’s chest, my eyelids drooping. As they talked, Nix’s fingers moved to my head, playing with my hair in a soothing motion, and it made me blink sleepily.
There was something about these guys that made me trust them, despite the stalking and barging into my home. They’d had plenty of opportunity to hurt us and so far, they hadn’t done anything bad.
Well, not anything that they hadn’t made up for, anyways.
Maverick flipped over on his back and Tuddle climbed up his large chest, settling down and purring as Maverick's fingers slid through his fur.
Nix grabbed my hips, adjusting me so that I was more comfortable and I curled up into his side. He leaned his chin on my head and his hand slipped down to the back of my bare thigh, right under my underwear, his thumb softly stroking my skin.
You can’t sleep with demons. You can’t sleep with demons, I reminded myself as a slow stirring of my damn libido began to make an appearance. Trying to get those kinds of thoughts out of my head, I closed my eyes. It was four in the morning. Way too early to be awake.
The couch moved and I peeked my eyes open. Maverick had gotten up and was now sitting next to our feet, eyeing us speculatively. After he got comfortable, his hands went to my ankles and he tugged my legs down so that I was closer to him, then he began to massage the pads of my foot.
I sighed.
This was heaven.
And I thought demons were supposed to be terrible.
It didn’t take long before I was fast asleep.
7
Nix
This woman was going to be the death of me. The moment we stepped into her apartment, it took all my self control to not stare at her side boob. The cut off sleeves of her shirt clearly displayed that she wasn’t wearing a bra, and that clearly showed that her tits were spectacular. Not that I hadn’t noticed her impressive cleavage before, but the small dark areolas showing through her shirt made my dick harder than demon granite. And now, my fingers were itching to slide up and stroke the side of her boob, but I forced my hand still.
I wasn’t a perv.