Raini’s brow wrinkled. “It put a ‘K’ on you? Where?”
Harper averted her gaze. “Um, never mind.” She looked at Devon. “How do you feel about the hound branding you?”
A whole host of things. Shocked. Bewildered. Ticked off. Honestly, she was still struggling to wrap her head around it; she just never would have expected his demon to do such a thing.
Okay, maybe a small, girly part of her liked it—the same part of her that enjoyed romance novels, was a sucker for corner-of-the-mouth kisses, had crushed on him for far too long, and believed in the concept of soulmates. Hey, if there were such things as psi-mates and creatures that could wield a shitload of power, the idea that people might have a soulmate doesn’t seem so fanciful. But no one else needed to know that a silly, hormonal part of her was secretly thrilled by the brands.
“Well, obviously, I’d like to ring the entity’s neck.” She really didn’t need or want the kind of attention that these far from inconspicuous brands would bring her. Sighing, Devon raised her hand, palm out. “I blame this damn mark—it made the hound all possessive, and now it’s behaving like an idiot.” Branding its natural enemy was nothing short of idiotic.
“And your feline?” asked Raini. “How’s it feeling about this?”
Devon absently rubbed at her arm. “It’s weirdly disinterested.”
Harper’s head jerked back. “Disinterested? How can it be disinterested about being branded? That’s not exactly a small thing in our world.”
Devon shrugged, absolutely flummoxed. “It’s like my demon just doesn’t take them seriously. Like it finds the brands beneath its notice.”
Eyes narrowing in thought, Raini said, “Which Tanner’s demon will no doubt sense, right?”
“Right,” Devon agreed.
“Then maybe that’s why your feline’s being so dismissive of the brands; it wants to piss the hound off,” suggested Raini. “Which is sort of their normal type of interaction, isn’t it?”
Hell, yeah, it was. “It wouldn’t surprise me if the feline’s just toying with the demon for fun.” Noticing that Harper was staring at her with an odd expression on her face, Devon frowned. “What is it?”
Harper’s shoulders lowered. “I’m worried about you. You think we don’t know that you care about Tanner?” she asked, her tone gentle. “You think we don’t know exactly how much it’ll hurt you when this fling ends?”
Suddenly feeling incredibly vulnerable, Devon let her gaze flit around the room.
“You might not like these brands,” Harper went on, “but when you see them start to fade, it’s going to hurt, because you’ll know it means his demon’s losing interest. You’ll know it means your time together is coming to an end.”
A sharp pain struck Devon’s chest. Yeah, she knew this thing she had with him was a dead end; she’d never once let herself forget it. But she couldn’t claim that being prepared for the end would spare her any hurt.
Slumping against the wall, Devon weakly threw up her arms. “I tried to push him away.”
Harper gave her a wan smile. “Tanner’s not a guy who can be pushed anywhere he doesn’t want to be.”
“Tell me about it,” grumbled Devon.
“I’d be pissed at him if I didn’t wholeheartedly believe he cares about you, too,” said Harper. “Anyone who knows him well can see that you’re important to him. You’ll both be hurting when this is over.”
Devon felt her nose wrinkle. He’d said she mattered to him, but that didn’t mean she was important to him. Hell, coffee mattered to Devon, but she could live without it. The people she cared for? They were important to her, and she’d do whatever it took to keep them in her life. She simply didn’t have that much value to Tanner.
He probably wouldn’t be happy when it was over, but she highly doubted he’d be hurt by it. Especially since his main objective was to fuck her out of his system.
“Playing it safe and keeping him at bay didn’t exactly make me happy,” said Devon. “So, I’m just gonna take what I can get while I can get it—knowing it won’t last and that there’s no HEA in store for me where he’s concerned.”
“Or you’re setting yourself up to be hurt,” said Harper. “I don’t want that for you. I want you to be happy. A short fling—”
“The best thing about all this is that it’s nothing more than a short fling,” Devon cut in. “It means he won’t have the opportunity to make any kind of mark on my life; it won’t devastate me when he’s gone from my little world because he was never truly in it—he’ll simply have existed around it.
“I’m not going to lie and say I won’t still be hurting when he and I go our separate ways, especially since I’ll have to see him every day. But I’ve been through worse than losing Tanner Cole. I survived those things, and I’ll survive this. I’ll just need you girls to take me out and get me blind drunk a few times.”
“We can do that,” said Khloë, giving her arm a light squeeze.
“Whatever you need, sweetie,” Raini promised. “We’re always here for you—you know that.”
Yes, she did know that. Damn if she didn’t have the best group of friends ever. Forcing a smile for them, Devon said, “Hey, don’t fret so much. I’ve got bigger things to worry about than Tanner. As it happens, so have you, Raini.”
The succubus shot her a narrow-eyed look. “It’s so typical of you to turn the attention to someone else when you’re in the spotlight.”
“Yep,” Devon admitted, unrepentant. “But I’m right. Have you heard from Maddox?”
Raini sank into her leather chair. “He talks to me,” she blurted out, her gaze on the wall. “Mind-to-mind, I mean.”
“Saying what?” asked Harper, but the succubus didn’t respond. “Is he pushing for you to form the anchor bond with him?”
Raini shook her head. “He just … checks in. And stuff. But I never respond.”
Khloë lifted her brows. “What do you mean by ‘and stuff’?”
“It’s not important.”
“It is if it’s bothering you,” said Devon.
Raini forced a nonchalant smile. “I can deal.”
“You sure of that?” asked Harper. “Because I could ask Knox to have a ‘chat’ with him and tell the guy to leave you be.”
Again, Raini shook her head. “There’s no need. Maddox will get bored when he realizes I’m not going to answer him. Like I said, I can deal. I’ll let you know if that changes.” She doodled an X over her heart. “I promise.”
Harper let out a heavy sigh. “All right, if you’re certain?”
“I’m certain,” Raini assured her.
Sighing again, Harper turned to Khloë. “What about you?”
The imp’s confused gaze darted left to right. “Hmm?”
“What are you going to do when Keenan finally acts on his little thing for you?” asked Harper.