The demon couldn’t give less of a fuck that she was a hellcat. Few things piqued the interest of his easily bored hound, but Devon did. She amused it. Impressed it. Surprised it. Had earned its respect and loyalty. It liked her company. Liked that she played with it. Liked that she made Tanner laugh. It wouldn’t permit another male to come along and claim her. No fucking way. She was his demon’s choice just as much as she was his.
As a sense of resolve settled over him, Tanner crossed to her, his jaw set. “You’re not leaving me.”
She sighed. “Tanner, be fair—”
“You’re not leaving me.”
“Oh, I am. Look, I don’t want to argue with you or … why are you looking at me like that?” Devon felt her pulse quicken as he began to circle her like a predator. The glint in his eyes made her skin prickle. He didn’t seem angry. He looked strangely satisfied. Relaxed, even. As if he’d made peace with something, maybe? She wasn’t sure. Didn’t get it. Just knew it was weird. And she was done with “weird” for the night. Devon raised her hands. “I’m gone.”
She turned toward the bedroom door, and a wave of power swept out and slammed it closed. “Oh, very mature.”
Behind her, he leaned in just enough to sniff at her hair. She snarled. “Don’t make me hurt you, pooch.”
“Do your worst, kitten,” he said, eyes lit with something close to mischief. Oh, the hellhound wanted to play. Well, she didn’t.
“I won’t do this with you. I’m out of here.” She skirted around him, marched to the door, and—
She spluttered as an invisible force gently pushed her backwards. Devon whirled on him, gaping. The bastard was smiling. “Are you fucking kidding me right now? You can’t keep me here.”
“Sure I can. And I will. It’s where you belong.”
Where she belonged? Devon stared at him. “I’d ask if you were on dope or something, but I don’t smell drugs on you.”
With just a few slow, fluid strides, he ate up the space between them. “There’s no point in fighting me. It’s done.”
“Huh?”
“You know the males of my kind can take a long time to mate. But once we make our choice, it’s permanent. There’s no going back, kitten. Not for me, not for you, not for our demons. Like I said, it’s done.”
Feeling a little dazed, Devon put a hand to her head. “I feel like I’m only hearing one side of a phone call.”
He skimmed his fingertips down her arm. “The first time I saw you was through the window of your old Urban Ink studio. I thought … Christ, what an ass. Then you turned around, and the view got even better. And I just had to have you. But then I realized you were a hellcat, which meant I couldn’t make a move on you. I figured I’d get a handle on this thing between us. Figured it would fade. But it never did.”
“Because I was forbidden fruit.”
“Because you’re you. Sweet. Restful. Bitchy. Fierce. Independent. So strong and unbelievably stubborn. I fell hard, kitten. But there was nothing I could do about it.”
Throat thickening, Devon bit her lip as he slid his hand up her spine and curved it around her nape. “Tanner—”
“Back then, I didn’t expect that my demon would eventually get so used to having you around that its instinct to harm you would fade. Didn’t expect it to ever be protective of you. But it was the kind of protectiveness a person would feel toward a small, vulnerable animal. A kind of ‘aw, this creature is cute and needs to be guarded for its own sake’—which sounds insulting, but that’s more than what my demon feels toward most people.
“You showed it that it was wrong to view you as weak. Showed it that you were its equal. And then the type of protectiveness it felt toward you changed into a whole other kind. More of a ‘I will bite the fucking face off anyone who tries to hurt what’s mine’ kind.”
The hand cupping her nape slid up to palm the back of her head as he added, “I don’t know how you earned its trust—my demon watches everyone closely, waiting for them to fuck up—but it trusts you. Wants to collect and claim and own you. Wants you to be as attached to it as it is to you.”
Overwhelmed, Devon closed her eyes. She should have been elated at what she was hearing. Instead, she was afraid. Afraid to believe it was true, even as she knew Tanner would never lie about something like that. But it was scary to have someone hand you something you’d wanted for so long—something you’d thought you’d never have—because you knew how much it would hurt to have it snatched away.