Portia’s smile slipped with confusion. “What do you mean, sweetie?”
“Is there something in the air?” he clarified. “You know, are you pumping magic shit in the air?”
“What do you mean?” Portia repeated, completely confused.
“I was wondering if there was magic in the air. To make people …feelthings.” Ethan’s entire face was beet red, and he couldn’t meet either woman’s eyes.
Portia’s grin turned positively mischievous. The kitten had found the bowl of milk. Or in this case, Portia was getting a little tidbit of knowledge about her nieceandthe resort, Ruby was sure of that, but Portia was also getting information about Ethan and how he felt about Ruby.
“Oh, here we go,” Ruby muttered under her breath.
Her aunt laughed and shrugged. “No, sweetie. There isn’t anything in the air. If anyone feels things in Hellscape Holiday Resort, it’s not fake or manufactured. It’s not magic or science. Well, maybe science plays in.Human biology.” She winked at him.
“Aunt Portia!” Ruby gasped. Her aunt had actually managed to cross a line and shock her.
“What? It’s only the truth. Do you think there’s magic in the air? That’s not me. That’s all on you two.” She raised her hands in exasperation. “If you’re feeling things? Blame attraction, but don’t blame me.” She waved at them with a giggle. “Bye, you two.”
The second Portia was gone, the air between Ruby and Ethan became tense. She looked down to the tips of her high heels, trying to find something clever to say, but her brain was still a bit frazzled by the kiss and the sudden intrusion.
“Your aunt is a very special person,” he commented, shuffling uncomfortably on his feet.
She snorted. “Special? That’s one way of describing her.”
“If it wasn’t for her and the way you feel about your family, I would kiss you again, but I wanna respect your wishes on this, Ruby.”
“My aunt is fine. I don’t have bad feelings about her. We just razz each other. She’ll tease me relentlessly about you, but it’s all good-natured. I just give her a hard time because it’s our thing. We’ve been doing this to each other since I was a kid. It was the only chance I had to speak out for myself without fear of major reprisal.”
“Your sister Roja?”
She shrugged. “Yeah, her. The others, too, my mother and sisters. I was the runt of the family.”
“The smallest?” he inquired with a frown.
She shook her head. “No. In succubi families, the runt of the litter is the ugliest one.”
“That’s fucking terrible,” he growled, holding her closer to him as if he could erase the words she’d just used.
“You get that we’redemons, right?” She snorted dryly to keep the usual sadness from climbing up the back of her throat.
His frown deepened. “I don’t give a flying fuck if you’re a demon or if that’s what they are too. There’s a way to treat your family, and that’s not it.Ugly? No oneis ugly. There are just assholes in the world who like to tear each other down.”
Ethan’s protective nature was so sweet that Ruby didn’t know how long she would be able to keep her attraction to him at bay.
“It’s okay,” she assured him. “I’m from Hell. It’s how things are.”
“I don’t like it,” he grumbled. “You deserve better than to be treated like that.”
“You don’t have to like it. It’s just how things are out there in the world.”
His eyes flashed, and Ruby thought she could decipher what crossed the azure depths.I will protect you from it. That’s what she saw in his look. Probably because he had said that if he was in love with a succubus, he would ask Lucifer to release his lady from her work. Ruby didn’t need a man to fight her battles for her, but it sure would be nice to have someone to fightbyher side.
“You know what, I don’t think you should tell your sister about this place,” he said. “Let her go honeymoon somewhere else. This isyourspot now. You wouldn’t want to run into her here, would you?”
“I guess I didn’t think about that. If she loves it as much as me, we could end up here at the same time. Nightmare.”
“Real hell.” Ethan grinned.
She rolled her eyes with a giggle. “Yeah, real hell.”