“Why is that vein throbbing in your temple?” Axel asked. “Laila’s not your woman, right? Or is she? I’ve asked before but you’ve never said. Are you thinking about doing a sister-wife thing? Because it’s totally not the party in the box you think it will be.”
“No,” he gritted. “Laila isn’t mine.” But he wasn’t sure how Nicola would feel about her sister being with a Sent One that wouldn’t keep her. “If you hurt her...”
“Hey,” the warrior said, palms up. “I deprived her of Blainey Boo Bear, or whatever lame nickname humans like to give each other, and I owed her big fun—and no, that’s not the name of my penis, even though it fits. They’d swapped so many stories about their exes they were both depressed. I did her a favor, and she kicked me out afterward, not the other way around. She just used me and ditched me, and made me feel all dirty inside. So of course I’m hoping we can do it again.”
Koldo wiped his brow with the back of his hand. “And she didn’t pass out?” he found himself asking.
“Well, yeah. Yours did, too, eh?”
He shouted, “And you took her anyway?”
“Hello. I woke her up first.”
Koldo shook his head. The male had no shame.
“So we’re building a cage?” Axel asked, as he claimed a hammer of his own. “That’s what you told Nicola, right?”
“No more questions,” he said, looking away. His gaze landed on Nicola, perched next to her sister in front of the kitchen window, gazing out. She waved, unabashed at being caught staring. He swallowed a curse.
Desire wasn’t supposed to hurt. Was it?
* * *
THOUGH THE TIME ZONES were off, Koldo knew when Monday morning dawned in Kansas, and flashed Nicola and Laila to the rear of the Estellä building. The girls hadn’t wanted to be parted, and he’d liked the idea of having them both in the same location.
He materialized in the natural realm and walked the pair from the alley to the front door.
“You won’t grant my request and quit?” he asked Nicola. “Even though it’s dangerous here?”
“I won’t.”
Frustrating woman. “Why?”
“Because she won’t always have you, but she’ll always need the job,” Laila answered.
He...had no protest, he realized. He planned to keep Nicola, but he was as uncertain about his future as any human. Actually, his was more uncertain than most.
“Very well,” he replied, because really, there was nothing else to say. He stomped inside and into the confines of the elevator.
There were two other males in the tiny cart, and they pressed themselves against the far wall, getting as far away from him as they could. He forced his scowl to ease before the pair began screaming for aid.
“Don’t look at the women, and you’ll be fine,” he said.
Instantly they averted their gazes.
Nicola’s sweet perfume wafted around him, and his anger with her was lost to another punch of arousal. At what point would his body just shut down, the desire for this woman too much to endure? How was he supposed to ease her into making love without killing himself?
She leaned into him and whispered, “The last time we were in an elevator together, I wanted to sniff your neck.”
He sucked in a breath. She really was going to kill him.
“I wonder how you would have reacted.”
Laila gagged. “If you guys get any more lovey-dovey, I’m going to puke.”
Nicola slapped her on the arm. Laila slapped her back, and the two erupted into a childish fight and a fit of giggles.
The elevator dinged, and the doors slid open. The men raced out, and the girls ceased their antics, acting as if they’d never attacked each other. Silly humans. But their play lightened his mood. Oh, to have a playmate.
He wasn’t sure whether or not Axel had slept with Laila again last night, but either way, her color was better, and there was a bounce to her step.
Koldo wanted to put that same bounce in Nicola’s step.
He took her hand—soft, delicate—and ushered her to her office. Jamila sat at one of the desks out front, dressed in a tight black dress, her dark hair piled on top of her head. Sirena was nowhere to be found.
Guard her, he projected into the Sent One’s mind. An ability he was more and more comfortable using, he realized. Anything for Nicola’s safety. With your life.
Jamila blinked in surprise, but nodded.
He yearned to kiss Nicola goodbye, but couldn’t allow himself the luxury. At the moment of contact, he would convince himself it would be okay to take things further. Already his muscles were knotted. His blood was fever-hot. His palms itched.
“I’ll be back,” he growled, and didn’t wait for Nicola’s reply. Her expression was one of confusion, but now wasn’t the time to explain his thoughts—and if he tried, he would only make things worse.
The moment he cleared the doorway, he entered the spirit realm. He stalked through the entire building, searching for unattached demons and lurking Nefas. He found neither.
He should have forced Nicola to quit, but...he couldn’t bring himself to argue with her. He didn’t want her mind on his stubbornness, didn’t want her to think he was mean. How ridiculous was that? He was mean.
He just, he wanted her focused on her healing.
And that wasn’t an attempt to buy her affection, he told himself. Even though, every time she looked at him with those big stormy eyes, he experienced a desperate urge to hand her the world.
He materialized in the natural before pushing through the door to the accounting offices. Jamila was exactly where he’d left her, but now, Sirena was also in place. Sirena, meaning temptress. And she was certainly that—for other men. She was the girl who had slept with Dex. The girl of questionable origins.
It was time to talk to her, and find out what she had planned.
When he loomed in front of her desk, she glanced up from polishing her nails. “Well, hello there, gorgeous.” Her bold gaze perused him from head to toe, lingering on his chest, between his legs, making him feel like a piece of meat. “You decided to return. I’m glad.”
He flattened his hands beside her keyboard and leaned forward. “What are you?”
A sultry grin revealed a mouthful of pearly whites. “What do you want me to be?”
The pale haired, blue-eyed vixen failed to tempt him in any way, even though she would have been a more appropriate choice for his mate. Though she was small, she was stronger than a human, with a greater muscle tone hidden underneath her bulky clothes. He wouldn’t break her, and her health wouldn’t fail.