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“What?” Anger spikes quick and ugly inside me. Who has she allowed to touch her? Who do I need to kill?
She waves a hand. “Nothing. Let me get this straight. We have sex, and you can keep your awful family off the throne?”
“Like I said, I don’t want your pity.”
“You don’t have it, Prince of Darkness.”
“I never should’ve introduced you to Nic.”
“I like your sister,” she says. “Besides, we both know the chemistry between you and me has never been our issue.”
I try not to fixate on how she basically admitted she desires me. “Then what is our issue?”
She frowns. “I’m having trouble remembering right now with you dropping everything to take care of me and my friends.”
“That should earn me another kiss. Maybe anywhere I want?” Fantasies of tasting her skin, her breasts, her sweet pussy have me reaching to hike her against my cocks.
But she doesn’t seem interested in my attempt at seduction. Instead, she asks, “You promise both Ava and Meg are happy with their matches?”
Andwe’re back to discussing her friends. So much for sexy thoughts. “Fated mates are the easiest part of my job as a matchmaker. Those matches are literally destined to work out. Other monster relationships require extremely complicated and tedious negotiations. Without the promise of powers, monsters can demand creative compensation for even attempting a match.”
Gods, now I’m talking about my job.
Will we ever get back to making out?
She narrows her eyes and purses her lips in a cute but stubborn way that does nothing to reassure me. I should’ve simply kissed her.
“You sure us banging wouldn’t lead to some catastrophic realm collapse?” she asks.
I struggle to hold back a sigh. I’ve learned the past few days that when Val is hyperfocused on anything, I might as well give up on tearing her away from the one-track focal point and concentrate more on us not ending her line of questioning in the equivalent of a conversational train wreck.
“Demon magic doesn’t work like that,” I assure her. “We’re born with our powers so we learn to manage them early. Sort of how you learn to walk or talk. If we don’t control them, we won’t survive. I don’t know how people like your friend Ava?—”
“What about her?” She tenses again, and I regret bringing it up.
“Ava’s the sea witch’s daughter. She was born with magic, but it has been locked away so I was worried that unlocking it might be the equivalent of setting off a natural disaster.”
“And?”
“And I was wrong. Ava’s okay.” I’m ready to rush ahead with the explanation when Val grins. I remind myself this is a serious conversation, and I shouldn’t dip my head to taste that smile.
“Back up. Say that part about you being wrong again.”
I give her my most intimidating crown prince and chief enforcer glare. “Here I thought we were discussing important matters.”
“You admitting you’re wrongisimportant to me. But Ava has actual magic? We’re talking about my roommate, bestie, the queen of planners and washi tape? My Ava?”
I crave more of that joy in her voice. “She’ll be figuring it out for a while, and she has a kraken mate to help her learn to manage her powers. But I’m thinking if my worries about her coming into powers were unfounded, my mother has to be wrong with her predictions about us being together making my magic unstable or creating some massive ripple in the universe.”
“I can’t wait to see Ava again.”
“She expects to hear from you as soon as I sort out the portals. Her mate won’t let her out of his sight until then. Understandably.”
“You big bad alphas.” Val snaps her teeth at me, and damn, that’s hot. “Always believing you have to watch over us.”
“What else are we good for if not protecting you?” I ask.
“I might be able to think of something.” She runs fingers down my chest, leaving a trail of heat in her wake. “Let’s get mated.”
