Page 11 of On the Menu

“Let them look,” he hissed.

“What about the mall?” she said plaintively.

He sighed. “Oh, yes. The mall. Do you still want to go?”

“Mmhm!”

“Right now?”

“Yep.”

“Then, we’ll go.”

She let out a little squeak of delight and kissed him again. “We can do more of that later.” Cara winked.

It was on the tip of his tongue to ask how much later. How soon would he get a taste of her?

But I don’t have to ask her. This one is mine.

Chapter Three: Banquets and Bouquets

“Haven’t you ever been in a mall before?” Cara laughed and pulled him along.

“I have.”

He’d just never looked at the surroundings; he’d looked at the targets.

Now, the “target” was with him, holding his hand, staring at him as he watched the Halloween Mega Mart transform into Santa’s Toy Shoppe. Down came pumpkins the size of cars and up went—

“Do you folks want me to get your picture?” One of the workmen stopped in mid-garland, making Stray stop staring at the giant bough of mistletoe.

“A kissing bough,” he said softly, pointing up to the central point in the display of greenery and red bows.

“Oh. Mistletoe?” Cara gave him a sideways look. “You wouldn’t want to get a picture of us kissing in the middle of the mall. Would you?”

“Give the man your phone,” Stray growled, pulling her close, inhaling deep. “And when we’re done walking around this overzealously decorated den of commercialism, we’re going to pop it in a silver frame and hang it over the hearth.”

If Cara was going to ask what hearth, and why he could see so clearly inside her head, she didn’t get a chance to. She’d no sooner handed off her phone to the smiling older gentleman with a “Santa’s Helper” tag on his shirt than she was bent backward in a kiss that made her toes curl in their comfy fall boots.

“Can we... Order the frames online?” Cara gasped against his shirt when he hauled her back upright.

He’d been waiting for this meal for a week. More than that, for his whole life—his whole eternity.

“Nope. Shopping first,” he insisted, trying to discreetly adjust himself inside his too-snug jeans.

Dessert soon enough.

Stray carried her through her own doorway, across the threshold of her house. Maybe one day it would be their house. If tonight went right, how could it be anything else?

Because you’re still a demon of sorts, and you want to sip on her soul, and you don’t need it. You need her. “Cara?”

Cara was already unbuttoning his shirt, hands scrabbling over his chest with a frenzied pace that matched his own. “Stray. Strathvyn,” she said his name like syrup, slowly trailing sweetness over something too bitter and hard, making it better.

“Do you believe in soul mates?”

“No. Well. I didn’t.”

“I didn’t, either. But I do now. If I... If I had a soul worth having, I’d give you some of mine. I’d share it with you.” He seized her hands and kissed them, trying to explain something no woman should have to hear, something he wouldn’t have had to admit if he’d been a better person in life. “I wish you’d let me share yours, beautiful. Your beautiful, bright, brilliant soul. I don’t deserve it, though. You should tell me no.”