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Rhun held up a finger and turned around to scan the crowd.
“What are you looking for?” Tallak growled.
“Real-life romance readers coming to flock to the irresistible allure of a tortured antihero.” With a cluck of his tongue, he turned back to Tallak. “I’m sure they’ll be here any second.”
“You’re such a shit weasel.”
Rhun grinned, then sobered. “So how’s it going with Hazel?”
Tallak shrugged and busied himself with wiping down the bar.
“Have you asked her yet?”
“Nope.”
“But you’ve been showing her all the advantages of a lifetime Tallak subscription? Automatic updates, improved customer service, no ads?”
Tallak hurled the sponge from the sink right at Rhun. It met the other demon’s face with a satisfying wet thwack and plopped down onto the bar. Now it was Tallak’s turn to grin.
Rhun wiped the water out of his eyes. “I take that as a yes?”
Tallak sighed. “Yeah, I’ve been making every effort. She’s opened up to me in some ways, important shit, which is good, but…there’s still this resistance in her. She doesn’t even want to let others know we’re having a thing. Still wants to keep it all under wraps.”
“Well,” Rhun said, “she does have some heavy baggage when it comes to relationships. Can’t fault her for being cautious. Once bitten, and all that.”
“I know that.” Tallak ground his teeth together. “And I wish I could take more time to make her understand that I’d never be a shithead toward her.”
“But?”
“This fucking mating urge is driving me crazy.” He bared his teeth. “When I’m not near her, I feel the need to find her, and when I’m with her, it’s all I can do not to rip her clothes off, fuck her in a frenzy, and then sink my teeth into her neck and drink from her.” He rubbed a hand over his face. “Today she saw me almost vamping out on her, and she thought I was acting on some bluotezzer memories.”
Rhun snort-laughed, then pressed his mouth into a thin line, his eyes sparkling. “Hey, if you ever need any pointers for blood play, I can give you some tips…”
“I’d rather remove my eyes with a fork and stick skewers in my ears.”
“Oooh, vivid visual. Very creative.” He gave Tallak a thumbs-up. “Now, about your Hazel strategy, you just need to stay the course. Don’t rush it.”
“That’s easy for you to say,” Tallak growled. “You don’t know what it’s like to have this fucking mating urge and not be able to act on it.”
Rhun leveled him with a hard look. “Don’t I?”
That made Tallak pause. He lifted his chin, prompting Rhun to elaborate.
“When I got the mating urge with Merle,” the other demon said, his voice stripped of any teasing, “we were still in the middle of trying to find Maeve. Merle had gone rogue, and we were hiding from the Elders because she knew if they caught her, they’d force her to bind me in the Shadows again. She was at the point where she wanted to keep me, and if circumstances had been different, I’d have mated her right then and there.
“But I knew that even after we found Maeve,” Rhun went on, “her people wouldn’t allow me to stay. They’d never accept me at her side. And mating Merle then, only to leave her alone once she’d have to bind me again, condemning her to a lifetime of loneliness because the mating bond wouldn’t let her fall in love with any other male…that would be cruelty of the highest caliber.”
Rhun’s pale blue-green eyes held Tallak’s gaze, a world of pain behind that look. “So I didn’t.”
Tallak swallowed hard.
“I beat that fucking mating urge into submission,” Rhun said, his voice deathly serious, “and it hurt like hell, but I did it for Merle’s sake.” He clucked his tongue. “So when you tell me how hard it is for you, how you’re suffering—you’re not a special fucking snowflake, mate. I’ve been there, too. Got the T-shirt and a mug to take home as keepsakes.”
Tallak exhaled heavily, his gaze on the worn wood of the bar top. “Right,” he said after a moment. “Guess I needed that ass-kicking.”
Rhun smirked. “Sure did, you whiny baby.”
“Dickwad.”
