Page 42 of Sweet Dreams

I had wanted peace.

I had wanted quiet.

And the moment Zaldi had dropped a kiss to my forehead and slipped out, I hated every second of it. Because, at the core of everything, I really just wanted him. Only him. Maybe the conversation about being eternally fated and bound to a sex demon had rattled me a bit, but it had not taken away the need to be close to him.

Hell, sitting here now, I felt like I wanted it more. And while my mind was consumed with the reality of binding myself to another, my body actually tingled with the memories of the brief time we’d spent together.

Sighing, I pushed back from my desk and stood. My jacket was already in my hand as I headed to the door. Bruce eyed me, a small curl of his lips, “Early lunch?”

I narrowed my eyes at him, for the first time considering the man in front of me. “Are you…a guy?”

Bruce’s brows jumped and I rushed to clarify, “I mean, a human man. A man?” My throat itched with the strangeness of the words after I said them, but still, my body told me to wait, to see what he really had to say. He’d been friends with my grandfather and grandmother for as long as I could remember. And, if there were more people like Zaldi in this city then…why not him?

But Bruce laughed, the sound making me smile in response, “I knew that boy was going to open your eyes, but I didn’t think it would be that wide.” Bruce lifted his espresso to his lips, taking a noisy sip. When the silence hung between us I couldn’t help but prompt him.

“So are you, um, –”

“I’m male, Lu, and as for the rest, I’m not sure you’re ready to dive into all that. So, let’s keep the focus on the imminent problem.”

Male.

Not man.

Oh God, I was right, he was something else. I shook my head, “The imminent problem?”

“How are you going to get that boy back?”

I sputtered, “What?”

“Fated mates? Don’t be stupid, Lu. Most of our type would kill for the chance to have a bond like that. Don’t throw it away because you think it’s too big,” Bruce’s face sobered, but the expression was fleeting, a smile quickly returning, “Plus, if he’s an incubus like I think he is, then he’ll be very good at making it fit.”

I gasped, “Bruce!”

“Jokes aside,” the male put his coffee mug down. “Do you have a plan? Because, if he’s anything like I imagine, he’s going to believe that your disinterest means that he should stay away. He would never do anything you don’t want, so unless you–.”

“Unless I specifically tell him that I want this, he’s going to hurt himself staying away from me.”

Bruce nodded sagely, which any other day would’ve made me laugh out loud, but now, I only found myself nodding along. “He sounds like a good male.” His gaze met mine, “Don’t be scared now, Lulu.”

My eyes burned. Was I about to cry? How embarrassing! I sniffed quickly, turning towards the door. “I need to go, can you tell Grandpa?”

“That you’ve gone off to find your fated mate and tell him you want him? Or, that you’ve gone to lunch?”

I let out a strange half-sob, half laugh as I shoved the door open, “Whatever you think is best,” I shouted over my shoulder, hurrying down the street. Something told me that Zaldi wasn’t going to be sitting around waiting on me. He would be at work with his brother, so I quickly dodged the single car on the road and marched down Main Street towards city hall.

In the back of my mind, I’d thought I would magically have a plan by the time I got there, but now, I was standing at the door of the External Trade Agency, my mind painfully empty of the words I knew I needed to give to Zaldi.

Lowering my voice, I tried to talk it out, hoping the right words would come, “Zaldi, hi, I’m so sorry. I just needed a minute to digest that you’re a sex demon who feeds on pleasure and who works for a second generation of devils in the Underworld.” I paced another distance in the hall, then turned, pacing back. “No, that’s not it. Zaldi, I care about you and I want to know more. I want to understand all of this, including why I’m having vivid fantasies about being fucked against a wall…”

I slapped a palm to my forehead, “Come on Lulu, you’re a freaking journalism major, what is a synonym for ‘desperate to see you again’?”

“Yearning?” A soft voice spoke from behind me, I leaped around, finding Bailey standing there, a small bag from Cup ‘o Joe’s hanging from her fingers.

“Bailey–hi,” I swallowed down the rush of embarrassment as I took a step closer to her, trying to act like I wasn’t horrified she’d walked up on me and my verbiage crisis.

She put her hand on the door, giving me a small smile, “Why don’t you come in?”

I started to follow her into the office, when I jolted to a halt, “Oh, um, is–?”