Page 55 of Devils Don’t Deal

“You don’t have to mind your manners anyway. You have my blessing to bite anyone you like.”

I had a sudden memory of the time we’d made out in the butterfly garden. His teeth on my neck. And the night in the club. I gave him a closed-mouth smile while my heart beat faster and my toes curled.

“Where are you going?” my dad asked when I came down, but he didn’t look concerned. He’d come to trust the devil—or maybe not him but his deal. Or maybe he liked him, like I liked him.

Even though he’d put my dad in a cage.

“We’re going shopping then to the cemetery. Do you want to come?”

He frowned at the devil then shook his head. “I’ll watch the shop while you’re out.”

We walked through the bakery to the front, and there outside was a car waiting for us, the one made out of snail shells. My dad let us out and locked it behind us.

“When is your shop opening?” a woman asked, blocking us, her eyes intense.

“Not today,” the devil said gently as he helped me into the back of the car.

“But I need⁠—”

He closed the door on her then walked around to climb in beside me.

“What did she need?”

“The prestige that getting your baked goods at her friend’s congratulation’s party would give her. It’s not always easy to get what you make.”

I blinked at him. “You plucked that out of her head or are you making things up?”

He raised a brow and took my hand, pressing a soft kiss to its back. “I’ve made a lot of deals. I can smell desperation like I can smell covetousness. Also, she approached me earlier and told me her troubles.”

I snickered and leaned against him, inhaling his scent: caramels and gentleness. “I should learn how to control what I put into things. I feel like I’m stealing your energy just to use it in my baking, and that’s hardly fair.”

“The rabbit steals your energy, or you’d have it for baking. You don’t like taking my energy from me?”

“I…I love it,” I admitted, not looking up at him. Instead, I smoothed the panels of iridescent silk on his shirt. “But it’s not in the deal we made.”

“It’s not in the deal that you snuggle my soul every night.”

My stomach tangled. What would it be like to snuggle him, and not just his soul? “But I like that too,” I said, looking up at him.

He smiled back then took my hand, tangling our fingers together. “I also like it. All of it. A devil without a heart and only half of someone else’s soul shouldn’t be content, much less happy, but here I am.”

“You’re content or happy?”

He flashed a bright smile. “Yes. Are you?”

I hesitated then squeezed his hand and leaned my head on his shoulder. “I have the bakery of my dreams. Of course I’m happy.”

“And content?”

“Well…I wish my mother weren’t dead, but other than that, yes, I really am. Do you think…” I almost asked him if we could date for real, but I chickened out.

“Yes?” he asked, gazing at me like I was the first, most beautiful star to come out at night.

“We can get some of those fancy teacups to use in my bakery?”

He grinned. “A shopping spree is supposed to be without limits. Whatever you want, it’s yours.”

“Are you going to add it to my bill?”