Ivan didn’t react to Nix’s “master.” Maybe he was becoming immune to the teasing. “There’s surely something in the kitchen.”
Nix shook his head. “One: There surelyisn’t. And two: I don’t eat human food.”
A glint of real curiosity shone through Ivan’s fatigue, there and gone in a flash. “What do you survive on, then?”
Nix leaned in closer. “Think about it, Vanya, baby,” he purred. “I’m an incubus.”
“You survive off sex?” Ivan asked, sounding skeptical.
“Desire,” Nix corrected.
“And you need that,” Ivan said flatly. “To live.”
Always so suspicious. He was acting like Nix was lying.
Which Nix sort of was.
“Okay, technically your soul piece keeps mealive,” Nix told him with an eye roll. “But it’s not the same. And I get terribly grumpy if I’m not satisfied.” He widened his eyes. “You wouldn’t want to leave me unsatisfied, would you?”
Ivan tapped his fingers on the desk. “What are you proposing?”
“Where do you go to get your rocks off?”
Since Nix was waiting for it, he caught the images right away. Dark clubs. Dingy gambling basements. Bleached blonde hair and tight, short dresses. And an especially intriguing little flash of Ivan in his town car, his hand up someone’s skirt while the driver kept his eyes straight ahead.
Nix cocked a brow, fighting a smile. “Really, Ivan? Bottle blonde divorcées? Isn’t that a bit cliché?”
The images shut off in an instant. “It’s easy,” Ivan said simply.
It was incredibly hard not to smirk. “I’m sure it is,” Nix murmured. He straightened from the desk. “Take me to one of your clubs, then.”
“No.”
The refusal didn’t exactly surprise Nix, but the speed of it did. “Why not?”
“You’remydemon, aren’t you?” Ivan asked, his voice possessive even as his expression stayed flat, giving nothing away. “So you stay with me. At my side. You’re not fucking anyone else during our contract, no matter how…peckish you may get.”
“Jealous, Vanyechka?”
Ivan’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t be dense.”
Dense, was he?
“Fine,” Nix snapped, losing a bit of his own temper. “Then I’ll useyou.”
He darted around the desk and slid onto Ivan’s lap, straddling his thighs.
“What are you doing?” Ivan’s surprise didn’t show outwardly, but Nix could hear his heart rate pick up. It had been the same when Nix had surprised Ivan awake the day before—the human’s raised heartbeat the only sign of his surprise. That was some ironclad self-control Ivan had going on.
Nix wanted to shatter it.
He put on his most plaintive voice, gazing into Ivan’s icy eyes. “I’m hungry, master.”
The slightest shudder went through Ivan’s body.There, Nix thought with satisfaction.Not so immune after all.
“I’m not fucking you,” Ivan told him, though he made no move to push Nix off his lap.
“I told you. It’s about desire. It doesn’t have to be sex.” Nixleaned in close, whispering into Ivan’s ear, “Think about your blondes.”
