Hubrie rubbed his hands gleefully.
Duke shot his butler a wary look. “Hubrie.”
“The roof repair people are almost here,” Hubrie said. “I’ll be watching them... And telling Nat more fun stories.”
“Stories!” Teddy and Mallie chirped.
Duke glared daggers at his butler, who only seemed too pleased.
“Hubrie will tell you stories later,” Nat hurriedly said. “The more games you win, the more stories he’ll tell.”
Immediately after, he shut his mouth. Should he not have suggested that?
Hubriecackled.Duke looked a little betrayed, but not angry.
“What game are we playing?” Mallie asked excitedly.
When Duke still didn’t correct him, Nat said, “Well, first, we’ll see how many circles you can run around Wanda and me. But wait!” He held up his hand before they could start running. “You’ll run in the backyard. Not in the house! And I’ll need volunteers to help me make the circles.”
“Me, me!” the children cried.
“I’ll help too,” Duke said.
Nat blinked in surprise. “O-okay.”
Duke gathered some sticks and wide, shiny ribbons. Then they went out to the backyard, where Nat had each child unravel ribbon from a large roll. Nat and Duke stabbed the sticks into the ground in a wide circle, before tying the ribbons to the tops of the sticks.
And now they had a ribbon rink of sorts, two-thirds of it made of gold ribbon because Duke was faster, and a third of it tied off with Nat’s silver ribbon.
“Now, you’ll both start here,” Nat said, pointing to a spot on the outside of the ribbon circle. “Let’s see how many circles you can run in two minutes. Ready, set, run!”
Mallie and Teddy took off, scrambling around the ribbon circle. They yelled and chased each other, and seemed to forget that Nat and Duke were even there.
“You didn’t start a timer,” Duke murmured.
Nat grinned. “Two minutes is up when one of them gets tired.”
Duke snorted, but he was grinning again, a handsome smile on his lips. Nat gulped.
For a while, they stood together in the moonlit backyard, looking at each other. Duke’s gaze dropped to Wanda curled up in Nat’s arms, and drifted back up, lingering on Nat’s face.
His attention settled on Nat’s lips. Nat wet them nervously; it only seemed to darken Duke’s gaze.
When the silence between them grew to be too much, Nat blurted, “You don’t mind? That I volunteered some of your stories?”
Duke rolled his shoulders. “Hubrie’s always looking for a chance to tell them about my misdeeds. He’s already told them several terrible stories about me.”
“Shouldn’t he tell them the good ones?” Nat asked, frowning.
“Oh, he tells those too, sometimes.” The demon leaned in, closing the distance between their faces until all Nat could see was Duke’s golden eyes. “But Nat. For the record, the next time you think about doing that...” Duke pressed closer, brushing his lips against Nat’s ear. “Youwillask for permission first.”
Nat’s heart stumbled. “O-okay.”
“Good.” Duke trailed his nose against Nat’s cheek, his breath hot on Nat’s skin.
Nat would’ve said that all this touching—foreplay?—was unnecessary, because sex was already in his contract. He didn’t have to beconvincedto accept Duke’s touch.
But the fact that Duke still wanted to touch him, the fact that Duke was nosing at him intimately like a lover...
