Blaze by Suzanne Wright

  Harper looked at Knox. “If you don’t kill him, I will.”

  But Lou was already gone; the echo of his laughter was in the air.

  Knox crossed to her and sank his fingers into her hair. “There are times when I wonder if he might actually like you.” He kissed the pout right off her face. “You’re going to sow pink sequins on his jacket, aren’t you?”

  She placed her hands on his chest. “Yep. But considering he’s an absolute nut job, it really wouldn’t surprise me if the weird bastard liked them.”

  Knox twisted his mouth. “Yeah, it wouldn’t surprise me much either.”

  Since she had to change her shirt, Harper was a little late walking into the coffeehouse. The door chimed as she pushed it open, and the girls somehow heard it over the whirr of machines, the chatter of customers, the dishes clattering, and the staff calling out orders. It had become a regular routine for them to meet there before heading into their new studio. She liked it.

  As Harper crossed to the bistro table near the large window with Tanner in tow, Devon pointed to a steaming mug and said, “We ordered your usual caramel latte. I even drizzled chocolate all over the froth for you.”

  “And that’s why I love you.” Harper really didn’t feel like joining that eternally long queue.

  Tanner’s brow furrowed. “Hey, what about my cappuccino?”

  Devon gave him a blank look. “What about it?”

  Raini gestured to the mug near the free seat between her and Harper. “It’s right here. Before you ask, no, I will not move so you can sit next to Devon and torture her.”

  “You’re no fun,” complained Tanner.

  Fairly plonking herself on the padded seat, Harper sighed happily. She loved coffeehouses. Loved the scent of fresh-brewed coffee, warm caramel, and the pastries in the glass case beneath the cash register.

  “So, today we need to —” Devon cut herself off, eyes widening, and grabbed Harper’s hand. “A black diamond? Knox gave you a black diamond?”

  Harper smiled, admiring the rings once more. Her demon loved how shiny and twinkly they were. Most of all, her demon loved what they represented. “Yeah.”

  Devon flopped back into her seat, a smile curling her mouth. “Oh. My. God. I’m floored. Not that I didn’t think he was utterly devoted to you.”

  Raini leaned forward to get a good look at the rings. “They’re so beautiful. Is he wearing one too?”

  Harper cradled the warm, porcelain mug with her hands. “Yep. He let it be my decision, though. He said he didn’t have to wear one just because I was wearing these.”

  “The guy has good taste,” said Khloë, swirling her smoothie. “I’ll bet his demon is smug as fuck. Does Grams know yet?”

  “Yes, I told her this morning.” Harper sipped at her latte and hummed in appreciation. “She said that if I’m happy, she’s happy.” She also hadn’t been at all surprised by the news.

  “How did Knox give the rings to you?” asked Raini.

  “He woke me up, handed me a box, and then told me he wanted me to wear them so I’d have a constant reminder that I was important to someone.”

  Devon put a hand on her heart. “It’s hard not to like the scary son of a bitch.”

  Tanner snorted a laugh before grabbing a newspaper from a neighboring table.

  “I’m so happy for you, Harper,” said Raini with an excited smile.

  “Me, too.” Khloë slurped some of her smoothie. “And I predict it’s going to be really fun to watch people’s expressions when they notice the rings.”

  “So far, it kind of has been.” Some had looked shocked, others had appeared pleasantly surprised, and— in the case of several females – some had seemed severely disappointed. Harper’s demon enjoyed the latter.

  “As immature as this sounds, I am so looking forward to seeing Belinda’s expression when she sees them,” said Raini, stirring her tea.

  “You should get your wish soon enough.” Harper took another sip of her latte. “She wanted to see me, so I asked her to meet me here.”

  Raini did a little clap. “I do love a good show. Where have you and Knox been for the last few days anyway?”

  “On his yacht,” replied Harper.

  “Well, of course he has a yacht,” Devon said dryly.

  A chiming sound was followed by the quick arrival of Larkin and Keenan. Harper smiled at them. “Hey, what brings you two here?”

  “I heard about the rings from Levi and I really wanted to see them.” Larkin looked at them as Harper held out her hand. “I’m not a girly girl but I’m actually squealing in my head.”

  “Some people are going to shit a brick, especially Alethea,” said Keenan.

  “We should celebrate,” Devon announced.

  Khloë nodded, excited. “We could go to the Xpress Bar tonight.”

  “You really want to get smashed again?” Keenan asked the imp.

  Confused, Khloë said, “Why wouldn’t I?”

  Keenan folded his arms. “I’m not taking you home this time.”

  At his snippy tone, Khloë cocked her head. “Is this about me telling you that you have a monster cock?”

  Raini nearly spat her tea all over the table. Larkin, shaking with silent laughter, patted the succubus’ back. People turned at the word “cock,” as if it had snapped them out of their own conversations. And why wouldn’t it?

  “No,” Keenan ground out. “It’s about the photograph you took that night.”

  Khloë sighed, rolling her eyes. “I don’t know why you got so upset about it. It was a lousy picture anyway, since I couldn’t fit your whole cock on it.” That comment had plenty of brows raising. “On a serious note, did you have it surgically enlarged or are you just gifted in that department?” It was a genuine question.

  With a groan, Devon buried her face in her hands.

  Keenan looked at Harper, cheeks flushing with self-consciousness. “Make her stop.”

  Khloë snorted. “You’re just mad because your incubus mojo has no effect on me.”

  Larkin blinked at him. “It doesn’t? Really?”

  “It’s rare that people are immune to incubi allure, but it happens,” said Keenan.

  Hearing another chime, Harper swerved to see her favorite cambion enter the coffeehouse. Anticipation thrummed through her inner demon, who wanted to punch the bitch hard enough to leave an imprint of the rings so the cambion could never forget who Knox belonged to. “Well hello, Belinda.”

  Belinda’s hand tightened around the strap of her purse. “I have been trying to get hold of you for three days. Why have you been ignoring my calls?”

  “I wasn’t ignoring them… per se.” All right, she totally was. “Knox whisked me away for the weekend, so I was sort of busy.”

  Lips flat, Belinda said, “You couldn’t take two minutes to answer at least one of my calls?”

  “Now, let me see.” Harper held out one hand, palm up. “Spend quality time with Knox.” She held up her other hand, palm up. “Talk to you.” Harper moved each hand up and down. “Knox was always going to win that one.” Honestly, the cambion looked close to whacking Harper with her clipboard. Awesome. “So, what is it you want?”

  “I took the liberty of writing you a speech. I need to know if there are any changes you wish to make or —”

  “Whoa, hold on a minute. Speech?” Who said anything about a speech?

  “Well, yes, of course.”

  Harper frowned. “Yeah, I’m not understanding the need for a speech.”

  “You’ll need to thank the attendees for coming and express your gratitude to all those who helped to organize the event,” said Belinda in an “obviously” tone. “You’ll also need to say a few words of romance to Knox.”

  “I don’t do speeches. Not my thing. Knox is the one who has a way with words. If there’s anything that needs to be said, he’ll do that.” Harper would just trip over her own words or blush several shades of red.

  “You can’t leave everything to Knox.??
?

  “You’re right, and I don’t. But speeches are more his thing, and I can’t recite something that somebody else wrote for me.” It would make her feel phony. Harper prided herself on not being fake. “Besides, who really wants to hear from a Wallis?” she mocked.

  Belinda’s nostrils flared. “Fine. There are a few more things I need to run past you.”

  Harper finished off her latte as the cambion read out a list of things from her clipboard. When she abruptly stopped speaking, Harper looked up. And saw that Belinda was staring at the rings. Harper wiggled her fingers. “Like them?”

  Belinda swallowed. “That’s a black diamond.”

  “I know. So pretty and shiny.”

  “He gave you a black diamond?”

  Harper grinned. “You’re ecstatic for me. I can tell.”

  Spluttering, Belinda turned to Tanner. “Doesn’t it worry you that your Prime isn’t acting like himself?”

  Tanner lifted his mug. “It would worry me if it were true.”

  Belinda ground her teeth. “He gave her – someone he barely knows – a black diamond.”

  The hellhound nodded. “Yeah, I can see that.”

  “Let me reiterate, he barely knows her.”

  “He clearly feels he knows all he needs to know.” Tanner went back to his newspaper.

  Lips pinched together, Belinda turned to Keenan. “Would you commit yourself so completely to someone you had only known a few months?”

  “That’s a human question,” said Harper.

  Belinda blinked. “Pardon?”

  “Since you’re half-human, I can understand why you’d have such an issue,” said Harper. “See, humans need everything to make sense. But not everything can be seen, or heard, or felt, or explained. Some things just are.”

  Face flushing, Belinda spoke. “Knox is —”

  “Uninterested in you, so get over your-fucking-self.”

  “Yeah, it really is about time you gave up the dream of being with Knox,” Khloë told her. “There are plenty of other guys out there. You should consider Keenan. He’s got a monster cock.”

  Keenan’s cheeks turned fire engine red. “Khloë!”

  “Am I wrong?” the imp challenged, raising one shoulder.

  Trying not to laugh, Harper turned back to Belinda. “Are we done here?”

  “We’re done,” she said, mouth tight around the edges. “Thank you for your time.” Spinning on her high heel, she left.

  A mind slid against Harper’s – comforting and familiar. You sure you don’t want me to fire her, baby? asked Knox. I’d take great pleasure in doing it.

  Guessing one of his sentinels had alerted him about Belinda’s little tantrum, Harper said, That would spoil my fun.

  All right. His disappointment was evident in his telepathic tone. Don’t forget your flying session later.

  I won’t. She was actually looking forward to it.

  “Ready to get to work?” asked Devon.

  “Yes. Later on, before we close for the day, I need you to do something for me.”

  The hellcat smiled. “Gladly. Just what might that be?”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Once again standing near the border of a winding ravine, Harper moaned, “My back is killing me.”

  “I know, but you need to master this. It has to be second nature for you.” Knox planted his feet, resisting the urge to go to his mate and comfort her. He was proud of how well she’d done and how very little she’d complained. He was pushing her hard, giving her no breaks. “Now ascend, and hold yourself in position until I tell you to drop.”

  So Harper did, just as she’d done at least eighty times in the past half hour. She was aching, sweating, and tired. The light breeze would have been welcome if it wasn’t as hot as the day itself. Seriously, it was like having someone point a hairdryer at your face while it was on its hottest setting. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the breeze brought plenty of dirt with it. She hated the gritty feel of it on her skin.

  “Okay, drop.” He nodded in satisfaction at her clean descent. “Again, Harper.”

  Biting back a curse, she did it again. And again. And again. And a-fucking-gain.

  “Better. Much better. Now, do it once more. This time, I’m going to ask you to go higher and hold it a lot longer.” When she slumped, Knox arched a brow. “Do you want to try flying or not? We’ll do it today, but only if you master this move.”

  Harper rolled back her shoulders. “I’ll do it,” she bit out. She wanted to punch him square in the face for grinning at her. “What’s so funny?”

  “I’m not laughing.”

  “Not out loud.”

  “You’re just cute when you’re agitated.” She was back to being a hissing, spitting kitten that amused the hell out of Knox and his demon.

  “Let’s just do this.”

  “All right, ascend.” Knox felt another swell of pride as she made a perfect ascent and balanced effortlessly midair; she’d massively improved since the very first lesson. He kept her there for a good minute or so before allowing her to drop. “Very good. Ready to try flying?”

  “More than.”

  “Good. Let’s get started.”

  Harper gave a silent gasp of sheer awe as he snapped out his large wings. “Yours are so much cooler than mine.” There were not only made of magma energy, the feathers were ablaze.

  He lifted her hand to admire the rings; they looked good there, looked right. “Has anyone commented on these yet?”

  “Pretty much every person who walked into the studio. They were all shocked. The demons from our lair seemed happy about it. Anyone ask about yours?”

  “I’ve been in my office most of the day, so I’ve barely seen anyone. They’ll no doubt be as surprised as the yacht’s cabin crew.”

  Harper couldn’t help but smile at the memory of the steward dropping the drinks in utter shock. “Probably.” He kissed her and then pulled her to the edge of the ravine. Harper peered down, noticing the dry bed at the bottom. “That’s a hell of a drop.”

  “It is, but it’s also a good place to practice flying. In the sky, you have to contend with the wind and you’ll be distracted by the view. Down there, the wind can’t throw you around and there’s nothing at all pretty to look at. The only thing to see is a drop that reminds you just how careful you have to be. Sometimes fear is the best motivator. You have to be positive that —”

  “I can hover just fine,” she clipped.

  Knox’s mouth curved. “I agree.”

  Good. “Now what?”

  “Now you show us that we’re both right.” And he shoved her right over the edge.

  Harper screamed and her stomach did some kind of dive as she hurtled at top speed toward the ground. The wind whipped up her hair and stole her breath, cutting off her scream. She flapped her wings like crazy, but it didn’t seem to help. She was falling and falling.