Of the three of us in the room, both my husband and I smelled of sex.  The thing was, it hadn’t been with each other.  Sitting in the miserable hotel room, I stared at Katse, Katse stared back at me, and the unlucky lady who had lost my husband’s attention for night, sat glaring at us both.  Truth be told, I couldn’t blame her.  I did just come barging into their lovenest, panicked and babbling about having been murdered.  That was a definite mood-kill in most places.

I shivered.  It was like as if the AC was set on full blast, intent on freezing me where I stood.  But I could understand why the frigid temps didn’t bother Katse, though.  As my newlywed hubby, he was all of friggin’ hot 6 foot 7 tall chaos demon.  Literally.  A full-blood chaos demon, with a quarter of incubus thrown in somewhere, and was also known as the demon every girl wanted to screw, whether they knew it or not.

Clearly, since our marriage had been arranged, against both of our wishes, by our crazy demon master, there was no love lost between us.  Which was why Katse didn’t even bother trying to be faithful, in the least. 

Well, after the night I’d just had, I could join that club.  Ruefully thinking about Wes David, who I’d just abandoned in a sweaty hotel bed, I wondered about the mess that I was making of my second chance.

A big, hot mess.

Katse, at least, seemed to recognize the seriousness of the situation.  Turning to his lovely young lady who was still sitting on the bed, looking really annoyed, he made a dismissive gesture toward the door.  “Out.”

Even I cringed at the coldness of his words.  I mean, before I’d barged in, they had been about to have sex.  But that didn’t happen.  So, now all she was going to get was the word, ‘out’?

‘Men,’ I thought.  ‘Jerks from day one.’

Apparently, she thought so too.  I watched as Katse’s lady folded her arms across her chest with a pout.  ‘Oh no, you didn’t’ was written all over her face.

But no sex had made Katse a cranky demon, and instead of repeating himself, he simply turned all the way around to face her.  Before he turned away from me, I glimpsed the look that was all for her.  Actual flames danced in his eyes, licking at his eyelids menacingly, while his lips curled back just slightly, just enough to see sharp teeth glistening.

The girl shrieked and scrambled off the bed, tangling herself in the bedsheet in the process.  Finally free, she dashed for the door, wearing what I assumed was her best lingerie set.  Guess she hadn’t known that he was a demon.  He’d probably forgotten to mention it.

Then we were alone in the chilly hotel room.  Katse stared at me as if he wanted to demand the whole story, but he didn’t need to.  I’d just given him all of my memories, and whatever I knew, he knew.

We stood silently like that for what seemed like an eternity.  Then he broke the silence.

“So basically, you’re saying that Taryn killed you, but since you broke your link to Tevit, our master, you have no way to tell him to spare Taryn from eternal judgment, since you’re currently trapped inside her body?”

I didn’t hesitate.  “Yes.”

Basically.

It had only been two years ago, that I had sold my soul, literally, for eternal beauty on Earth, figuring that I still had high school days, college days and a real-life grown-up career to enjoy before I would have to pay my due.  All to catch the eye of Aaron, who ended up becoming my cheating boyfriend.  Unfortunately, I had died in my last year of high school, and had not gone on to do any of the great things I’d thought I would.  And I had ended up in Hell.

But I didn’t how I had died.  I didn’t have any memories whatsoever from that night, around the time of my death.  But somehow I had come back certain that one of my friends, someone in my social circle had offed me.  I didn’t know why I was so certain, but I did know that I wanted revenge.

And I had asked Tevit, Katse and I’s miserable demon boss, to permit me to return to the world of the living, in order to bring that person to justice.

So, he’d resurrected me into Taryn David; white, high school transient, recent attempted suicide.  The gracious opportunity that he’d given me, was fucked by the small amount of time that he given me to do it in: one week.

My week would be up by this time tomorrow.

I was distracted from my worries by a sudden urge, coming from my vagina.  In a second, I realized that Katse had moved closer and of course, at the wrong time, my body had decided to react to him. 

Without warning, his arm slid around me, slow and sensual.  Enveloping me, he pulled me to him.  “Sionne, I’m sorry.”

“For?” I asked.

“Not protecting you.  As your husband, Tevit sent me with you to aide you, and so far I haven’t.  The fact that you’ve gotten yourself tangled up so deeply looks bad on my part.”

I glanced up into his eyes, to see if there was any deceit or humor there, but there was none.  Katse seemed to be dead serious.  Which made me feel like shit.  To be honest, none of the shit that I’d gotten myself into was Katse’s fault at all.  From the instant that Tevit had transported us back to Earth, I had tried to stay one step ahead of him.  I hadn’t wanted any help at all from Katse.  In my brain, he was a womanizer, and a self-centered jerk.  Not someone who could have helped me.  So, I hadn’t allowed him to help.  Any time he got near me, I managed to slip away, leaving him in figurative dust.

‘Yet,’ I told myself, ‘the minute I had no one else to turn to, I showed up on his doorstep.  Kinda makes me look like the bitch, huh?’

His fingers thrummed along my spine and I felt my heart rate pick up.  “Katse, it’s fine,” I murmured.  Really fine, especially with the way his body was currently molded against mine.

And suddenly, I realized that the panic that I’d been experiencing from the instant I ran out of that hotel room, was gone.  Somehow, Katse had smoothed my frazzled nerves.  And apparently, those long, slim fingers contained more magic than just the ability to get women’s clothing off.

Again, I sent a quiet ‘sorry’ to the lady that had lost his company for the night.

Slowly, I turned to him,….and allowed his arms to wrap me.  The way we fit together was eerily perfect.  Lovely.  ‘So, this is what I’ve been missing,’ I thought.

Katse gently grazed a kiss across the top of my head, and I shivered.  Because his skin felt so good gliding across mine.

“How would you like me to fix this?” he murmured.

I froze.  Shit!  No, this wasn’t right.  Katse didn’t mind being my fall-back guy (and actually, he didn’t know how much he fit that role, since he didn’t know about Wes), but I did.

Pulling away, I shook my head violently.  “No, I’ll fix it myself.  I just need your help.”

A look of surprise dotted Katse’s face.  So, I was right.  This was what he thought had to happen: I come running back to him for help, I sleep with him, he solves my problem, we live together happily ever after.

“Didn’t you just say that you have no way out of your problems?”  His frown remained as I nodded.  “Then, it would make sense for you to let me take over from here.”

As he’d been speaking, I’d been backing up.  When there was easily ten feet between us, I spoke.  “You know what?  I know how it works, here, Hell, wherever.  You help me, but I have to sleep with you, and then my independence is gone.  Since you’re a demon too, it’ll probably be gone forever.  But here’s the thing, men and sex are what got me into this mess to begin with.  Worse, I’ve got a feeling that men and sex are why Taryn is wrapped so deeply in a bigger mess that I’m trying to solve, so that I can solve my own.  So, you can understand if I politely decline your offer to take over my problem.”

A smile played at the edges of his handsome face, but his eyes remained serious.  “Sionne, from the instant that we were married, you’ve been holding me at a distance.  Do you know how many women and demons would literally kill to be in your position?”

‘Yes,’ I thought.  ‘Your psycho ex Jeanni being one.  She’s tried to kill me several times now.’

But all I said was, “I didn’t ask to marry you.  I was forced.”

He shrugged.  “I get that.  So was I, for the record.  But it doesn’t change the fact that we are married, and we’ll stay that way for the rest of our demon lives.  I am, or was, one of the top bachelors in Hell, so it’s not like you got stuck with someone horrible.  So why are you being so resistant?”

Frustration washed over me, as I realized that I needed to be on the move, doing something to help myself.  My time was dangerously thin, and it was the worst time for Katse to decide that he wanted to clear the air between us.  Still, it would help to get our issues out into the open once and for all.

“Resistant?”  Now I shrugged.  “If so many women want you, then what’s the problem?  Go have one of them.”

“I’m not asking about one of them, I’m asking about you.  You don’t have to like me, but why the FUCK do we have to be enemies?  Demon marriage is a partnership.  That means having a spouse and having a partner.  Currently, I’m the only married demon in Hell who only has one of those things!”

Just like that, my temper boiled over.  Hands on my hip and eyes narrowed, I met his accusations head on.  “Why?  Okay, how about this?  On our wedding night, you left me and had SEX with someone else!  Is that enough of a reason for me to assume that you’re a self-centered jerk?  I can’t see how I would need any more beyond that!”

Katse’s face didn’t change.  Coolly, he retorted, “That was after you made it clear that you had no intention of sleeping with me on that night.  Isn’t a wedding night for sex?  Why should mine have been any different?”

“Sex with your wife,” I reminded him, “or is ‘with who’ not important?”

He made an indeterminate sound, which only helped to infuriate me further.

“You know what?  That night, instead of running off after the reception into another woman’s bed, we could have hashed all of this out then, instead of wasting my time now!”

Suddenly I was frightened as Katse’s eyes were washed with the same fiery red haze that had sent the other girl running from his room.  It certainly was intimidating to have the gaze turned on me, especially since I could also feel the waves of anger rolling off of him.

He glared at me.  “Maybe you weren’t the only one unhappy to be forced into marrying someone you didn’t want to.”

And there it was.  The truth was finally out between us.  Katse, as part of his cool, detached demeanor, had never seemed ruffled by our pairing.  But he had finally admitted to what I had been sensing: unhappiness.

He continued, “Cause really, what guy wants to have his wings clipped in the midst of his partying days?  Why would I have been happy?  But…. that’s past now.  We’re married and we should make the best of it.”

Still stubborn, I stared back at him.  “I’m not going to sleep with you just because Tevit says so.”

“Sionne,” Katse said, “we don’t have to do anything right now.  One day we will, but not now.  We have a whole lifetime to get used to each other, so let’s just focus on working together right now.  Truce?”  He held out one hand.

His words made sense, and if I could trust the intent behind them, then things would be good.  But could I?  At the moment, I had no choice.  I would look like a crazy bitch to refuse his help after he’d just laid his feelings on the line like that.  So, I was stuck.

“Fine.  Truce.”  I pressed my fingers against his, and then was surprised when he clasped tight and bent to kiss my hand.

The traitorous butterflies who lived in my stomach chose that moment to flutter.  They’d been silent all throughout the argument, and now that things were good, were dancing up a storm.    

Which left me in an awkward position as I faced my sexier-than-ever demon husband, who’d just proved why he was so damned eligible.  ‘He’s insightful, too,’ I realized.

Just to keep the playing field level, I offered up another truth.  “I slept with someone tonight.”

“I know.”

“What?  What do you mean, you know?”

“I Sighted you,” was all he said.

At first, I paused, unfamiliar with the term ‘Sighted’.  Then it hit me in a rush: Sighting was a skill that upper level demons gained which allowed them to view through someone else’s eyes.  I froze in place for several seconds as I realized what Katse was saying. 

He meant that he had looked out through my eyes at some point last night, and for him to know that I had cheated on him….. well, it was pretty clear what he’d seen.

Wes on top of me, maybe…..

Probably.

Which made me understand why I had found him here with another woman, and why he had been so eager to straighten me out, in terms of how much of a catch he was.

Male jealousy, typical in males of all species.

And suddenly, I felt bad.  Katse had explained that his earlier rebellion had been because of our forced union, but now this, after we had been together for a while…. what explanation did I have for cheating?  Love?  That I’d fallen in love with Wesley, since Katse had given me my space?

‘Well, cheating is cheating is cheating,’ I told myself firmly.  ‘He cheated then, so I’m doing my thing now.’  But my brain didn’t buy it, so I still felt like shit.

“Don’t” was all he said, and I didn’t.  Whatever he meant by that, was enough for me to leave it alone.  Especially since we had just come to a sort of a truce.

I watched him slink his way over to the bed and slip under the covers.  Then he turned and cocked one brow at me.

“Um…..”  Hadn’t we just covered all of this?

Katse just gave me a smug look.  “Not sex, sweetie, thought we just went over that.”  Ignoring the glare I tossed his way, he continued, “It’s nighttime, and the body that you’re in looks exhausted.  Unlike our demon-perfect forms, human bodies need sleep, and you’re running on empty.  Plus, since I’m not getting any tonight, I need a comforting nap to put me in a better mood.  Tomorrow is good enough to start saving your afterlife.  So, you’re welcome to crawl in here with me, or take the floor, whatever, but you’ll need your energy for tomorrow.”

With that, he retreated under the silk covers, as smooth as he was.

‘Bastard.’  And immediately amended the thought as a huge yawn overtook me.

He was right.  I needed sleep, and clearly Katse wasn’t moving from the huge bed any time soon.  Not that I blamed him.  It looked silky and comfy, like a dream come true.

Letting out another yawn, I stripped down to my undies and, hoping for the best, slid in beside him.