I was perched on the stool in front of the kitchen island when Demon finally came through the front door with six grocery bags filled full hanging from his arms. “You’re awake,” he said, surprised.
“It’s almost ten, Demon.”
“I know, but I figured you would sleep in.”
I shrugged my shoulders and drank the last of my coffee. “I normally wake up at seven each morning. Sleeping until nine was definitely sleeping in.”
“Well, I ran to town and got breakfast and groceries to last us a couple of days.” He plopped the bags down on the counter and rummaged through them. “Did you get a chance to look around at all?”
I grabbed one of the bags from him and emptied it out onto the counter. “As much as I could without having to put my boots on. The inside basically looks the same besides obvious updates you did.”
“Yeah, I didn’t come up here for a couple of years, and the place went to shit. Updating was more of necessity, not an option.”
I grabbed the pound of bacon and dozen of eggs and set them by the stove. I need more sustenance than coffee. “You used to love coming up here, why did you stop?” Every time Demon and I would make the trip to the cabin, it was like he was transported to a different world and he was so laid back. We had only come here four times together, but each time together was fantastic.
“I don’t know,” he said as he shrugged his shoulders. “I guess it just didn’t feel the same. I hired Stan a couple of years ago to get the place in shape and look after it, but this is the first time I’ve been here since.”
“What? You updated the cabin without actually being here? How in the hell did that work?” I couldn’t imagine having someone remodeling a place that was mine without me being there telling them what to do.
“Picture message. It’s a beautiful thing.”
I shook my head at him and grabbed a frying pan out of the cabinet. “You’re crazy.”
“Yeah, but a good crazy. Thankfully everything turned out good.” Demon finished putting away all of the groceries while I scrambled some eggs and fried the bacon.
I slid the bacon onto a paper plate and set it on the island where Demon was sitting, drinking a cup of coffee. “So, what is the plan, Demon?”
“Don’t really have one, baby.”
“Hmm, I can see you’re still the same as you were before. Always going with the flow but never really having a plan.”
Demon shrugged his shoulders and picked up a piece of bacon. “It hasn’t failed yet,” he winked.
This was where Demon and I were as different as night and day. While I liked to know what was going on and know the plan, Demon just sat back and went with it. No matter what it was, Demon dealt with it. If that meant going with it, or leaving if he didn’t like it, he did. “I should have known you didn’t have a plan. I bet you thought of coming up to the cabin only seconds before you asked me to come with you.”
A smirk spread across Demon’s lips, and he popped the piece of bacon into his mouth. “Somethings don’t change. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
I grabbed the platter of eggs and two plates and sat down next to Demon. “You know having a plan isn’t a bad thing,” I mumbled.
“I know, baby, but what happens when you’re in the middle of a plan, and something better comes along. Something that blows all of your plans out of the water?”
“You adjust your plan, but still, have a plan.”
Demon shook his head and filled his plate. “Well, if that’s the case, I just came up with a plan.”
“It’s not really a plan if you haven’t planned it.”
“Well, now that is where you might be wrong about this plan.”
“Do you think we’ve said the word plan enough?” I asked, looking at him.
“Maybe just a couple more times.” He winked at me, grabbed both of our cups and headed over to the coffee pot. “You already know what my huge plan is.” I ducked my head and scooped a pile of eggs onto my plate. “I want you back, Paige. I’m not playing this with my cards close to my chest.”
I swallowed hard on the small bite of bacon I had just chewed. “You never were one to beat around the bush, either,” I whispered.
“I think we need to get something straight, Paige.” Demon set the cups down in front of the coffee pot and turned around to look at me. “Seven years ago, I made the biggest mistake of my life letting you walk away. There isn’t a damn day that goes by that I don’t think about you and what we had. We went through some hard shit that neither of us knew how to deal with. You pushed me away, and I fucked up royally.”
“You can say that again,” I mumbled.
“I fucked up royally, Paige. I will tell you every day until I die. You want me to tell you every day when we wake up, I will. I’m not ashamed to tell you that I was a fucking idiot who threw away the best thing he’s ever had, and I will do everything on this earth to get back into your heart and your ass in my bed.”
“I just wish things could be different.”
“They can be, Paige. Look,” Demon rounded the counter and pulled out the stool next to me. “I know it’s hard, but we both need to let go of the past.”
“But what if I hadn’t walked in on you that night, Demon? Would that have gone further, to the point where we can’t wax over it and say technically you didn’t cheat?”
“If you wouldn’t have walked in, it wouldn’t have gone any further. I know it sounds ridiculous to you, but I was yours Paige and no one else was going to have me.”
I pushed my plate away and turned to look Demon in the eye. “Do you know how ridiculous that sounds, but for some reason, I believe you. How in the hell does that work?” I wanted to believe every word he said, but I couldn’t. I knew before, when things were good with us that Demon would never hurt me, especially wouldn’t cheat on me. It was something I always felt.
“I never hid the way I felt about you, Paige. I knew that first night together that you were mine. I didn’t want anyone else, even that night with those two girls, I knew I belonged to you.”
“Then why in the hell did you do it, Demon? Why would you go into that room with those two girls and… and… touch yourself while they, well, did whatever the hell they were doing?” I was flustered, trying to get everything out that I had wanted to say for the past years. I had so many questions, and I needed an answer to all of them before I let Demon back in.
Demon ran his hands through his hair and shook his head. “Honestly, Paige? I was fucking mad at you. It felt like when the baby died, we died, too, and I had no fucking clue how to handle it. I wanted to be with you, but it was like you always had fifty things you needed to do that didn’t have anything to do with me.”
“That’s not true. I felt like I had failed you and you blamed me for losing the baby.” I had struggled for so long thinking that if I had done just one thing differently that the baby would have been fine and so would Demon and me.
“I didn’t blame you for losing the baby. At least I didn’t mean to make you feel that way, Paige. I still sometimes can’t figure out what I feel, but I know that you weren’t to blame for losing the baby. We both wanted that baby more than anything, and when things went bad, we didn’t know how to deal with it.”
“You hurt me, Demon.”
“I know, Paige.”
I clasped my hands in my lap and bowed my head. We needed to move past this, or stop trying. I loved Demon. If I let myself go, and didn’t think about anything but Demon, I loved him. “You can’t hurt me again. I can’t take anymore. You almost broke me last time.”
“I will die before I hurt you again, Paige,” Demon vowed.
I closed my eyes, and a small tear slid down my cheek. I was going to do it. I was going to give this man my heart again even though I knew that he might hurt me, I was going to do it. Because I had to admit, the pain was worth it. “OK. Starting right now, Demon, let’s see what happens. There’s just one thing, though.”
“Wh
at’s that?” Demon asked.
“You don’t have to earn my love because you already have it. You have to prove you’re worthy of it. That man seven years ago didn’t deserve it.”
Demon caressed my cheek and tilted my head back. My eyes connected with his and his thumb brushed my lips. “I’m yours, Paige, and I’ll do everything to prove that I deserve your love, because without it, I can’t live any longer.”
________
Chapter 18
Demon
“I can’t remember the last time I did anything like this.” Paige stared down at me, a small smile on her lips.
“Probably that time we went tubing down the river. I swear you screamed whenever something touched you.” I held my hand out to her. “Sit down, I won’t let anything happen to you.” I was freezing my ass off, sitting on a bright blue sled that we had just bought from the store an hour ago, trying to convince Paige to sit down in between my legs.
“This is a perfect example of what crazy things you come up with if you don’t have a plan. Who goes sledding?”
“We do. Now sit your ass down and let’s go.”
She grabbed my hand, gripping the whole time while she cautiously sat down in between my legs. She wrapped her arms around my knees and held on for dear life. “It’s just a sled going down a small hill, Paige. No need to cut the circulation off to my legs.”
She didn’t loosen her grip and looked at me over her shoulder. “If I die, Gwen gets all my Mary Moo Moo’s.”
I busted out laughing at the seriousness in her voice. “OK, baby, I’ll remember that, but if you die, the odds are good that I’ll die right along with you.”
“Hardly,” she huffed. “You’re invincible.” She leaned forward and looked down the hill. “I don’t know how you can say that this is a small hill, it’s ginormous.”
I grabbed the rope from each side of the sled and wrapped it around my hands. “It just looks big because you’re scared. Once you get to the bottom, you’ll see it’s not big.”
I moved my legs, setting my feet in the snow to push off and Paige dug her nails into my calves. “What are you doing?” she screeched.
“Paige, calm down. I think we should have stopped at the bar before we came up here. A beer or two might have loosened you up a bit.”
“No, the last time I loosened up a bit I ended up in your truck headed to some place. Me loosening up with you around isn’t a good idea.” I moved my left foot, and she gave a yelp. “Why are you moving?”
I shook my head and wrapped my arms around Paige. “I think it might be best if you just closed your eyes.”
“What, why?” She asked. I ground my feet into the snow, getting as much traction as possible and moved the sled back and forth, smoothing down the snow. “Stop moving!” she demanded.
“I promise to stop moving, as soon as we get to the bottom.”
“Demon, no!” she yelled.
I pushed off, shoving us over the edge of the hill. Paige leaned back into me, her mouth wide open as she screamed bloody murder. We hit a bump that launched us into the air which I thought was awesome, but Paige’s yelp of shock and her arms wrapping around herself and her fingers digging into my arms showed that she didn’t think it was as awesome as I did.
The sled veered to the left, throwing us off course to a clearing of trees at the bottom. I put my right foot in the snow, skidding us to the right as a large cloud of snow surrounded us. Paige waved her arms frantically trying to fan out the snow as I managed to steer us to the clearing.
We were halfway down the hill by the time Paige stopped screaming, and she realized that we weren’t going to die. “Demon!” she squealed as a tree whizzed by us.
I had to admit I judged the hill wrong, because going down it, it did seem pretty fucking big now that we were sliding down it on our asses. “Hold on,” I hollered as we neared the bottom. I put both of my feet down in the snow, trying to slow us down. It was working pretty well until my right boot hit a root, jerking my leg back and my knee almost whacked Paige in the face. I gripped the sides of the sled, trying to steer and put my boot back in the snow when my other foot hit a bump in the snow. I felt the side of the sled lift up, knowing that this was not going to end well.
I wrapped my arms around Paige, pulling her close to me, and rolled off the sled before it threw us off into the trees. I managed to stay on my back, Paige on top of me, and we came to a sliding stop. Paige was sprawled out on top of me, a huge grin on her face. “That was incredible!” she giggled.
I glanced to my left, seeing the trunk of a tree not even three feet away and knew that the amazing ride Paige just had could have ended completely differently. My head plopped down in the snow, and I closed my eyes. Thank fuck we didn’t hit that tree.
“Do you think we can do that again?”
I opened my eyes and was face to face with Paige who was beaming down at me, a huge smile on her face, and her cheeks flush. “I thought you didn’t want to go sledding, now you want to go again?” I wasn’t sure if my heart could take another ride like that. Although the beginning of it wasn’t bad, the ending almost killed me.
“That was before I knew how fun it was.” She moved to push off of me, but I wrapped my arms around her.
“Paige, let me catch my breath.”
“Come on, you can’t tell me that wasn’t fun. Granted the landing could have been a bit more graceful,” she giggled.
“Oh, really,” I laughed. “You think the landing needs improvement?”
“Yup, that’s why we should go again and this time, you can get it right.” She pulled out of my arms and ran over to the sled that was twenty feet away and wedged between two trees. I sat up and brushed the snow off of my gloves. Paige trudged back over, the sled gliding behind her, and I couldn’t help but notice the huge, glowing smile that was on her face. Her dark brown hair had started tucked under her hat but was now flowing behind her, and her hat was on crooked. “Come on, old man. If you don’t get up that hill with me, I’ll make you run back to the store and get two sleds so we can race each other down the hill.”
Like hell, that was going to happen. I could only imagine Paige going down the hill by herself. I quickly stood up, brushing the snow off of my pants and followed the skid mark my body had left in the snow and grabbed the sled from her. “I’ll be doing the driving, baby. You need to just hold on.”
“Humph.” She threaded her arm through mine and held onto my arm. “I see how well that worked last time.”
I threaded my fingers through hers and pulled her close. “You do know I’m going to be sore as hell tomorrow,” I chuckled.
“I have no sympathy for you. This was all your idea.” She strutted off in front of me, her hips swaying back and forth. “Besides,” she said over her shoulder, “it wouldn’t be the first time you’re sore after an afternoon with me.” She winked at me and then hightailed it up the hill, leaving me behind.
I stood still, watching her. This was the Paige I had known seven years ago. Her playful banter mixed with her straight-laced ways was the reason I had fallen in love with her. You never knew what was going to come out of her mouth, but that was all part of her charm.
She was giving me a chance, and you can bet your ass I was going to take it.
________
Chapter 19
Paige
“How is it I’ve lived thirty-one years and never sat in front of a fireplace drinking hot chocolate?” I was perched in front of the huge fireplace, pillows surrounding me with Demon laying on his side next to me. I had a steaming cup of hot chocolate in my hands, and Demon had a cup of coffee in front of him.
“Hmm, I’m not sure. I’m glad I get to be your first, though,” Demon winked at me and took a sip of his coffee.
Every time the damn man winked at me, butterflies attacked my stomach, and it took all my willpower not to jump into his arms and let him have his way with me. “How does your butt feel?”
Demon shook his head and grab
bed one of the pillows from around me and shoved it under his head. “It felt better before I skidded down the hill on it.”
Demon had lost his footing the last time we had hiked up the hill and had proceeded to slide down the hill on his butt, backward. I giggled under my breath and took a small sip of my cocoa. “That’s what happens in your old age apparently, huh?”
“My age has nothing to do with the fact that the hill was slick as shit.”
“Excuses, excuses,” I mumbled. “I’m gonna pop some popcorn, do you want any?”
“How can you be hungry after all the food we just ate?” We had stopped at the local pub down the hill before heading back to the house, and I had gorged on greasy, yummy bar food.
“I only had a burger and fries. And cheese curds. And deep fried pickles.” I propped my hands on my hips and looked down at Demon. “OK, I had a lot of food then, but I’m hungry for popcorn now.”
“Well, I guess I can’t argue with that logic. Pop that popcorn and bring your ass back here.” Demon patted the floor next to him and wouldn’t you know, he fucking winked at me. Initiate butterflies in my stomach in 3...2...1…
“You need to stop doing that,” I huffed and headed into the kitchen.
“What exactly is it that I need to stop doing?” Demon asked.
I opened the cupboard and grabbed down the box of popcorn. I ignored Demon’s question. There was no way in hell that I was about to tell him that his wink gave me butterflies and made me feel things in places I shouldn’t be feeling things.
I was leaning against the counter, watching the bag of popcorn go around in the microwave when Demon’s arms wrapped around me from the back, and he pulled me to his chest. “How am I supposed to stop something, when you don’t tell me what it is that I need to stop,” he growled into my ear. His hand spanned my stomach, holding me in place. “You need to tell me, baby.”
Fighting Demon: Devil's Knights Series Page 10
