A Demon Mates Novella Series

SIENNA

I nursed my blueberry daiquiri as I leaned farther into the booth, watching my friends and older sister gripe about changing diapers, tired spouses, and relationship woes.

It was all they talked about these days. We had gone out tonight to get away from all that.

I’d easily set aside my job and come to dinner. They, on the other hand…

If I had known, I wouldn’t have come out. A new Netflix documentary had been released yesterday, and it was calling my name along with the bottle of wine I had abandoned for what was supposed to be fun.

This wasn’t fun.

Someone jabbed me in the side, tearing my attention away from the grinning couple who had just gotten married a month ago. Scowling one last time at them, I looked at the man beside me.

Scott Murphy. Perfect hair, gorgeous smile. His whole life ahead of him. Within our friend group, we were the only unattached ones left. The running joke was that if we both hit thirty-five without any prospects, we’d get hitched.

I should have never touched that man, my carnal desires working harder than my head as we jumped into bed more times than I could count. We had never made anything official because, despite all of his wonderful qualities, he was a pushover when it came down to it.

To be fair, I was a bit of a brat. I needed someone to tame my brazenness rather than succumb to it.

Excusing myself from the table under the guise that I was looking for the bathroom, I escaped to momentary freedom, frowning when I caught Scott trailing behind me. “Do you need something?”

He sighed, running his hand through his hair, messing it up just enough for his hotness factor to skyrocket another 10 percent. Still didn’t make me want him. “Can we talk?”

I resisted the urge to groan because I knew exactly where this conversation was going. “Sure, what’s up?”

He let out another big sigh, taking a few steps toward me before wrapping his hands around my waist and pulling me in for a kiss.

Maybe I was desperate or stupid or a little bit of both. But I leaned into his touch instead of denying it.

“Shit, babe. I just think…maybe we can take this a step further.”

And there it was. Scott brushed a fallen lock from my hairstyle behind my ear, smiling at me. “We’ve been hanging out for what, almost a year? I just—”

I didn’t want the poor man to stumble through a confession, because there was no world in which I would say yes. “Scott, wait.” I removed his hands from my waist, clasping them together like we were about to pray or some shit.

Oh, this had been the wrong way to go about it, but it was too late now.

I could already see the disappointment welling up in his eyes. And I was about to be cast out of our little friend group for breaking perfect Scott’s heart.

“I just don’t see an us. I know it’s not what you want to hear, but I’m not going to lie to you.”

I hoped that’d be the end of it, but in my experience, the guys who said they were nice were usually the worst of the pack. His brows creased as he stared at me, mulling through what he wanted to say.

I could see the disappointment turning to anger. This was the absolute worst place to have this conversation. Everyone in the goddamn restaurant would hear us, and he would most definitely make it look like I was the bad guy.

Maybe I shouldn’t have kissed him.

Well, shit.

I stepped past him and headed for the entrance, hating that I’d paid $11 for the daiquiri and hadn’t even gotten to finish it.

He followed me. “Just like that? We were what, just fucking? Is that all it was to you?”

“I mean, yeah? We never discussed relationships or feelings or anything else. Wait, is that what you thought this was? A relationship?” I wanted to burst out laughing. He couldn’t possibly think that fucking equaled marriage.

“Sienna, you’re kind of a bitch, you know that? I thought we had something, thought we were working toward something. I should have known you’d be just like the others—”

I held up my hand.

For every trait that Scott had, I had it better. I was self-sufficient, dominant, and determined in a career that would have nearly $200k in my pocket starting next year.

I didn’t need this man. I sure as hell wasn’t going to step down for him.

“Scott, I don’t need to hear your rant about how I’m a bitch—”

I growled at the incessant vibration in my pocket, whipping the phone out to see that my job beckoned. A smile overtook my face as I answered it. “Sorry, work calls.”

Giving him no time to reply, I slipped into my car and sped off.

I was back to the drawing board for men to warm my bed. Scott was a walking red flag. All of my other friends were married, so the only option now was to reopen my Tinder profile.

Regardless, I had a time-sensitive project on my desk, and then a documentary to take my mind off of everything I didn’t have.

I should have known that my boss would just leave the goddamn folder on my desk. I flopped into my chair, relishing the corner office I had been gifted when I made executive director at my tech firm.

Taking a moment to swivel in the expensive leather before firing up my computer, I ran through some of the numbers and sighed. This was going to be an all-night project.

I fished in the bottom drawer for my secret flask, grinning when it was still half full.

My eyes drifted to the family picture on my desk as I sipped. I was always the fifth wheel. Mom and Dad had been married for nearly forty-five years; Piper and her husband, Brice, had been married for twelve.

And then there was me, who’d never had a boyfriend longer than six months. I liked it that way, regardless of what my sister constantly said.

Everyone told me that I worked too much, that I spend way too much time perfecting a job that wouldn’t further my personal interests.

Joke was on them as I left the stragglers behind. Unfortunately, that left a bit of a hole when it came to relationships, leaving my sex life a little worse for wear.

Dear god or whoever the fuck grants wishes, send me a tolerable entity that will make this life a little less insufferable. Amen.

I held my grandmother’s pearls while I did it—well, my version of pearls, which was just my grandmother’s Satanic necklace.

It was probably sacrilegious to do that, but it was a form of comfort, so I merely shrugged and began working.

Then the air shifted around me, the temperature dropping several degrees.

I looked up to see two very large creatures, complete with gnarled horns and tails.

They were the color of midnight, leather skin wrapped around large muscles, the dark cloths covering them waist down leaving little to the imagination.

Their eyes, strangely enough, were starry skies—midnight blues full of sparkling lights that held both mystery and death.

For a moment, my horny-ass brain thought back to all those monster erotica books and how pleasured the main character felt when she gave herself over to them.

This wasn’t that.

Their tails whipped and slashed through the air as they stepped forward in unison.

“You called?” The one on the right asked.

His voice was a rich baritone, the sound sending vibrations straight to my core. There was no fucking way this was happening to me.

I could also just be on some really weird trip, I guess. But I hadn’t touched drugs since I was twenty-one.

“Maybe?”

They sported identical animalistic grins. My blood heated from the pure ecstasy that swept through the air.

I bit back a whine, eyes widening as I tried to hold back whatever I was feeling. Unbelievable. I had definitely fallen asleep or something.

“Good.” A contract the size of a dictionary was dropped on my desk in front of me, a pen produced by one of the monsters. “Read and sign please.”

Oh, I was definitely dreaming. In no world had I somehow accidentally summoned two beasts to my work office to sign a contract. I ignored the reading part, initialing immediately.

I probably should have read it.