Free Demon Bound by Meljean Brook

why. Halfway across her courtyard, Jake had realized it hadn’t just been a stupid thing to say aloud—it’d been wrong to boot.
    He’d always assumed his hormones were partially to blame for the crap that came out of his mouth. But in the forty-five minutes he’d spent with her, his only sexual thought had been a passing curiosity about spider reproduction—and yet he’d still managed to set a new record in dickery.
    Unfortunately for them both, he couldn’t stop thinking about that temple, and everything in that badass museum she called her quarters. They’d just have to get used to each other.
    Something tickled the nape of his neck. Jake spun around, slapping at his shoulders, his hair. His fingers brushed a strand of . . . web? A spider leg?
    With a shudder, he yanked it away from his skin—and ripped a hole in the neck of his shirt.
    A cotton thread was pinched between his fingers. Jake stared at it, disbelieving. Jesus Christ in Heaven. He’d crawled through jungles without giving spiders a second thought. He’d taken bullets to his head. He’d tracked nosferatu, nephilim, and demons—and killed one.
    Why was he going girly over a string?
    Hell. Maybe spending more time with the Black Widow would be good for him.

    Alice fed the spiders, bathed, and settled her nerves before she heard the novice’s return. Two hours. She moved to her front doors, musing that Jake must have been surrounded by passive and forgiving people during his formative years if he thought that was enough time for tempers to cool.
    Or he was just clever. He waited on the opposite side of Remus and Romulus’s web, and when Alice emerged from her quarters, he said, “There’s no hourglass. Just these red dots.”
    So these will be our safe zones, Alice thought. Arachnids and artifacts.
    “Only the females have the hourglass mark,” she said.
    Jake leaned his shoulder against the column. A casual pose, but his alert gaze didn’t leave her face. “So they’re just two guys sharing a web. Alone.”
    “It’s for their safety.” At his questioning look, she explained, “Only the females live upstairs. Remus and Romulus will sire the next generation, but unless I rescue them after each mating . . .” Alice shrugged lightly. “Well.”
    “A good way to go, though.”
    “Better than some, I suppose.”
    “You suppose ? Then you obviously haven’t had—” He stopped. Started again with “Did you take a bath?”
    A laugh startled from her. “How on Earth did you decide that question was preferable to your original statement?”
    “It’s why I’m here.” He shook his head. “Not to bathe you, but—Where’d you get the hot water?”
    He’d already leapt out of their safe zone, but Alice followed him, curious now to where this led. “Irena’s smithy.”
    “So you brought it from Earth in your hammerspace? That’s a good idea.”
    “Indeed. But—”
    “I thought you might be going to Seattle. For Charlie’s thing at Cole’s.”
    Another leap. But was this a new direction? “I am.”
    “I came here to see, but I couldn’t tell if you were going, because you’re still wearing that black thing. But the air’s humid, so you must have taken a bath.”
    Guardians could remove dirt from their bodies and clothing by vanishing it into their cache—so Jake apparently thought that the only reason a Guardian woman might bathe was to prepare for a party.
    Amused now, Alice said, “I did.”
    He sighed. “Look, I just didn’t want to insult you. I was trying to decide if you knew about it. I’ve known people who become all offended if they don’t get a formal invitation, even when it’s just a thrown-together thing like this is.”
    How surprisingly thoughtful. “I’ve known several people like that, too.” Her eyes narrowed. “You’re here to offer me transport?”
    “Yeah. But it might be a little bumpy.”
    That was of no consequence. Teleporting would save her an hour’s flight—and if Ethan knew