Free The_Demons_Wife_ARC by Rick Hautala Page B

watching her
even now as she got dressed.
    Feeling
suddenly exposed and vulnerable, she turned away from him while she hitched the
clasp on her bra and adjusted it, pulled on her panties and jeans, and then
buttoned up her blouse.
    “You want
something? Coffee, maybe?”
    “I’m good,” he
replied without the slightest trace of sleepiness in his voice.
    “I’ll be back
in a sec, then,” Claire said.
    She walked out
barefoot into the kitchen, automatically looking for Mittens, who would demand
to be fed. She didn’t give it much thought when she didn’t see Mittens, and she
set about brewing some coffee as if it was early morning. While the coffee was
brewing, she grabbed a bowl, spoon, and box of granola. She decided to forego thawing
a cupful of blueberries she usually added to the cereal. She poured a bowlful
of granola, drenched it with milk, and then sat down to eat.
    Moments later,
Samael strolled into the kitchen, stark naked. She couldn’t help but stare at
his unusual physiology. As casual as can be, he sat down at the opposite end of
the small table. He had a perfectly neutral expression on his face as he
propped his clenched fist under his chin, rested his elbow on the tabletop, and
stared—unblinking—at her.
    “So,” he said,
drawing out the “S.”
    “So, what?”
Claire replied, not sure where he might be taking this. She was still wondering
if she would ever get used to him not having genitals.
    I will if he
keeps using his tail the way he did last night, she thought and couldn’t suppress
a small chuckle.
    “What’s so
funny?” Samael asked, looking at her, his eyes glistening in the dim light like
wet marble. His skin looked brick red.
    “No…Nothing,”
Claire said even as she wondered if he could really read her mind and was
asking simply to test her or to amuse himself.
    “Well, it’s
gotta be something,” he said.
    Claire tried
to avoid his steady stare because she knew—especially now—just how hypnotic it
could be. She felt as though she would do, say, or think anything to please
him, until she reminded herself that he was a genuine demon…as in one of the
meanest, baddest of the bad guys.
    “No,” she
said, “I was just thinking…there’s so much we have to learn, to get to know
about each other.”
    Samael smiled
in a way that made Claire wonder if he already knew all about her…no doubt, too
much. But before she could say more, her cell phone chirped. Irritated, she
grabbed her purse from the counter, fished around inside it until she found her
phone, and glanced at the Caller ID.
    “Oh, shit,”
she muttered when she saw her parents’ number.
    Samael smiled
at her. The two tips of his tongue flickered out between his impossibly white
teeth.
    “Let it go to
message if you don’t want to talk to her,” he said.
    That did it.
With that comment, Claire knew he had ways of knowing things about her that
were not ordinary. Even if he didn’t know it was her mother, how did he know
the caller was female?
    Claire was
tempted to answer the phone simply to avoid talking to Samael for the time
being, but the phone chirped two more times and then went silent. It was still
in her hand, her palm so slick with sweat it made the plastic housing of the
phone feel greasy, when it beeped to signal that her mother—or father—had left
a message, something they usually avoided.
    Maybe something’s
wrong? Claire thought.
    Maybe
something had happened to one of them…or her brother, who still lived in
Houlton and worked as a mechanic at a local garage.
    Her hand was
trembling as she placed the phone down on the counter. Then she took a deep
breath, held it, and turned, determined to confront Samael, at least on this
one minor detail.
    “How’d you
know the person calling me was a woman?” she asked in a shaky voice.
    Samael looked
at her, his expression all innocence.
    How easy it
must be for him to lie, she thought.
    “What’s that?”
    “You said to
let it go to message if