Demon pulled the truck into the parking lot, parked, turned off the engine, set the brake with a little more force than necessary and turned to study her. He was aware of a pressure in his chest he had never suffered before. He didn't like it. "I thought you wanted to show me your shop?"
"I do, but its meeting day! And from the cars in the lot, everyone showed up for once."
"Afraid the employees won't approve of your new boyfriend?" His voice, so cold the chill snapped Clyties head around, buried the hurt he tried to conceal.
"What? No. You don't understand." She unbuckled and pulled her legs up until she sat facing him on her knees. "They aren't employees, well they are but they are also family, as in my sister, brother in law, my niece, my nephew, and with my luck they will have my crazy Aunts on the speaker phone.” O.K. probably an exaggeration but the remote possibility struck fear in her heart.
If possible, he got colder. "So it’s your family I'm not good enough to meet. Fine for a fuck but you wouldn't want to be seen with me." He grabbed her by the arms and hauled her into his lap. His grip hard but careful enough not to bruise. It was the pain in his eyes that really hurt. "Fuck that Clytie! You hear me?" He shook her so hard she had to hold his thighs for balance. "You're mine and everyone’s going to know about it, so you better get used to it."
She almost blasted him for his poor opinion of her, if he thought she was capable of... On the other hand they had only known each other a day and in his position she might have made the same assumption, asinine though it was. She'd hurt his feelings. It hadn’t occurred to her that she could and that made her want to kick her own ass. She tried to think of something to say that would make it better. She shook off his hands and he let her, seeming to brace himself. She placed one hand on his scar and one hand on his neck over his tattoo.
"I am not ashamed of you. I've never been in this situation before and I'm not sure how everyone is going to react. Plus, I was supposed to call after my date last night to let my sister know I got home safe and now,” she said her voice becoming more adamant with each point she ticked off. "Now I missed the Wednesday morning meeting and everyone is here, no doubt to begin organized searches for my mutilated remains!" By the time she finished she held his face in a vise grip. "You think I want the first guy who ever made me feel like you do to walk into that the first day? Absofreakinlutely not!" She placed a hard kiss on his mouth and rubbed her hand along his scarred cheek in apology. "Now go get some coffee."
He studied her face for a long minute and gradually the ice left his eyes and he buried his face in her neck and breathed deep as she stroked his head. He nuzzled her neck and lifted his head. "No." He kissed her lips, placed her back on her seat, undid his own seat belt, and stepped out of the truck.
"Please?" She said frantic. He met her eyes across the seat right before he closed the door. "Pretty please?!" She yelled.
Instead of answering, he rounded the truck and pulled her door open, reaching in to lift her from the truck.
"Seriously Demon, Coffee good. Meeting overprotective insane family bad." He just placed her on her feet and pulled her behind him as he headed for the shop. "Oh lord." Her voice became a little frantic. “We should just go home and have sex, come back later.” Demon stopped, as if he seriously considered it, then shrugged. “Too soon.” She opened her mouth, then shut it again allowing him to pull her along.
The Amber Dragonfly was what he had expected. Classy and girly, it was the type of place geared entirely toward women and gay men.
The building itself was one shop among many on a quaint little old-fashioned cobbled street. Situated between a pastel candy shop and a toy store. The deep burgundy paint job and shiny amber dragonfly drew the eye. Two big picture windows opened to a virtual treasure trove of home decor, and dark wood furniture. The selling floor opened wide and flowed from living room to dining room, to bedroom without any obvious effort. Affluent looking browsers wandered both the streets outside and the store. Two associates in burgundy aprons with amber dragonflies above the pocket helped customers and rang up sales.
Everyone to a man stopped what they were doing when Demon and Clytie walked in the room. Of course, he did look a bit like a seven-foot bull in a china shop. Clytie smiled brightly. A little too brightly actually.
"Hey Ruth, I take it you came back for that chandelier."
The customer, a blonde in her forties in a silk suit and heals glanced from Clytie and Demon to their clasped hands. "Yes. I decided Sarah’s right. Definitely the final touch we need." She stared at Demon, then Clytie. Before Clytie could form an introduction, another woman, a red head resembling Clytie around the eyes came out from the back room and gaped at them.
"Where have you been?!"
Clytie flinched but continued to smile at the customer. "Excuse me Ruth." She dragged Demon through the store to face the sister, who had her hands on her hips and blood in her eye.
"I know you’re angry but can we at least get off the sales floor before you start yelling?" Clytie whispered from where she stopped right before her sister. Her sister was too busy examining Demon and didn't seem to hear her. In the full shop, he looked even bigger. He towered over Clytie and the rest of the room, doing his best to look inconspicuous. Yeah right.
"Sarah Mary!"
"What?"
"Let us through."
She stepped back and had to keep going when Demon ducked under the doorjamb to follow. A small storeroom meticulously organized stood beside a door open to a breakroom and employee bathroom. Down the hall through another door, they entered a fenced in garden.
Five people in all, besides the sister, began talking at once when they saw Clytie. They shut up when Demon ducked under the door behind her.
"Everyone. This is Demon." She said sweeping her arm out to encompass the whole yard. "Demon this is everyone."
"Cool name." The teenager in the back jumped up from a twisted metal bench. "Check out the scar." A young woman reached over and slapped him upside the head.
"We were trying to decide whether we should call the cops when you finally decided to show up." Sarah Mary tapped her toes, eyeing Demon as if she weighed his possible value, and found him lacking.
"Sorry. I forgot to call last night after my date ended."
"Did it?"
"Did it what?"
"End?"
"My date lasted a record ten minutes."
"Seven." Demon interjected, it was the first time he spoke.
Clytie shook her head at him in warning.
Sarah looked doubtfully at Demon. "So how do you know Meg?"
"He doesn't." Clytie answered for him. “I met Demon after the blind date ended. Maybe I should take care of the paycheck situation before we get acquainted."
"I figured it out. The paychecks are being printed as we speak. Where did you two meet?"
"At a bar."
"Go Clytie!" The teenager pumped his fist making Clytie laugh but nobody else seemed to find it amusing.
Sarah was not distracted, though she did throw her teenage son a warning glare before continuing the interrogation.
"You went home alone with a strange man?"
"Actually no."
"You didn't go home with him?" Sarah relaxed slightly.
"Not that this is any of your business, Mom, but we didn't go home alone."