'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.
'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,
'What does that mean?'
'It means we were never alone. Demon lives with two guys.'
'Excuse me?!'
Before Clytie could answer, Demon placed a hand over her soft mouth. She turned and peeked up at him with a twinkle in her eyes. She was doing it on purpose.
'I share a compound with two other members of my old military unit. We built the house together but we each have separate wings.' The little vixen licked his palm, the hard on that seemed to be a regular occurrence around her sprang to life. He whipped his hand away glaring at her to behave.
'Isn't that what I said?'
He pulled her in front of him by her shoulders so as not to flash his erection at everyone. 'No.' He said his voice a rough growl. Everyone but Clytie stepped back. 'It was not.' Clytie laughed, forcing him to smile, which caused everyone to take another step back. Clytie reached up and patted his scarred cheek. She lost her smile when she turned and noticed her family was nervous around him.
'You think he's scary, you should meet his roommates.'
He clenched his jaw. 'They are not my roommates.'
'But they are scary?'
He was not about to continue this conversation. Instead, he growled and brushed his hand down Clyties neck in soft warning. The small shuddered reaction from Clytie was lost on no one. The sister narrowed her eyes even further.
“Clytie, can I talk to you for a minute? Alone?”
Clytie sighed.
“Of course.” She held up her purse, eyeing Demon. “You want to hold my bag?” He didn’t but either he held her purse or everyone was going to see how happy his dick was. That was all he needed with the family eyeing him so suspiciously. He took her purse and ignored the fact she was trying not to laugh. He was so going to spank her sweet ass when he got her home.
As soon as Clytie and Sarah were back in the building, the lanky teenager came closer. He stood next to Demon reaching no higher than his armpit. “So you and Clytie huh?”
Another man approached, about five foot nine with brown hair and eyes, he had the unmistakable air of career military. “So what exactly do you do for a living?”
“Security.”
“Bouncer?”
“Computers. Security systems mostly.”
“What branch of service did you serve?”
“Navy.”
“Air force. What did you do in the service?”
“Special Ops.”
“Seal teams?”
“Yes sir.”
He mulled that over. “Clytie is special.”
