I’m simply waiting for her to recover fully, I told myself, though it still felt like a hollow excuse.

I tried to avoid thinking about Tessa as I made the needed changes to the large diagram—the one that would serve as the actual summoning circle. Each level of demon required a slightly different ritual and means of crafting the protections, and the last demon I’d summoned had been the zhurn Skalz. In some ways the summoning of Rhyzkahl would be easier, even though he was a far more powerful creature. Since I had an existing arrangement with him, I didn’t have to maintain the wards and bindings that would normally keep me from being torn into ugly pieces by the demon before the terms were set. But the forming of the portal itself was trickier, and even though it didn’t necessarily require more potency, my concentration had to be spot-on.

I pulled the arcane power to me, shaping it and feeding it into the diagram with the ease of far too much practice. It didn’t feel natural to be so adept at summoning a demonic lord. Then again, this is a demonic lord who wants to be summoned. A summoning of an unwilling demonic lord would require several summoners and a helluva lot more power. I was insanely proud of my storage diagram, but I had serious doubts that it could hold enough power to summon an unwilling demonic lord. Maybe have several diagrams? But then the summoning would become even more complicated by the need to draw power smoothly and evenly from multiple sources . . .

I scowled and shook my head, returning my full focus to what I doing. Now was not the time to allow my attention to wander. I could feel the portal as it formed, joining the two spheres, creating the slit in the universe. An icy wind rose from nowhere, whipping through the basement as the sigils in the diagram began to glow in arcane brilliance. The power surged through me with intoxicating surety as I spoke the demon’s name.

“Rhyzkahl.”

A heartbeat later the portal snapped closed, the wind and light gone as if they’d never been. My eyes adjusted to the sudden dark enough to see the crouched figure in the circle. As he straightened I dropped the wardings and protections around the diagram. They weren’t meant to keep him contained anyway. I didn’t have the means or power to create arcane bindings that could hold him.

He shook his white blond hair back to send it rippling in a perfect silken fall down his back. Holy shit, he was gorgeous. The sight of him took my breath away. Every. Single. Time. Angelic features—the kick-butt guardian angel kind, not the dorky cherub sort—coupled with broad shoulders and a narrow waist. Everything perfectly taut and muscled. His eyes were a sharp blue, full of carefully controlled power, deep and ancient. He was wearing a black silk shirt, unbuttoned and untucked, and black breeches and boots as well. And somehow he managed to still look like a complete badass instead of a romance novel cover model. No, the dangerous air about him wasn’t a “bad boy” vibe. It was more of a “I have the power and the willingness to destroy you with the flick of my little finger” vibe.

“You grow more adept at handling the portal,” he said with an approving nod, and I couldn’t help but feel a smug pride. He had no problem giving me shit when I screwed something up, so a compliment from him about matters of the arcane was a legitimate reason to feel good.

He stepped to me and kissed me lightly—almost tenderly, then stroked the back of his fingers over my cheek. “You look well. Rested.” He bent and kissed me again, and this time it wasn’t tender at all. This was a “you’re mine” kiss that sent my pulse slamming and heat surging down to my toes. His arms came around me as I molded myself against him. It was so much of a habit I hardly even thought about it anymore. Good thing, since rational thought was barely possible. His hands slipped under my shirt and within seconds he’d pulled it off. A heartbeat later I was on my back on the carpet as he deftly tugged my silk pants off and cast them aside.

“Wait, I—” I groaned as his mouth came down on my breast, tongue teasing my nipple even as one of his hands slid between my legs. Holy crap, he’d never been like this before—on me with barely any preamble or conversation. “Rhyzkahl, what—”

“Hush,” he growled as he shifted lower, at which time I ceased to worry at all about silly things like conversation. It didn’t take long for him to achieve the desired result, and while I was still struggling for breath from the one orgasm, he slid into me and quickly drove me headlong toward another.

I woke from a doze at the feel of him lightly caressing my thigh. I opened my eyes and gave him a sleepy smile. “Sorry. I guess I nodded off.”

“No need for apology,” he said. He was propped up on one elbow, looking down at me as he stroked his hand along my leg. “I had no fear that I had bored you.”

My lips twitched. “Has anyone ever told you that you’re kinda cocky?”

His crystal-blue eyes flashed with amusement, and I almost expected him to grin, but only a slight smile curved his mouth. “Never,” he stated in a deep and ominous tone that made it clear that dire punishments would be visited upon anyone who dared speak with such disrespect to a creature of his power.

I raised an eyebrow. “Yeah? Well, you are.”

He chuckled. “Ah, dear one, I do enjoy you,” he said, leaning over to lightly kiss random spots on my torso.

I gave a slightly breathless laugh. “I’m glad you enjoy this. I’d hate to think you saw fucking me as a chore.”

He lifted his head and fixed his gaze on me, eyes narrowed. “Do not slight yourself in such a manner.”

I blinked at him in surprise.

“I said I enjoy you. I also enjoy giving you this pleasure.”

I stared at him in even more surprise. This was the first time I’d heard the demonic lord express anything that could be interpreted as fondness or affection. Expressing a desire to fuck me didn’t really count as the same thing in my book.

He traced a finger down my ribs. I could feel my skin ripple in gooseflesh in its wake. “So naive you are, in so many ways.” He laughed low in his throat and I scowled. He glanced at me. “That was not meant as a slight, dear one. You have incredible depths yet to be discovered, and I look forward to discovering what desires you’ve not yet realized.”

I controlled the shiver of reaction with effort and sat up, since I knew that if I continued lying next to him I’d probably grab him and do more nasty-nasty with him. I hadn’t even intended to do this much with him, but he had a way of breaking down my willpower. Rhyzkahl might go on about how he enjoyed me or whatever, but I had a niggling feeling that part of the reason he enjoyed this was because it made me feel weird and confused about my feelings for Ryan. And Rhyzkahl had made it fairly clear before that he wasn’t fond of Ryan. He knew something about the FBI agent—knew that there was more to him. Somehow every time I had the chance to ask Rhyzkahl about him, some reason came up that I couldn’t do it. And, this month I had a far more pressing need for information about Skalz’s strange offer.

“Okay, this has been very enjoyable,” I said as I tugged my shirt on. “But you owe me two answers.”

He stood and pulled his clothing back into place. Any other man would have looked silly or skeevy with his pants pushed down past his hips. Not Rhyzkahl.

Then again, he wasn’t a man.

He sat in the armchair by the fireplace and gave me a slight smile. “Of course, dear one. What is it you wish to know this time?”

I slid my pants on and then hitched myself onto the table before fixing him with as steely a glare as I could manage. “Why does the demon Skalz believe that I’m in sufficient peril that he feels it appropriate to offer his services as a guardian?”