The Devil You Know by Jenna Black Read Free Book Online

him back immediately.”
    My gaze drifted away from my hands. “Do you think he is? Trusting enough, I mean.”
    An expression crossed Lugh’s face that looked suspiciously like bitterness. “No. Only I was naive enough to reveal my True Name to anyone. But it was a long time ago, and relations between myself and my brothers weren’t so strained yet. At least, not outwardly. When they both reneged on the promise to reciprocate, I had my first inkling that all was not well between us. I’m sure Raphael has learned from my mistake. But even if he didn’t reveal his True Name, rank has its privileges, and he could have made his way back by now. Especially with Dougal’s help.”
    Until I’d met Lugh, I hadn’t known anything about True Names, hadn’t even known they’d existed. I still knew very little—only that someone who knew a demon’s True Name could summon him specifically to the Mortal Plain. Questions tumbled over themselves in my brain trying to get out, but Lugh didn’t wait for me to sort through them.
    “Don’t you think you should speak to your mother?” The look on his face told me the change of subject was deliberate—and nonnegotiable.
    I was tempted to press, despite my conviction that it wouldn’t do any good, but I managed to resist. “You’re not going to lay a guilt trip on me, are you? Because you have to know my mom isn’t going to tell me anything even if I cave and talk to her.”
    “I know you believe that. I don’t know if it’s true.”
    My head jerked up, and I opened my mouth to say something scathing. Lugh stopped my words with an imperious gesture.
    “But I also know,” he continued loudly, “that the more anyone tries to talk you into doing it, the more you’re going to dig your heels in.”
    That effectively shut me up. He was right, of course, though I wasn’t completely comfortable with the admission. It made me sound kind of childish.
    “So if you didn’t bring me here to persuade me to do what you want, and you’re not going to answer all the questions I have, then what are you actually up to?” I asked. I realized my eyes were roving over the exposed areas of his chest, and I once again dropped my gaze to my own hands. They were much less interesting.
    “Would you believe I was just hoping we could get reacquainted?”
    “No.”
    He laughed again, tricking me into looking up. God, he was gorgeous! His hair was unbound today, framing his face in a raven’s wing halo. My skin remembered how silky that hair was to the touch. Not that we’d ever had any sexual relationship, nothing above some very aggressive flirting on his part—and some rampant desire on mine.
    He cocked his head at me. “You’re not dating Brian anymore. Why are you still so uncomfortable with your attraction to me?”
    I tried not to squirm. “Hey, you’re the one who can see into all the nooks and crannies in my mind. You tell me .”
    He looked terribly amused. “Would you actually listen to anything I told you?”
    Of course, he knew the answer to that, too. “Is there any chance we could just stick to business?”
    He leaned forward on the couch, letting his hair flow over his shoulders to drape over the skin of his chest. I pressed my thighs together and reminded myself of the unfair advantage he had in the seduction and manipulation department.
    “Your emotional well-being is my business,” he said. “You’re my host, and yet I’m utterly dependent on you. It is not the most comfortable of situations for either of us. The better you cope with the reality of our relationship, the better off we’ll both be.”
    I shook my head. “None of that means you have to keep coming on to me!”
    He met my mutinous gaze. “Do you think I’d keep doing it if you weren’t responding to me?”
    “Since this is a dream and you control everything about it, you can make me respond whether I want to or not.”
    He smiled, the expression equal parts amusement and exasperation.