Demons Don't Know How To Love

Chapter Five. Lunch

I never thought that something as simple as getting dressed could be so difficult. Yes, I no longer had to squeeze all my insides with a corset or wear long, layered skirts that I endlessly got tangled in. But, Satan, have mercy, why did someone come up with a thong?! Seriously, they don't even fulfill their primary function! I was discouraged by this strange piece of clothing.

But Dantalion rejoiced like a little child. With a Cheshire cat smile, he helped me figure out the purpose of dubious wardrobe items, while not missing the opportunity to touch me in the most interesting places on my body. I resisted as best I could, but the advantage was on his side. The advantage is always on his side. He is bigger than me, stronger than me, and my body obeys his desires.

To my great joy, common sense prevailed over his instincts, and Dantalion helped me get dressed eventually. And when I say common sense, I mean Christophe. He knocked on the door as I was pressed into the wall by the demon's hot body. One of his hands was covering my mouth because, according to him, I was moaning too loudly and the other hand was doing its magic under my lacy underwear. Loudly swearing at the butler, Dantalion helped me pull on my clothes and led me to the dining room.

Logan and Anya were already waiting for us at the dinner table. Both tactfully kept silent, not commenting on my very shabby appearance and the displeased face of Dantalion. Sitting down at the table across from Anya, I smiled at her. The woman looked at me with ill-concealed irritation, one of the corners of her lips was twitching strangely, and it frightened me.

Logan started talking about some "shopping centers" and placing some "boutiques" in them. I didn't really understand what he was talking about.

When the food was served, I was a little taken aback. Mostly because the amount of cutlery that was laid out on the table increased several times. And the food itself was luxurious. I was almost certain that neither the governor nor the court whom I served had ever seen such food in their entire lives. It was a feast fit for a king. As the servants bustled about placing dishes between us, I felt something touch my knee under the table. Looking down, I saw that Logan had placed a thin book on my lap. I couldn't read the title, but the cover showed a fork and knife, which allowed me to guess what it was about. I smiled gratefully at Logan, and he winked at me. Putting my palms on the book, I closed my eyes.

"Dahlia dear, are you all right?" Anya asked sympathetically.

"Oh, don't distract her, Anya," said Dantalion. “My fiancée is extremely religious. She prays before every meal."

I discreetly tucked the book under my ass and picked up the steak utensils. Squinting at the others, I realized that I had guessed the dish. Oh, thank Logan, the book was full of pictures.

Anya didn’t touch any meat or side dishes during the meal, and she only ate the weird-looking grass. Was she pretending to be a cow? She kept giving me strange looks, but I pretended not to notice it. I was much more interested in the meat on my plate. And the gravy. Mmm, Lucifer never dreamed of such a delicious thing. At some point, I could not hold it in and groaned with pleasure. Everyone at the table looked at me in surprise.

"I beg your pardon," I scooped up a drop of sauce from my chin with my fingertip. "I've never tasted such delicious food before."

Logan smiled broadly and beckoned to the servants. "Tell the chef that our special guest loved the steak."

The girl bowed and ran away from the dining room.

“Dante, how is it that in so many years of friendship I have never heard that you are engaged?” Anya put down the appliances. As soon as her plate was cleared, she rested her elbows on the table and leaned forward a little. “This is some kind of scandalous story, right?”

Dantalion took my hand, intertwining our fingers, and lightly kissed the back of my hand. My first impulse was to rip my arm out and continue enjoying the food, but I didn't. I thought it was impolite.

“I’m afraid to upset you, Anya, but I don’t have any hidden scandal for you.” Dantalion put my hand on his thigh and covered it with his huge palm. A hot shiver ran up my arm at his touch. “Have you and I ever touched upon personal relationships in our conversations? It seemed to me that a woman like you was not interested in the love lives of strangers.”

"Oh, Dante, I'm interested in everything if it’s about you." Her lips stretched into some strange smile.

I didn't understand what she meant, but the steak in my stomach twitched for some reason. I looked at her carefully, then at Dantalion. Could it be that Anya was in love with him? Just thinking about it made my chest feel cold. I suddenly thought that their relationship could be something more than friendship. I knew Dantalion's appetites well, and I understood that he would hardly have managed to spend several years without the company of a woman. Like most demons, he was passionate and insatiable. He demanded that we indulge in love pleasures every night we spent together in Hell. And if we were forced to be apart for several nights, he would not let me out of his arms for days. How could such a creature be alone for several years and not seduce someone to satisfy his needs?

I tried to remove my hand from the demon's leg, but he wouldn't let me.

"Dahlia, dear." Anya turned her gaze to me. “Tell me how you met. Men are so stingy with such stories..."

"Um.." I glanced briefly at Dantalion, hoping that he would somehow help me avoid the conversation on this topic, but he just smiled and nodded at me. “I… um… he helped me once…” I trailed off. I couldn’t tell her that my fiancé left me at the altar, and Dantalion offered to punish him and made me his bride, turning me into a demon with a cursed seal! Or could I?

"Is that all? God, Dahlia, is that how girls in love talk about how they met their suitors?” she leaned back in her chair and gestured for coffee to be poured into her cup. How much of that stuff could she drink?

Did we look like lovers? Perhaps I once had tender feelings for Dantalion, but I forbade myself to think about him in this way when I realized that he would never love me in return. I thought I really loved him. I wanted to be with him always, take care of him, and dream of the day when we would finally get married and belong to each other completely. I wanted us to have children. And even when he told me that he did not believe in love, I did not stop wanting to spend eternity with him. Nothing has changed between us. But then he left me without saying a word. He left me alone, weak, and scared. All his entourage stood up against me and I had to flee from our house. This is not something I would like to tell anyone.

I sighed and looked up at Anya. “I don't know what you want to hear, Anya. When I first met Dante, he seemed frightening and harsh to me..."

"Really? I thought I charmed you the first second we met."

“He helped me when I was broken… He took care of me…”

“Oh, I get it, the story of the knight in shining armor. What did you do to win the lady, Dante?” she sighed coquettishly.

“Nothing special, really. Just smashed her unfaithful ex’s nose,” the demon took a sip of the tea served to him.

"How noble."

“Oh, my goal was by no means noble. From the moment I first saw Dahlia, I knew that I would win her heart by any means necessary. Even if her stupid fiancé hadn't deceived her, I would have taken her away. I knew she would be mine no matter what."

I didn't know how to react to his words. It could be another lie invented by Dantalion. Did he try to show off in front of me? Or that might be his way of showing Anya that he was not interested in her?

Anya obviously did not like his answer. She turned away, crossed her arms over her chest, and bit her lip.

Feeling the tension in the air, Logan hurried to change the subject. “Anna, how is the preparation for the wedding going?”

So is she engaged? Were maids allowed to show affection to men other than their future husbands in those days? When I was engaged, I did not even dare to raise my eyes to another man.

"I have no idea," she shifted in her chair. “We hired a wedding planner and gave her our budget so we didn’t have to do the preparations ourselves. It's so tiring."

“Gods, Anya, what about the wedding of your dreams? As far as I remember, you always had your own vision of this special day.” Sparks also reached for tea.

“If I were to marry the man of my dreams, I would arrange the wedding of my dreams.”

I thought she was going to shoot a glance at Dantalion, talking about the man of her dreams, but she continued to look into Logan's eyes.

"And what about you, Dante?" he looked at the demon. “Are you planning to hire a professional too? Or does Dahlia have some special wishes?”

"Oh no! No, there will be no wedding planners!” Dantalion groaned. “My sweet flower and I will discuss some details, and I will take care of the arrangements myself…”

Anya began to reproach him for his stinginess. Naturally, Logan joined the dispute. I lost interest in their conversation and went back to eating my steak. Since one of my hands was still held captive by Dantalion's hand, I simply speared a piece of meat on a fork and began to bite off it. They were so busy discussing boring wedding matters that they didn’t even pay attention to me when I bit into the steak, removed it from the fork, and continued to eat, holding it in my hand. But the maids laughed.

When my stomach was finally full, I relaxed back into my chair and felt my eyes begin to close. Under the quiet arguments of these three, I began to fall asleep. I was pulled out of my slumber by Logan's hand, brazenly shaking my shoulder.

"Dahlia! Don't you dare fall asleep! We still have a lot to do!”

"What?" I rubbed my eyes. "Sorry. Yes, I remember we had things to do."

Sparks smiled at me. The four of us got up from the table and went out into the spacious corridor. Logan told Christophe to see Anya out, as he took me to the library. Dantalion went with us.

The library turned out to be larger than the room where Anya's assistants rushed around me. There was a low table at the window, completely littered with books and a large white sofa next to it. Tall bookshelves lined the room in neat rows. The room smelled of books and wood. I liked this combination.

"Here's everything you need to learn, Dahlia," Logan said as he walked over to the table. “Remember, no one is rushing you. You don't have to learn all of this today. If you need anything,” he went to the white box attached to the wall and pointed to the bell icon, “press this button and call Christophe. He is at your complete disposal. If you need me, I'll be in my office. Do you remember how to get to it?”

I nodded.

"Well done," he patted my head and smiled.

"Thank you for everything, Logan," I stood up on my tiptoes and kissed his cheek. To reach his face, I had to grab his shoulders and tilt him forward a little.

There was a sound of broken glass from the side. Startled, I recoiled from Logan and turned toward the sound.

Enraged, Dantalion stood at the fragments of a broken vase. His eyes blazed red, his chest heaved frequently, and his hands were clenched into fists. “What the hell was that?!” he growled as he stepped on the broken glass.

"Uh-oh," I stepped back in fear.

"Yeah, that's right, darling, ’uh-oh’"

Logan stepped between us, trying to keep Dantalion in place. "Calm down, Dante..."

"Get out," the demon hissed.

"Dante!"

"I said get out!!!"

Glancing over his shoulder, Sparks looked into my eyes, as if asking me if he should listen to him. I nodded. Whatever Dantalion was up to, I was sure I could subdue him. Logan sighed and left.

"And what was that?" Dantalion asked menacingly, quietly, as the door slammed shut behind Logan.

"What do you mean?" I continued to slowly back away from him.

"You know perfectly well what I mean!" in the blink of an eye, he was next to me, his hands squeezing my shoulders. “What are you thinking, my little flower? Have you decided that I am not enough for you and you decided to seduce Logan?

"What? Of course not! I was expressing my gratitude!” I twitched in his arms. His grip on my shoulders became stronger.

"Your gratitude, huh? Couldn't you get by with words? Why the hell did you have to kiss him?" he leaned down to my very face. His proximity made me dizzy.

“Why the hell did you kiss Anya?”

“When did I kiss Anya?!”

"This morning! Three times! And right in front of me! I thought it was acceptable for me to peck Logan on a cheek since you kissed her cheeks so calmly!”

"That's different!"

"How so?"

"Damn it! Just remember that it’s not the same!”

"I don’t understand! Why can you kiss someone and I can't?!"

“If you’re in need to kiss someone, then kiss me!” he shook me.

"Why don't you answer my question?!"

I swung to hit him, but Dantalion grabbed my hand and took it behind me. I was pressed against his chest and his lips immediately found mine. There was no hint of tenderness in his kiss. He seemed to be punishing me. Angered, I bit him. He recoiled and touched the bleeding wound on his lip with his fingertips.

"If you think you can punish me for kissing Logan, then I can punish you for kissing Anya." I crossed my arms and furrowed my brows menacingly.

To my surprise, Dantalion blinked a couple of times and laughed out loud.

"What's so funny?" I stamped my foot. I wanted to scare him, not make him laugh!

He walked over to me again and cupped my cheeks. "You can’t even imagine how glad I am that you're jealous of me."

"I'm not jealous of you!"

“Is that so? Then why would you punish me for saying hello to Anya, huh?” his voice dropped to a hoarse whisper that sent goosebumps all over my body.

"Hello?"

“Yes, my sweet flower. Some friends greet each other like this.” I opened my mouth to ask him another question, but he beat me to it. "But you can't do that!"

"Why not?"

He pulled my face closer to his and breathed into my lips "Because I'll burn with jealousy if I see you being nice to another man again."

Without giving me a chance to answer, he kissed me again. His kiss was passionate, but it only lasted a moment.

Touching his lips to my ear, he whispered, “Don't sit too long with those boring books, Dahlia. I'll be waiting for you in our bedroom.” He moved away from me and looked at the books lying on the table. "Start with this one," he took a small book from the inside pocket of his jacket and placed it on top of the others.

When he left, I picked up his book and sat down on the sofa with it. When the knowledge of the book passed to me, I felt my cheeks burn, and I threw it onto a wall.