Heart of the Incubus by Rosalie Lario Page B

she’d intended.
    Cresso stopped, his brows furrowing. “What?”
    “All this.” She motioned around the room. “Being so nice to me. Staying with me, for God’s sake. It’s not anything I deserve after the way I’ve treated you.”
    His mouth pulled into a frown. “Don’t say that.”
    “It’s true. We’ve never been friends. Not even friendly. So why go out of your way to help me?”
    “Because…” He sighed and turned from her. “I couldn’t let you face this alone.”
    She wasn’t about to let that comment pass, not when she felt like she was on the verge of some great discovery. “Why not?”
    When he walked toward the windows and pulled the curtain back to look outside, Genevieve followed. She stopped right beside him, prepared to wait him out. His fingers trembled slightly against the fabric.
    Wait, hadn’t they done that at dinner? And yesterday, too.
    Her brain finally processed what her eyes had been observing all along. She snatched his hand into hers without thinking about it. “When’s the last time you fed?”
    The quiver in his hand increased and splotches of pink colored his cheeks. He took a step back, trying to break free of her grip, but she didn’t let go.
    “How long, Cresso?”
    His body went stiff. “Three weeks, two days, four and a half hours.”
    Genevieve’s mouth dropped open. “Three weeks ?”
    No. That couldn’t be possible.
    “But…I thought a month was the longest a sex demon could go without sustenance.”
    Cresso shrugged and succeeded in tugging his hand away. “Give or take a few days.”
    She didn’t even know how to process what he’d just said. It seemed inconceivable. “Why are you starving yourself?”
    He fidgeted and diverted his gaze. “Because it no longer holds the appeal it once did.”
    “What, staying alive ?”
    A spark of temper colored his voice. “Casual sex.”
    “I don’t believe this.” She shook her head. “Your pool of potential partners has grown exponentially now that you developed a vaccine. I figured you would’ve slept your way through half of London by now. Wasn’t that why you wanted the vaccine to begin with?”
    His mouth dropped open and he gave her an incredulous glare. “You thought I…” He seemed to realize he’d raised his voice and broke off, stalking back into the center of the room. After clearing his throat, he faced her once again. “I wanted the vaccine because I promised my mother I’d find a cure.”
    “Your mother?”
    “My father left us when I was young. A few years later, my mother met another demon, a non-incubus. She fell in love with him. He was a really great guy. Like a dad to me, when I needed one the most.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Their relationship was difficult. They couldn’t consummate their love, no matter how desperately they wanted to, but they bonded with each other anyway—the demon equivalent of marriage. They went on for years like that, even though it killed him that she had to feed off other men to survive. But they loved each other enough to try to make it work. Until, one day, she just couldn’t control herself with him.”
    Oh, no. Genevieve’s hand crept to her mouth. “She killed him?”
    He gave her a curt nod. “It devastated her. She lost the will to live. I promised her on her deathbed that I’d find a cure, so that our kind are no longer monsters.”
    Monsters? Holy hell, all this time she’d never realized it. His desire for a cure wasn’t prompted by some playboy desire to sleep with every woman on Earth but by disgust over something he had no control of. He thought he was a monster. “Oh my God, Cresso.”
    “Now we have a vaccine, but I won’t stop until I find a permanent cure.”
    “Yet you’re starving yourself. It doesn’t make sense.”
    “Shit.” He let out a bitter laugh and headed for the chest. When he leaned his hands against it, the muscles in his back flexed under the fabric of his shirt. “You really