“I knew you wouldn’t want the position.” His mate had no aspirations for power and was too individualistic to have any interests in leading others. It was rare for a demon. “I wasn’t going to let it stand in my way of having you. Not that. Not anything.”
She snorted. “Whatever.”
Smiling, he kissed her. “I missed you while I was gone.”
“You came to see me a few times,” she reminded him.
Knox had occasionally pyroported home to see her. “That’s not the same as having time with you.” He kissed her again. “Now, about the mugger.”
Using her elbows, Harper shuffled up the cool, silk sheets. “Don’t start.”
He followed her, crawling onto the bed and planting a hand either side of her head. “Harper —”
“I know where this is going. Really, just leave it.”
“Look at me. You promised me you’d compromise on things. This is important to me. Did you even mention my proposal to your work colleagues?”
“Yes, I did. Like me, they’re a little wary of relocating the business to the Underground.” She co-owned the tattoo studio with her friend and fellow senior artist, Raini. Another close friend, Devon, was an apprentice who specialized in piercings. Harper’s cousin, Khloë, also worked there as a receptionist. All three females belonged to her grandmother’s lair.
He’d startled Harper when he’d first proposed relocating the studio, but really she should have seen it coming. He was an interfering bastard, after all. He had been from minute one.
“It’s not based in a safe area, Harper. You could have been shot, raped, and killed today. Yes, you dealt with the human. Yes, you’re very capable of protecting yourself. But a bullet to the heart could still kill you. He shot at the ground, granted, but he could have as easily aimed that gun right there.” Knox laid a hand over her heart. “Then you’d be gone. Like it or not, you keep me stable – as my anchor and as my mate. If I lose you, if my demon loses you… I don’t have to tell you how things will play out.”
She slapped her hands over her face and groaned.
“I wish you didn’t have to carry that weight, but you do.”
Her hands fell away from her face. “I don’t see it as carrying a weight. I anchor you just as you anchor me – that’s how it’s supposed to work with anchors and mates.”
“It is a weight. I need you to be safe. Relocating to the Underground would make you safer. It would also benefit your business.”
“I’d lose business. I have a lot of human clients.”
“Yes, but you would get a lot of foot traffic to your studio if it was in the Underground. You’d lose human clients, but you would gain demon ones.”
“Honestly, I’m not lacking in clients. I actually have a waiting list now, since so many demons are eager to say they have a tattoo from the mate of Knox Thorne.”
“You have a waiting list because you’re very good at what you do,” he corrected. “Think of other ways moving to the Underground would benefit you. It would mean you won’t have the costs that you have now, like rent, for instance. The Underground belongs to you as much as it belongs to me. Everything that’s mine is also yours.”
She didn’t like thinking of it that way. It was hard to go from having little to having… well, most of Vegas. “I can’t deny that it makes good business sense. It does. I’ll talk to the girls about it when I go to work in the morning. I’ll see what their outlook is on this now that they’ve had time to think about it.”
Knox nodded, thinking they would agree to relocating if for no other reason than that they thought Harper would be safer that way. “There’s a little building I think would be ideal for you. I hope you’ll at least check it out before refusing.” His brow furrowed. “Why are you smiling?”
The whole thing was just so typical of him. “You’re such an opportunist. You see me get attacked and think, hey, I can use this to my advantage.”
“This surprises you?” He’d warned her in advance that he was ruthless and would do whatever it took to get his own way.
“Not at all. Part of you is gloating that the incident has bitten into my ‘I don’t need to relocate the business’ argument, isn’t it?”
“The experience just proved what you already knew: it’s not a safe area.”
“Sure, but I grew up there. I’m a Wallis, Knox. That means that when it comes to crime, I’m not one who can judge.”
“But you are mated to a demon that many fear and many would like to see dead. Just a few months ago, you were taken from me. I had no idea where you were, and I couldn’t reach you. I don’t want to experience that again. I proposed psychically tagging you so that I’d know where you were at all times, but you were against that. I agreed to drop it, but you agreed we would compromise on things. I’m asking you to compromise here.”
He knew she found his overprotectiveness stifling, particularly since she also had to deal with his demon’s overprotectiveness. She thought it was mostly Knox’s need for control at work. Admittedly, he did need control. Not just to keep his demon and his abilities in check. He’d spent most of his childhood under the control of a sick, cult-like leader who’d dictated when he woke, what he ate, what he wore, when he slept, and where he slept.