“Thank you,” I whispered, turning my head to meet his gaze. “I see what you do. I appreciate it. I appreciate you.”

For a split second, he looked completely taken aback. Not just taken aback, but… lost.

The Shadow Beast had no idea how to handle gratitude.

No one had ever noticed the good in him, and granted, they’d have had to look closely since he so effortlessly embraced the darkness. But these slivers of light that filtered through the cracks in his shadowy soul were so blindingly beautiful that they took my breath away.

“There’s nothing I won’t do to make you happy, Sunshine,” he told me, his eyes holding flickers of fire. “You only have to ask.”

I was going to be seriously spoiled if he kept this shit up, which would only make me all the more insufferable. Maybe I should do some charity work to even it out; I was fairly certain it worked like that.

“What should I try?” Angel asked, distracting us as she leaned over to sniff at a few of the dishes. “Give me the absolute best.”

I leaned over with her, weighing them up before I started to rearrange the plates into one long line down the middle of our table. “This is my favorite,” I said, pointing to the rich devil’s food chocolate cake. The sort with thick, creamy frosting, and a cake so moist, you could see it glisten before you had a taste. People could hate on the word moist all they wanted, but when it came to cakes, there was no better descriptor. “And I’ve lined the rest in my basic order of preference, but to make myself very clear, there are no bad choices here.”

Next to the cake was the chewy cookie sandwich, with smooth vanilla frosting in the center, then a chocolate crumble cake, with a gooey mousse filling, followed by a triple deck chocolate block, showcasing the best of dark, milk, and white chocolate.

Angel lifted one of the utensils provided and scraped off the smallest sliver of the first cake. She cleverly knew to take an even distribution of frosting, cake and cream. Overloading on one aspect destroyed the full experience, in my expert opinion.

When she lifted the sliver to her lips, she smelled it first, her face crinkling. “It’s an odd scent,” she said. “Almost earthy.” Her tongue darted out, and why the fuck I was holding my breath, I’d never know, but this felt like a pivotal moment in our relationship.

She licked at it first, and I saw her nose flare.

Leaning back in case she was going to hurl, I waited for her next move. The whole piece went into her mouth and she swirled it around for a beat before letting it settle on her tongue. Then she swallowed it.

A moment’s silence followed.