Once inside Ava’s apartment, they tumbled onto the sofa entangled together, kissing and laughing. The noise roused Imogen from her room. She opened her bedroom door and leant against the frame with her hip jutted out.

She said, “I didn’t realise Tara was staying tonight.”

Tara instantly righted herself on the sofa, embarrassed at having been caught splayed out. She stammered, “Sorry, Imogen, I-”

“It’s not a problem,” Imogen assured her with a lazy wave of her hand. “Just give me five minutes and I can be out for the night.”

Before she could turn back into her room, Ava declared, “Tara knows.”

Imogen stood up straight but kept her hand on the door frame. They shared a look of raised brows and tense mouths. Tara got the distinct sensation that they were sharing a full silent conversation. Was that another special demon ability? Imogen nodded to Ava, breaking off their telepathic talk, and entered the living room slowly. She approached the sofa and perched on the arm beside Tara with crossed legs. Tara watched her nervously, she couldn’t tell how Imogen was taking the revelation that she had found out what she is.

Imogen immediately asked the question that Tara was already tired of hearing. “How do you feel about all this?”

“I think I can honestly say I was quite shocked,” she answered with as much energy as she could muster.

“Understandable.”

“How do you feel about me knowing? From the little I know so far, I’ve gathered it’s just as dangerous for you two as it is for me that this has been… revealed.”

“I don’t mind. Ava cares more for you than I’ve seen her care for anyone. Anyway, we are always at risk, there are agents everywhere and we will never truly be safe.”

“I care for you too,” Ava reminded her stiffly. Her awkwardness clearly amused Imogen, who smiled with a teasing twinkle in her eyes.

“Not in the same way, Ava,” Imogen advised gently. Surprisingly, Ava appeared embarrassed for a moment before schooling her face.

Tara turned back to Imogen to say, “that sounds very stressful, how do you ever relax?”

“Personally, I have been caught once before, and I have met a fair few others who have too. I find that there are two kinds of people in this situation: those that become stronger and less fearful after experiencing the horror of capture and subsequent torture and release back into Hell, and those that fall apart.” Her frank words and unemotional tone did not buffer the sickly feeling that crept over Tara’s skin as she listened. “The way that I have to come to see it, I would do anything not to experience that again, but I also know I can survive it and remain sane.”

“Have you ever been caught?” Tara asked Ava quietly.

Ava shook her head. “No, I’m a first-timer in the human realm.”

“Is it what you expected?”

“I… didn’t have any concrete expectations in my mind before I got here. I just knew it had to be better than where I came from.”

“And is it?”

Both women laughed at the question.

“It is paradise, my precious Tiara.”

Imogen made herself scarce after a brief phone call, picking up a last minute shift at the bar, and left the pair alone for the night. Ava offered to make dinner and Tara offered to watch her make dinner while making silly comments. She balanced on one of the two stools that bookended the kitchen counter and observed Ava blur about the small kitchen, pulling out ingredients and chopping vegetables at break-neck speed.

After a while, Tara’s eyes began to ache from trying to keep up with the hundred-mile-per-hour movements and she decided to move her focus to her phone screen for a quick break. She pulled it from her back pocket and leant her elbows on the counter to scroll. The small device was plucked from her hand almost immediately after she unlocked it and held over her head by Ava.

“Hey!” Tara laughed. “Give it back!”

She reached up but Ava lifted her phone higher with a teasing grin, she stretched her spine as far as she could but still could not reach, finally she pulled herself up onto her knees on the flat top of the stool, convinced she would now be victorious.

Before she could touch the screen, Ava grabbed the stool with her other hand and tilted it backwards.

“Stop! I’ll fall!” Tara yelped, scrabbling to find something to cling to.

Ava lifted it back another degree. “Make me,” she said with the same expression she wore in bed right before sending Tara over the sexual edge. Now she was about to be sent tipping over the wooden edge of the stool.

“How?” Tara squeaked.

Ava scrunched her brows together with a low laugh. “What?”

“How do I make you let go of the stool… and give me back my phone?”

“You should try bargaining.” Ava leant her head forward, put her lips to Tara’s ear and growled, “offer me something.”

Tara whispered, “what do you want?” with fingers curled around the edge of seat, white-knuckled.

Ava’s grin managed to widen even further, pointed canines bared. “That’s not how you bargain, my little Tiara,” she scolded teasingly. “You don’t ask me what I want, that opens up the opportunity for me to request anything. Make me an offer.”

“But… I don’t know what to offer.” Tara mumbled helplessly.

“Fine, I’ll start with my demands and you negotiate me down.”

Tara nodded, concentration pinching her mouth and round cheeks. What was the worst that she could want?

“I want you to stay at mine for a full week, I want you to wear nothing but lingerie when inside my apartment during that time - provided by me, and I want to watch you play with yourself in the shower.”

Tara’s entire body burned with a cocktail of mortification and lust. “W-well, I am willing to offer you a one-night sleepover at yours, in regular PJs, and a shared shower where we… do stuff to each other.”

“Not good enough,” Ava chuckled. “You already stay over for one night at a time.”

“Maybe I could wear sexy pajamas… but they would be ones that I pick out!”

“If I don’t get what I want I’m tipping you off this stool.”

“But then, how do I negotiate against that? I don’t want to fall!”

“I guess you have no choice but to surrender to my demands then.”

Tara considered her non-existent options for half a moment before nodding with a pout. She found the courage to unfurl her fingers from the stool and lift them up like a toddler looking to be carried. Ava laughed and swooped her up against her with a tight cuddle and peppered kisses along the side of her face.

“Stop teasing me and start dishing up dinner!” Tara huffed with a laugh.

Ava pressed one last firm kiss to her forehead before dropping her back on the seat and returned to the pots and pans.

When their stomachs were full and they were curled up back on the sofa, Ava announced, “You know, you could have very easily won that negotiation over the stool.”

“How?” Tara mumbled into her girlfriend’s top.

“By being aware of the value that you hold. All of my demands were directed at you personally, that should have been a hint that if you were to threaten me back, I would have bowed to the pressure.”

“So, if I had threatened to take away date night, or not let you touch me, you would have given in?”

“Maybe. You have to listen to your opponent’s demands, it tells you what they care about.”

Tara couldn’t keep her smile from pulling almost painfully at her cheeks. “You care about me?” she checked with a high-pitched squeaky voice.

Ava gave a short laugh before answering, “maybe.”

“If you don’t care about me, I guess you also don’t care whether I stay or leave then,” Tara said with mock sadness, slowly pulling away from Ava’s embrace and rising from the sofa.

“You’re a fast learner,” Ava said appreciatively and yanked Tara back into her lap by the loose material of her sweater.

“Is that the best compliment you have for me?”

“You’re also beautiful, precious, and adorable, and everything you say has me fighting not to laugh at you.”

“You almost had my knickers off there.”

Apparently Ava could not fight off her amusement this time as she almost sent herself into hysterics laughing at her. Tara let herself giggle too, enjoying her girlfriend’s laugh more than the dumb comment. As soon as Ava had calmed herself, though, her hand was crawling under Tara’s denim pinafore to pull off the aforementioned underwear.