A DEVIL OF HIS WORD

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello, readers! I've failed so many of you who have become invested in the world I've imagined for season 4. This story was supposed to be complete by now, but I've basically left it and you out to the cold. Sorry about that. I wish I could express why I've been gone for so long. I've been laser focused on trying to write an original series, I've forgotten how to have fun with writing. Authoring fanfiction has always been that for me. I'm back with a vengeance. I wish I could say I can update this weekly on a specific day, but my updates going forward will be frequent.

Please enjoy chapter 3! I haven't lost my vision for this story. I hope you'll stay along for the journey with me. :)

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Fingertips tickled the hair on her arm. The vibrant sensation made her toes curl. It didn't matter that the appendages were her own. The air hitting her tight, naked legs tingled, translating into a burst of energy that flowed straight to her heart, making her pulse race. Teetering on the edge of insanity, Chloe sighed.

Everything around her buzzed as more light tore through the windows and into the penthouse. At first, she'd had to move into the closet. The sun's rays were too harsh on her pupils for some reason. His closet smelled amazing. Like bourbon twisted with bergamot and eucalyptus. The silence was louder than ever before. It was hard to drown out, but then the ringing in her ears began singing to her. Words whispered into her ears and funneled into her brain, but for the life of her, she'd never understand what they meant to say.

All his designer shirts and suits hung, filed in the familiar way as they always had. Except now they were off-center. Chloe had ran her fingers across the hanging garments, dragging them with the lazy pace her body afforded her. Moving was rough. Bruises and pulled muscles from the previous night saw to that.

A smile tugged both corners of her mouth upward. After the years that stood between now and the first time she'd entered his club to question him, Chloe couldn't contain the fit of giddiness coursing through her veins. Even if she could control her broad smile and hushed giggles, the detective didn't mind the peace breaking down the last few feet of the thick walls once tightly coiled around her heart. Something shifted, that much was sure.

After pulling a white button down shirt down from the hanger and over her torso and a pair of his briefs over her legs, Chloe had meandered back out to the main part of the penthouse. Lucifer still slept. She'd been up for over an hour, spending the time by walking along every wall and surface of the dwelling just feeling and touching. The texture of the wall the safe was at in his room. The feel of the piano keys. The way that water drenched her fingertips as she washed her hands. The silky, smooth expanse of his couch and pillows.

Everything felt magnetic and magical: no matter how simple the object had always been to her.

The elevator dinged, and the sound sang across the living room all the way to where she lay on the sofa alone. Chloe popped her head up, shyly peeking over the top of it to see who was there. Her eyes lit up, widening with her smile. She hopped over the back of the couch and raced toward the elevator, sliding until hands caught either of her shoulders. Chloe looked down, seeing black dress socks extending up the length of her leg to just under her mid-calf. No wonder why her feet felt heavenly!

"Dan!" Her ex-husband flinched. She must have been shouting. Chloe reached for his hand and pulled him, struggling as she slipped against the slick floor a few times on her way to the windows. "Doesn't the sunlight feel like a fairytale against your skin?" She looked out over the city and quickly closed her eyes, inhaling whatever sweet fragrance lingered in the air.

"Chloe? What sunlight? It's barely dawn."

Chloe laughed, turning to face him. Knitting her brows downward, she shook her head, lifting her hands and looking around before twirling twice. "What are you talking about?"

"It's only five after six in the morning. The sun doesn't come up for another twenty ish minutes!" Dan retorted. He neared her, and she stood prone as he investigated her more closely. "Are you high, Chlo?" Looking around, he narrowed his eyes toward the bedroom. "I see you two took no time after the funeral to fuck."

Chloe flinched and reached for him as he began walking toward Lucifer's room. He dragged her a few inches until he stopped. Chloe steadied herself and shook her head. "Why are you angry?" The detective searched his eyes, which were a brighter blue than she remembered. "What's wrong?" Her voice sounded childlike, innocent the more she processed what was happening.

Dan grabbed her hands and threw them away from him. "Don't touch me!" He narrowed his eyes and stepped closer toward her, looking her up and down. His features pinched as his upper lip curled. "You're just like all the other women running around Los Angeles with him all over them."

Tears stung her eyes, the sensation more painful than anything inflicting her body. "I don't understand. Why are you here, if you're only going to insult me?"

"I went to your house last night and found Maze. She didn't sugarcoat what you were doing with who." He turned away from her, continuing his pursuit of the bedroom.

"Did you talk to Trixie?"

"I'M NOT HERE TO TALK ABOUT TRIXIE!" Dan snapped back toward her, nostrils flaring and eyes maddening. She flinched.

The light flooding the penthouse dimmed, but she held his eyes despite her heart mourning the tremendous loss. "You have no right to criticize me or Lucifer," she whispered. A tear dripped down her cheek.

Dan followed it, until he closed his eyes and rubbed his face. "You don't know half of anything right now, Chloe. I might be out of my mind right now, but the truth has never been more clear!"

"Stop talking in riddles and just say what you mean!"

Dan stepped toward her, but she stepped back until she hit the window. Thankfully, he didn't follow her anymore. "Everything you've ever endured is because of Lucifer!"

"That's not all true!" Chloe narrowed her eyes, mourning the loss of the warmth cocooning her body. "Bad things happen to everyone, Dan. I lost my father. I lost my pride when we started falling out of love. You helped Malcolm, who kidnapped Trixie!"

"There she is!" he snapped. He stepped toward her and shook his head. "I was wondering when you were going to blame me!"

"I don't blame you!"

"But you don't blame Lucifer, either!"

Chloe rolled her eyes and bent down to roll the socks off her feet. Somehow they'd tightened in the few seconds Dan had been here. Casting them onto the couch, the detective rushed to the elevator and pushed the button. The doors opened, and she twisted back around, facing him. "I don't know who to blame anymore, Dan. Pierce seems like a good bet, but I'm trying to move on: to be happy for once."

Dan shoved his hands in his pockets and looked away from her, out over the city now. "Chloe I don't think I'll ever be happy," he said.

Chloe moved closer to him, abandoning the elevator despite it ringing. She joined his side and stared back at the city. The peace that had once drenched her had faded completely. The world was smoggy and dark again. "I don't have the answers, Dan. There's nothing I can do to make you feel better right now. It kills me the see you like this."

Dan sniffled, rubbing his nose with the back of his hand. "Chloe, what do I do?"

Chloe softly smiled, though its glow didn't meet her eyes. "Start with Trixie. It's what I always do. After everything."

"She wants nothing to do with me, Chlo."

"You know that's not true." The detective looked up to him, seeing he already looked over to her. "It will take time and patience."

Dan sighed, almost sounding like a chuckle. "Two things I've mastered."

Chloe shrugged. "You'll get there, Dan."

"I don't think I will."

Swallowing, Chloe gently hit his arm, managing to capture his full, undivided attention. She crossed her arms and rubbed them, the pinch of cool air clenching her skin. "You will. One day at a time."

A loud sigh broke behind them, over toward the bar. "Do you know what I find curious, Detective Dan?" Chloe turned her head, seeing Lucifer walk around the piano sans clothing. Just as Dan jumped, turning around, Lucifer said, "Ah! You should know I'm naked."

Dan gagged. "Didn't need to know that."

"Yes," Lucifer continued, "I also didn't need to wake up hearing your scratchy voice first thing after a good shag, but here we are."

When Dan cringed, Chloe shoved him toward the elevator, back turned, "Yes, well. This reunion is very touching. However, there's one too many people present."

"Clearly, detective, you have no right to judge a good ménage à trois seeing how you've never indulged."

Chloe stopped, smiling at Lucifer just as Dan gagged a little. "Just stop, okay?" He neared the elevator, which took its sweet time coming back up.

"I'm not the one barging in uninvited, Danny-dear." Lucifer sighed. "Perhaps you'll use this as a lesson the next time you feel comfortable enough in my home." Dan leaned against the piano, back to Lucifer still, and groaned. "Also, we did it right there last night. Three times, I think."

Chloe whirled around and whispered, "Lucifer!" Cheeks warm, she rolled her eyes just as he winked at her.

The elevator dinged, and Dan bolted.

The detective laughed, arms crossing again as she approached him. "You did not just say that!"

"Ah! But I did, detective." Lucifer wrapped his arms around her lower back, bringing her closer. A playful quirk of his right brow was all it took for her smile.

"Good morning, Lucifer."

"Sorry I overslept."

"Sleep...now there's a word I love."

"Yes, I suppose me keeping you up until nearly four in the morning would make you say something like that."

Moving her arms around his shoulders, Chloe moved to kiss him quickly. "Can I ask a question?"

Lucifer lifted his brows. "Just one?"

Chloe laughed. "I don't want to worry about everything right now. You may be the devil, but right now, can we just be one man and one woman?"

Lucifer rubbed the small of her back with his thumb as he planted a kiss on her forehead, nodding. "Of course."

"What is this?" Chloe began. "Wait, that's too vague...What are we?"

Lucifer lifted her up, and Chloe wrapped her legs around his hips as he took them to his couch. He opened his mouth, but he narrowed his eyes, reaching underneath him and procuring a sock. "I see you've ransacked my things again, detective." He adjusted, and Chloe bent her legs, now straddling him and looking down. Her thumbs stroked his stubble as he simply stared up at her. "How do you feel, detective?" He lifted his brow and tilted his head. "About me?"

"You know I love you."

Lucifer smiled and claimed her mouth in a brief kiss. Leaning into her, he fit his head into the hollow of her throat, leaving a trail of delicate kissed up the expanse up to her jaw. "And I love you, Chloe." He interrupted her by kissing her more ardently this time. When she broke the kiss to breathe, she groaned. "What answer do you desire? Indulge me."

"I hate to dumb this down to middle school terms, but are we together? I honestly just need to know what I tell Trixie."

"Why?"

Chloe shrugged and looked at his bare chest. "She deserves the truth."

"The whole truth?" Lucifer caught her chin, brow raised and eyes narrow.

"Perhaps, eventually...but I'm tired of skirting around us as a topic around her. It was easier when you were always doing your own thing. But then you started coming over and playing board games with her. She's always liked you, and I think she was the first who saw this coming."

"Yes, your spawn is quite the exception."

Chloe smiled. "So?"

"What?" He had the nerve to be distracted with unbuttoning his shirt on her.

Chloe stopped him, staying his hands with her own. "I'll go with whatever you want. This is new to you."

"A lot of who I am is new to you, too," he countered. "Are you so sure you want to rush to labels already?"

"Right now our label is I don't know. It feels like such a cheap gimmick with Trixie. She deserves more."

Lucifer reached for the shirt again, taking the edge of the fabric between his fingers and lowering them until he got to his briefs. Chloe moaned, and lowered her forehead onto his. "If we're talking about clear labels hard to misinterpret, I suggest we stick to the ever-popular Facebook statuses. Perhaps 'In a relationship'?"

Chloe straightened, a smile thinning her lips. "What other titles would also be on the table?"

Lucifer shrugged. "How about the universe's first cross-planal power couple?"

"Shut up," Chloe said before lowering her mouth to his.

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