Chapter 39
Cat
Everyone reacted to the revelation that Violence had compelled Pain exactly as he predicted. All except Madde, whose eyes grew so big, his mouth parted, shoulders slumped before he stalked across the misty courtyard and seized Pain in a hug so tight I knew it forced organs to rearrange.
“My lioness is going to make him scream and cry and beg,” Madde promised, patting Pain’s curly hair and planting a full kiss on his lips.
“Stop kissing everyone, you weirdo,” Tor groaned.
“Kiss more people?” Madde turned towards Tor. “Can do.”
I watched, a little distant, still trembling, struggling with the endless rage within me, as Tor held up his hand to ward off Madde.
And everything snapped back into technicolour focus when Madde caught Tor’s middle finger in his mouth.
He sucked obscenely, bobbing his head up and down twice before Tor grabbed his hair and pulled him off.
“There’s more where that came from,” Madde teased, scraping his teeth over his bottom lip. “Assuming my lioness is okay with that.”
“I’m—okay with it,” I said, and knew I was staring. Knew, thanks to the influx of memories, Madde had been dancing around this with the others for weeks, if not longer.
“I’m not,” Miz said, his voice a whip cracked as he stalked towards Madde, grabbing a fistful of his hair. “If anyone’s taming this brat, it’s me.”
I threw a surreptitious look around us to see where Joanna had ended up—I was more than okay with Madde kissing my other husbands, but that was private and between us; outsiders didn’t get to gawk.
“She’s gone,” I murmured, sending a few shadows slithering over the ground for traces of the immense power I sensed within her.
“She inspected the gates and left,” Death confirmed, floating to my left, his face bare of the hood he usually concealed himself within.
“So much for helping us kill Violence,” I muttered, stroking his soul and hoping he could feel the love that filled my heart so full it overflowed into every part of me.
“She’ll be back,” he murmured, ducking his head. I reached up, linking my hands behind his neck, and kissed him, trying to keep it passionate and slow. But he was fading, wasting away in front of me, and terror bled into panic. The kiss was feral and fast.
Warm pressure encircled my waist, magic in the place of arms, and the tip of my nose burned, tears pressing against the backs of my eyes.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Death swore, but I knew he was just trying to comfort me. He had as much faith in his words as I did.
I glanced up when a dome of shimmering magic snapped around the castle and courtyard, turning the grey sky a deep charcoal colour.
“For privacy,” Pain explained. “Since this seems to be heading… well, you know where.”
“You had your magic balls-deep in our wife only days ago,” Miz huffed. “And now you’re too shy to say one explicit word?”
Death and I drifted over to them, the atmosphere charged. It hit my mood like a flame to dry kindling, and I became hyperaware of each of them. Each of my husbands, who’d lost me and grieved me but hadn’t hesitated one second to welcome me back into their arms, even though it hurt like hell.
“Does magic have balls?” Madde mused, tapping his chin. “Can magic have balls?”
Tor snorted. “Why? Want me to magic-teabag you?”
“No.” Madde clutched his face protectively. “Absolutely not. Keep your magic balls to yourself.” He paused. Glanced at me. “I’d suck ‘em, though. Me and my lioness could take one each.”
“Madde,” I breathed, equally surprised and tantalised. My nipples pressed against the cotton of the shirt he’d leant me, sensitive even without being touched.
“You’re right.” He nodded, a wicked grin on his freckled face. “Better stick to regular balls. Get them out then,” he said to Tor, snickering when Miz tightened his grip on his red hair, wrenching him back.
“Is this your idea of seduction?” Miz asked in the cold psychopath’s voice I remembered from him stalking me at Ford.
“It’s working,” I remarked, closing the distance between Madde and I while Miz held him still. “I’m so turned on.”
“I live to serve, my liomph—” Madde groaned when I kissed him hard, swallowing his words down, taking deep, drugging sucks of him. Reacquainting myself with his taste now I was wholly, completely back. Now I knew exactly how much I loved him.
“You never gave up on me,” I said huskily, my hands on his face, helping Miz keep him pinned for my attention. “You never treated me any differently even though I couldn’t remember you.”
“I’d love you if you forgot me a hundred times,” he replied, his voice deeper, rougher.
Emotion made his sapphire eyes sparkle like real stones.
“I’d love you alive, dead, as a ghost, or as a really rotten corpse.
I’d even,” he added with a smirk, “think about fucking you that way. I wouldn’t actually do it, but I’d think about it. ”
“Very generous,” I mumbled against his lips, catching his tongue between my teeth when he began to speak again and sucking it in slow, rolling pulses until he trembled between Miz and I.
“Cat,” he gasped, his hips bucking when I kissed him harder, demanding everything, every last taste of him, every quiver that rocked his body. “Lioness, please,” he whined, clutching my hips with needy hands.
“I’ll never leave again,” I said against his lips, taking a deep breath so I could kiss him longer. “Once Violence is dead, we’ll be safe. We can have our happily ever after, all of us.”
He whined, pressing his lips into mine in a plea for me to dominate his mouth more.
I claimed everything, took everything he gave, until the taste of honey and vanilla overwhelmed every other sense.
So sweet. So addicting. I took and took, kissed and kissed, until Madde’s fingers dug into my hips, his whine filled the courtyard, and he shuddered hard.
Sheer delight lightened my chest when I realised I’d made him come. I slowed my kisses, peppered his face with soft brushes, love and possession crammed within my chest.
“So pretty,” I murmured, kissing a constellation of freckles on his cheek. “You’re stunning when you come for us.”
Madde wasn’t the only one who groaned. Miz did, too.
And three matching streams of lust hit me from Tor, Death, and Pain.
Madde’s eyes fluttered, lashes casting shadows over the hollows of his undereye, his smile soft and small and…
at peace. It squeezed my heart, to think Violence nearly stole this from us.
What if I’d never recovered my memories?
What if I’d been a stranger to them my whole life?
“The castle isn’t structurally sound,” Tor said, watching us with a dark hunger that made me crave him closer. “We won’t make it to a bedroom.”
I glanced over his shoulder at the castle steps. Wide enough to be spread out across, and the stone slabs were still in one piece.
Tor grinned, wicked. “Love the way you think, beautiful. Get your sexy self spread out over those steps. I need you dripping on my tongue.”
When I hesitated, my heart pounding, my entire body hot, he ordered, “Now, Cat.”
Heat doused my entire body as I rushed to obey him.