Epilogue 3
Torment
Cat thought we were here to rescue Cruelty’s victims from the statues that lined Ford’s End’s high street.
I kept sneaking glances at her to see if she’d figured out anything was amiss yet, but she was distracted looking at the sheep in the high fields that arched above the small row of brick and mortar shops.
The destruction from Madde’s magic and Violence’s influence had been repaired—and let me tell you, laying brick after brick the mortal way was boring as fuck—and now it looked as ordinary as it ever had.
“Oh,” Cat breathed, her mouth opening when she realised the high street was no longer the residence of porcelain statues, and that trees stood where they’d once been. Her gaze slid to mine, suspicious. I widened my eyes, perfectly innocent.
“That’s so strange,” I remarked, as if I didn’t know Wrath and Fear already freed them of both magic and plaster, returning them to the homes they’d been stolen from. “I thought they’d be right here.”
“What are you up to, Torment?”
“Ouch.” I pressed a hand to my shirt—the dark blue one with the deep V that made Cat’s eyes always linger on my chest, eyeing my ink. “I can’t believe you’d accuse me of something so egregious.”
Her eyes narrowed further. With a grin, I caught her waist, fully in love with the feel of deep red satin under my hands, helping them slide over her curves and pull her into me.
She might have known I was up to something, but that didn’t stop her arms coming to rest on my shoulders, her weight rolling onto her toes as she leaned up for a kiss.
I’d never get tired of this, the way she melted against me, the little noise she let out when I stole a deeper taste, the catch in her breath when I pressed my knee against her clit.
Every single sound, every breath, every arch of her body and flex of her fingers—I’d never take it for granted.
I was a lucky son of a bitch, and by all rights we should have lost her that day on the chessboard.
But some higher power liked me, clearly, because not only could we spend the rest of Cat’s life together—she was immortal, and we had forever.
“You’re trying to distract me,” she accused, each word gracing my swollen lips with a kiss.
“Yup.”
“It’s working,” she huffed and kissed me deeper, her passion a fire that caught in my veins until I couldn’t get her close enough, spinning to pin her against the bookshop wall and honestly debating taking her right here.
“Tor,” she groaned, her hips rolling as my hands roamed down her hips and squeezed her ass. I was fucking delighted to hear that breathless edge to her voice, to know she was close.
I put my lips to her ear as she rolled her hips against me, my cock as hard as diamond now.
“Such a bad girl, Cat. Taking your pleasure out in the open, where anyone could see.” They wouldn’t, with the way I was shielding her, but Cat’s breathing came faster, panic brightening her eyes for a second before lust smothered it.
I kept one hand on her ass, encouraging her hips as her pace began to stutter, quickening, desperate, and pinched her nipple through the silken fabric of her dress.
“Tor,” she breathed, eyes wide as she stared up at me, colour splashed on her cheeks and down her neck.
“So fucking beautiful,” I groaned, and kissed her hard, rolling her nipple between my fingers and enraptured with the way her she moaned against my tongue.
Right on the edge, her spine arching, breath catching.
I tightened my grip on her ass, grinding her clit against my cock, and she grabbed a fistful of my shirt as she found release.
Her tight shudders made me both cocky with pride and ultra fucking protective. This was my woman, my wife, surrendering herself to pleasure, vulnerable in these moments her climax owned her body, her actions, her voice.
“You are unreal,” I groaned against her throat, kissing her pulse as she caught her breath, clutching me close.
I’d managed not to cum in my pants this time, thank fuck.
Once could be explained away, but twice was a goddamn pattern, and god only knew what nickname Madde would give me.
It would haunt me for life, ruin all my credibility and reputation.
“So fucking good for me,” I praised as aftershocks made Cat gasp, her eyes squeezed shut. I kissed each eyelid, brushed my mouth to her cheekbones, to the corners of her mouth, and then tilted her head up for a proper kiss.
“I think I like this kind of distraction,” she said after a while, her eyes opening as she smirked up at me, as self-satisfied as a queen. No, as the goddess she was. “But I still know you’re up to something.”
“I just wanted to spoil my wife. Didn’t I promise you books, with spicy parts we’d recreate at home?”
Her gaze softened as she looked beyond me at the bookshop, its walls hidden by books stacked to the ceiling. “Oh god, we just desecrated their window. What if the bookseller saw us?”
“No one saw,” I promised, kissing the crown of her head, indulging my weirdo compulsions and taking a long inhale of her hair. Peaches, cream, and the floral shampoo she’d used this morning. “I checked.”
The line of her shoulders softened, the anxiety leaving her face. I traced her cheek with my thumb, unable to stop touching her even as she turned to push on the door.
“Oh.” Her shoulders dropped. “It’s closed.”
In no world could I keep the grin off my face as I held up the dull brass key. Cat’s eyes brightened, her mouth parted.
“Tor,” she said. Only that.
“Yes, my beautiful wife?”
She shook her head. Seemed lost for words. Then: “You bought a bookshop?”
I shrugged. “My wife likes books.”
I’d always be addicted to those two words. My. Wife.
“Get this door open right now,” she ordered in a tone that sent a thrill down my spine. “Now, Tor.”
“Yes, ma’am.” I smirked as I unlocked the door and Cat swept inside. But when I had it shut, instead of finding the nearest flat surface to splay across, she made me lose my damn mind by dropping to her knees before me.
If this was what our future looked like—books and mind-blowing sex—I would fight down Nightmare, Cruelty, and Violence all over again. To see her smirk with sly happiness, no shadow of fear or stress on her features… yeah. I’d do it all again.
But because I was a lucky bastard, I didn’t have to.