Chapter 13
Chapter
Thirteen
MERRI
Seated on the edge of Malice’s bed, I waited, nervously toying with the hem of my shirt as anticipation ran rampant through me. There was no way to know how he and Pan had left things, not without being intrusive, but whichever way it went, I was confident Mal would need me.
The minutes crawled by, and I didn’t know why I was still pretending to read this book.
Remi had given it to me yesterday, saying it would change my life, but I hadn’t so much as looked at it, let alone turned a page, in well over fifteen minutes.
In my head, it made more sense for me to be sitting here doing—or pretending to be doing—something, rather than just awkwardly biding my time.
A soft creak was my only warning before the door opened, and I slammed the book shut and swung my legs over the side of the bed. “Well?” I asked, trying to keep my voice light and cheerful, but ready to jump up and console him at the first indication it hadn’t ended well. “How’d it go?”
His tight shoulders relaxed as soon as my mind connected with his.
Relief flowed from him to me at the contact, his emotions flooding me without need of words.
While I could sense all of my men’s emotions, Malice and I shared this on a much deeper level.
Perhaps due to his skill infiltrating the minds of beings he saw as targets, but more likely it was related to the high walls he had up at all times coming down for me and me alone.
I also thought, though I had never asked, that expressing himself in this way was easier for him than trying to find the words, much in the same way it would be difficult for a person not speaking in their native tongue to express themselves in a second language.
On instinct, I wrapped my arms around his waist and held him to me, saying everything and nothing at the same time. I love you. I’m here. You’re safe with me.
“He doesn’t hate me. He doesn’t like me either, but at least he doesn’t hate me.”
Malice’s admission had a soft smile spreading across my lips. “Relationships have been built on less.”
His low chuckle changed the temperature in the room from tense to calm instantly. He was okay. They had come out the other side of their first meeting with a tenuous thread connecting them. It was better than the alternative.
“I think, given time, we may be able to salvage our connection. His mother did a lot of damage, but she’s shown her true colors, and he’s not an idiot.”
“Of course he’s not. He’s yours.”
Malice’s answering smile was breathtaking. “Thank you,” he whispered.
“For what? I didn’t do anything. This was all you.”
“You did so much more than you could ever know. I don’t think I’d have been capable of such a meeting if I was still the closed-off arsehole I was before meeting you.”
I blushed, something about the admission filling me with pride. “Well, in that case. You’re welcome.”
“I should really send you a fruit basket or something.”
“A fruit basket?” I asked with a laugh.
“Isn’t that how the humans display their gratitude?” His fingers toyed with the strap of my tank before he let his knuckles drag down my arm. “Or perhaps I should give you something more . . . substantial?”
This was quickly turning from a sweet and tender moment to something much more heated.
“Like?”
A low growl escaped his throat before he dropped his head and layered kisses across my collarbone. “I was thinking something along the lines of an edible arrangement.”
I was about to bark out a laugh, but then he nipped the top of my breast, and I moaned instead.
“I think I could get behind that,” I managed, a bit breathlessly.
“Oh, you think?”
“Mmhmm.”
“Perhaps you should lie back on the bed then.”
Hell. Yes.
I lay back and propped myself up on my elbows so I could watch him. The way his amethyst irises blazed with hunger had my succubus sitting up and taking notice. I wasn’t hungry, per se . . . but I could eat.
“You, hellcat, are wearing too many layers.” He stepped forward and positioned himself at the end of the bed with my feet on either side of him.
“However will we remedy this?”
“Easily,” he murmured, reaching for the waistband of my leggings and tugging them down my hips in one rough motion.
I helped by lifting my butt up, but mostly I was just enjoying the show. Especially when he pulled his shirt up over his head with one hand. I had to bite my lower lip to keep from whimpering at the sight. What was it about a confident man?
“Like what you see, little succubus?”
“Yes. I don’t think I make it a secret.”
“No, you don’t. It’s one of the things I love best about you.” The way he said it, filled with a yearning too big for words, had me ready to pin his body beneath mine. “You never bother playing games.”
I lifted one shoulder in a semblance of a shrug. “Only sexy ones.”
He chuckled at that before crawling up on the bed and spreading my legs wider to make space for him.
“You’re wet for me, aren’t you?”
I grinned. “You should probably find out for sure.”
“Oh, I intend to.” Lifting my legs over his shoulders, he dove down until his face was nestled between my thighs. “Fuck, Merri. You smell like heaven.” Then he peeked up at me with the sexiest smirk. “You smell like mine.”
Fuck.
Me.
Threading my hands through his hair, I tugged his face back down to my aching core. “Prove it.”
“Gladly.”
The word vibrated against me, sending delicious tingles racing throughout my body.
Having Malice like this, his only goal to please me, was something I treasured.
I could feel how much it turned him on, just bringing me pleasure.
In my experience, that wasn’t something every man got off on.
Most of my former clients couldn’t care less if I enjoyed myself during a session.
But Malice wasn’t a client. He was mine.
He kissed a line up my inner thigh, over my swollen sex, then settled around my throbbing clit. On reflex, my back arched and my fingers tightened in his hair. A groan left my lips as I rolled my hips up and into his face.
He chuckled again, but didn’t stop his tender assault.
He alternated between fluttering licks, deep suction that rivaled my favorite toy, and the barest scrape of teeth.
The combination was mind-blowing, and it wasn’t long before I was begging him for more.
My legs trembled as I rode the edge of release, needing to come but desperately trying not to.
If Malice wanted to, he could keep me here all damn night, just teetering on the precipice and begging to be pushed off the cliff.
Thankfully that wasn’t what he had in mind.
He pulled away, sitting back on his knees and smirking wickedly at me as he wiped my arousal from his lips with the back of a hand.
“You’re a tease,” I muttered.
“No. I’m just getting you warmed up.”
“Warmed up? I thought you wanted an edible arrangement,” I said with a little laugh.
“That was simply my amuse-bouche.”
“Consider my bouche amused.”
His chuckle warmed me from the inside out. This gentle intimacy might just be my undoing. Usually it was Sin and I being silly and playful, so coming from Malice, it hit so much harder.
He pressed a kiss to my knee, then slowly sat back again so he could take off his pants. The intensity returned to his expression as he bared himself for me, his eyes darkening with desire and focus.
“I have missed you, hellcat.”
“You’ve been with me pretty much since the moment I got back.”
He shook his head. “Not like this. We haven’t been alone in far too long.”
That was true for me and pretty much all of my men. For the most part, things were a group sport these days. I’d need to make a point to find alone time with each of them on a more regular basis so no one felt neglected.
You know, between saving the world and everything.
But for now, I needed to touch him, to reassure him that I wanted him the same way he wanted me. Intimacy was more than the act of sex. That’s what he needed right now. We weren’t simply trying to get off. This was about connection between two people who loved each other.
Brushing my fingers through his hair, I tugged him down so I could kiss him.
“I love you, Malice,” I whispered, my eyes opening to peer into his. I caught the second my words took hold, the vibrant violet going misty with desire.
“I love you more, Meredith,” he murmured, his voice a deep rasp.
His palm skated under the thin fabric of my top until he found my bare breast. A moan escaped as he pinched my nipple and rolled it between his fingers. I was aching for him.
“Please,” I murmured, reaching for his shoulders and wriggling so I could urge our bodies together. “I need you.”
From the feel of things, he needed me too. And I wasn’t just talking about the beautiful cock currently sliding through my folds.
His hunger poured out of him like a waterfall of the deepest red, followed by the softest blue of contentment, and the vibrant yellow of joy.
But all of those paled in comparison to the brilliant burst of gold that came from his love.
I wasn’t used to sensing feelings as colors, and maybe it was only because as soon as he slid inside me, we were connected mind, body, and soul, but I loved how completely we were joined.
“Fuck, Merri. You feel so perfect. You always do.”
I whimpered, momentarily overcome as the rush of his emotions combined with the sensations I was feeling. Wanting him to stay in this moment with me, I fed my own back to him so that he could see just as clearly what he was doing to me.
“Look at you, taking me so fucking well,” he praised.
I lit up at the words. It didn’t matter how many times I heard them; being told I was doing something well made everything in me go warm.
“We’re made for each other, Malice,” I said against his neck before pressing my lips to the soft skin.
“I know. I just wish I’d realized sooner.”
Looking up at him, I said, “That doesn’t matter. We are here now.”
My heart could have burst at the adoration on his face.
He lowered his lips to mine and wrapped one arm around me as he braced himself on the bed with the other.
Then there was no more talking. We lived in the moment, relished each other’s bodies with long, drugging kisses and deep, slow thrusts of his hips.
It wasn’t fucking. We were making slow and tender love in a way we had never done before.
If he’d never uttered the words, I’d still have felt his love for me in the way he moved, the worshipful embrace, the passion-laced kisses.
Our climaxes arrived simultaneously, a perfect completion to the beauty of this experience.
When we were both sated, my thighs trembling, his heart racing, he pressed one last kiss to my lips before moving off me and lying by my side.
It wasn’t long before he pulled me onto his chest and began trailing his fingers down the length of my spine.
“Merri,” he whispered in the calm of our afterglow.
“Malice.”
“I need you to know something.”
“You can tell me anything.”
At first, nerves prickled at me, but he squeezed me tighter in reassurance.
“You being here, comforting me, ready to give me whatever I need . . . I’ve never had that from anyone.”
I didn’t respond because I could tell he was still gathering his words. I simply did what he’d done moments ago and gave him a squeeze.
“It means so much to me. You mean so much. I’ll never forget this.”
“After everything you’ve given me, I think it pales in comparison.”
He pulled back just far enough to meet my gaze. “What have I possibly given you that comes close?”
I had to blink back a few tears before I managed, “Acceptance. From myself as well as from you. I never had that before. I was always trying to be less or different, or make excuses for the parts of me that I didn’t understand.”
“And now?”
“Now I just want to be yours.”
His answering smile was blinding. “You are, hellcat. And you will be until the day we both cease to exist.”