9. Luke
Chapter 9
Luke
Malachi insisted Luke stay on the couch while he reheated the food. Naked but for the ratty throw, Luke curled an arm under his head and watched Malachi through the space over the breakfast bar. He moved around in Luke’s kitchen, in his entire apartment, like he belonged there.
How could a demon be the one who said such sweet things to him?
Luke had never really felt cared for. Growing up in the orphanage at HQ, his needs had always been met, but there were just too many children for one-on-one time. He’d been well-fed and had plenty of clean clothes and received a good education, but they weren’t family. He was just one of many, guided onto his path with the group, but never treated like an individual. And as he grew, he toughened up. He was a big man; most of his partners in the past expected him to be the dominant one in the bedroom, taking care of the other person’s needs and then his own. No one had ever laid him out and focused on him before. No one had ever treated him like something to be protected. Something precious. Something treasured.
God, was it really so easy to break down his walls? Did a few kind words and soft kisses really have him baring all to a demon ?
Said demon swanned from the kitchen carrying a steaming plate of food. He set it on the scuffed coffee table and pressed a hand to Luke’s chest before he could sit up. Throwing a leg over him, he sat on his thighs and slid his hands up Luke’s abdomen. His fingernails scraped over Luke’s nipples, sending heat down to pool in his stomach.
“Hungry?” Malachi asked, leaning in. His glossy hair grazed Luke’s cheek.
“Mm.” He slipped his hand under the curtain of Malachi’s hair to the back of his neck and drew him in for a kiss. “You know,” he said between languid kisses, “I was in something of a dry spell before you came along.”
He’d given up on dating even before he lost his squad. Dating within the guild was too awkward, and dating outside it meant having to lie to them about what he did for a living. He’d had his needs met with one-night stands for years, and even then, he didn’t invite them back to his place. It didn’t feel right to have a relative stranger in his private space. And after losing his squad, after he’d received the scars on his face, he’d had no interest in braving even that much closeness with someone. He couldn’t remember the last time he had a guest in his apartment, never mind someone he wanted to see him naked. The levels of intimacy involved were too much when he was trying to protect his heart. But somehow, Malachi had crashed right through all of his protective walls and made himself at home in the center of Luke’s world. He almost couldn’t believe how easy it had been for him.
Malachi looked delighted. “Oh, yeah? You need to get off again, treasure? Demons have very short refractory periods. I can go as many times as you want.”
Luke crushed Malachi’s body against his, sliding his hands down his bare back and into the back of his jeans. “Maybe,” he hedged.
“How long has it been since somebody touched you?” Malachi asked, wriggling free of the jeans as Luke pushed them down his legs. His boxer briefs hung in the tight fabric, dragged down with them, and soon enough he was as naked as Luke.
Luke didn’t respond right away, and when Malachi pulled back to look at him properly, a slow, smug grin overtook his face. Was Luke blushing? He was probably blushing. He hated how easily Malachi could read him.
“How long has it been?” Malachi asked again, planting his elbows on either side of Luke’s head and blanketing him with his weight. “How long since someone touched you? Since someone else saw the way your beautiful mouth opens when you come?”
“Um.” He tried to speak, but Malachi rolled his hips, and the hot glide of their cocks rubbing together rendered him speechless.
“When was the last time anyone made you feel this good, huh?” Malachi asked, nipping down the unscarred side of his jaw and nuzzling his nose in the scruff under his ear.
“This good? Never,” Luke confessed.
Malachi growled, a low, inhuman thing that vibrated against Luke’s sternum. “Are you just saying that to please me?”
Luke laughed breathlessly. “No, not at all. You’re so… Everything about you seems made just for me. I thought it was a trick. I thought there was no way a demon could be so perfect for me. Still do, kind of.”
Malachi looked a little shocked, and Luke feared he’d overshared until Malachi said wondrously, “You feel it, too.”
“Feel what?”
“That we belong together. You think I’m perfect for you, the same way I think you’re perfect for me.”
Did he? He hadn’t realized it until he said the words aloud, but they were true. He had been attracted to Malachi since the moment he first saw him. Talking to him only made him that much harder to resist, because as soon as he did, he liked him. He fit , like a perfect puzzle piece, in every curve and dip of Luke’s life.
“It’s okay, you don’t have to admit it yet,” Malachi said loftily, circling his hips in a way that sent sparks down Luke’s spine. Luke couldn’t stop touching him, sliding his hands up and down his body, gripping his thighs, his hips, combing his glossy hair back from his face.
“Seven years,” Luke said, digging his fingers into the meat of Malachi’s thigh.
Malachi, his face twisted with pleasure, blinked down at him. “Wait, what? Is that how long it’s gonna take to get you to admit you like me? Because that’s fine as long as we get to keep doing this.”
Luke huffed, his face heating. “No. My dry spell.”
“ What ? You poor thing.” Malachi leaned over him, cradling him in his arms as though to protect him from his self-isolation .
A peal of laughter left Luke that he barely recognized as himself. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d laughed this much. “No dry spells for you, I take it,” he murmured, sounding more bitter than intended. Why would Malachi ever have to go through a dry spell? He was the most attractive man Luke had ever seen, and he said himself that humans threw themselves at the demons in In Extremis.
“Mm, not exactly, but nothing like this,” he replied, pulling Luke from his thoughts. He kissed Luke long and deep, wrapping a hand around both their cocks and jerking them in time with his undulating hips. Luke rocked up to meet him, quiet moans falling between their mouths.
“This?” he asked between drugging kisses.
“Mm-hm. You feel so fucking good. I don’t just want to get off with you. I want to take my time, marinate in your scent, luxuriate in the feel of you up against me. Goddamn, you’re perfect.”
Luke’s eyes fell closed, overwhelmed with emotion, dragging Malachi down for another slick, intoxicating kiss as their bodies rocked together. He was sweating, his panting breaths puffing out between them as he neared the end. Malachi was right. This felt different than anyone else he’d ever been with. It wasn’t perfunctory sex to get them both off. It wasn’t even the obligatory sex he’d had with past partners who expected him to perform his part. Somehow, he could let go with Malachi. For the first time in his life, he didn’t have to be in control. It was unlike anything else he’d ever experienced. More . Their bodies moved as one not for their own selfish ends but to reach that peak together, to spill off into the unknown together. Like bungee jumping but without the cord, because all they needed to land safely was each other .
Hot pleasure exploded through him as he came, arching up and crying out. Malachi buried his moan in his neck, curling his fingers in Luke’s short hair as he followed him over the edge. Their bodies went lax, hands stroking idly across each other’s skin as they came down from the high.
“Okay,” Malachi said breathlessly, raising his head to look down at Luke with a half-lidded gaze. “Food?”
Luke laughed. “Yeah. Then maybe sleep.” He glanced over as they both sat up, and Malachi tugged the blanket over their naked laps. “Maybe you… would want to stay tonight? Do halflings sleep?”
Malachi smiled, fond and content. “We do sleep, and I’d love to stay.” His crimson gaze darted away—Luke would almost say nervously, if Malachi had ever displayed such a feeling. “I’ve got to say, I’m a little surprised you’re so accepting all of the sudden. You were pushing me away pretty hard the last time we saw each other.”
Luke ducked his head. “I know. This is still… incredibly risky. We can’t risk being seen in public together. If word gets back to the guild, I don’t know what they’d do. Banish me, at the very least.”
“And you love hunting demons,” Malachi said, then nudged his thigh. “Eat before it gets cold. Again.”
Luke chuckled, plucking a fry off the plate. Salted potato bloomed on his tongue. When he leaned over slightly, letting his shoulder brush Malachi’s, the halfling leaned into it, lining their bodies up. It felt companionable, and Luke smiled to himself.
“I do. But more than that, the guild is just—” he shook his head, “—all I’ve ever known. The guild took me in when I was two years old. I’ve been with them for thirty-two years, Mal. It’s what I’ve dedicated my life to. It’s my purpose. ”
He expected Malachi to dislike that, but instead he smiled, and there was a twinkle of something like fondness in his eyes.
“I’ve never felt like that about anything,” Malachi said.
“Really? Not even in your human life?”
Malachi shrugged. “I don’t remember it. I barely remember Hell, too. I remember pain, and waking up on Earth. In a coffin.” His gaze was distant. “Pitch black, barely any space to move, just the smell of dirt and old wood.”
That must’ve been incredibly disorienting. “You came back in your own body?”
“Mm-hm. Restored like new.” He looked down at himself. “I don’t think I looked exactly like this, though. I think this is the most perfect version of my human body.”
It might’ve sounded arrogant coming from anyone else, but Malachi said it matter-of-factly. Luke tilted his head, examining him. He could see what Malachi meant. There were no scars or little imperfections on him. Normal humans weren’t that flawless. To Luke’s trained eye, it had always been another warning sign that halflings weren’t quite right, but now, looking at Malachi, it gave him a little shiver of delight. He truly was perfect.
Luke leaned in, kissing his cheek. “I think I would’ve liked human you.”
Surprise flickered across Malachi’s face, followed by a bashful smile. “I don’t know about that. Word has it the nice guys aren’t the ones getting one-way tickets to Hell.”
Luke shrugged. “Apparently I have a thing for bad boys.”
Malachi brushed a kiss against Luke’s shoulder. “Lucky me.”