Bones (The Four #4)

24. Dealer’s Choice Next Time

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

DEALER’S CHOICE NEXT TIME

AURORA

A s badly as I wished we could remain in that bubble, I knew our time was up when Deke slowly eased out of me. My body fluttered around him, and the groan he gave was nearly enough to make me want to go again.

Almost .

But then the oversensitive ache kicked in, and I decided I needed a couple of hours.

Deke didn’t climb from the bed to move on to whatever more important matters he had to handle. Instead, he pulled me to cuddle. His fingers toyed with my hair, and my eyes grew heavy.

Right until he asked, “Who the hell was the guy Juno mentioned?”

“Tom?” I evaded. “That’s her dog.”

“Aurora Ford.”

Uh-oh. Not my one or baby .

Real name.

Kind of…

Aurora Ford sounded cooler than Aurora Smith—the generic surname the Gideons picked for me when they’d filled out the paperwork for new documentation—but I had no clue where he’d pulled it from.

“Ford is my last name,” he explained before I could ask.

Oh.

First, he called me his girlfriend, and now he has us sharing a last name, all in one very eventful day.

Is it possible to die of happiness?

“Your actual last name?” I asked, partially because I was curious and partially to stall.

“No. Just the one tied to this identity.”

I went up on an elbow to look down at him. “Do you have a last name?”

He shook his head.

“Dubhloach. One name, like Prince or Cher. Very cool.” I started to roll away, but his hand wrapped around my neck in the way that made my stomach clench like I was on the rapid descent of a coaster.

But a coaster wasn’t what I wanted to go down…

Maybe only an hour of recovery time.

Using his hold, he aimed my face so I was looking at him. “I asked you a question.”

“Ryan was my… ex?”

His fingers flexed.

Half hour recovery.

I could hear the jealousy in his tone when he ground out, “You don’t sound too sure about that.”

It probably didn’t make me a good person that his possessiveness hit me with a heady rush of power, but I also couldn’t find it in me to care.

“It’s complicated, but not because I’m harboring any feelings other than disgust and loathing. I don’t know why he said he was my fiancé. We weren’t even really together in a romantic way.”

The familiar ice water rushed down my spine to tense my body when he grazed a knuckle across my scar. “Did he do this to you?”

I fought the urge to run—or at least cover myself—but I knew Deke wouldn’t let me.

More importantly, I was sick of hiding.

My eyes.

My curse.

My scar.

Myself.

It took a lot of effort, but I stayed where I was and answered him.

“No. Well, kind of. But no.” In the comfort and safety of Deke’s arms, I let my mind wander into a past I tried to block out. One I wished I could forget like the first sixteen years of my life.

Starting from the beginning, I told him about my time with the Gideons. How awful they’d treated me. Mrs. Gideon’s drunken indifference. Pastor Gideon’s tyrannical reign. And Claire’s mean girl torture.

Day in and day out, for six long months.

“By the time Ryan moved to town and became my youth pastor, I was already damaged. I had no answers to the mystery of where my family was or who I was. Everyone either avoided me like I was a freak or pitied me—and I’m not sure which was worse. But he was sweet to me. Funny. Normal . Looking back, he had to have known about my curse.”

“Your gift,” Deke cut in, giving my hair a tug.

A soft smile curved my lips. “My gift. I wasn’t good at hiding it then. Even when I knew I should hold it in, if I got a vision, I blurted it out.”

“You wanted to help.”

“Badly. I knew what it was like not to have any support, so…” I shrugged and pushed on. “Anyway, when Ryan started pursuing me a few months later, I was flattered. He was handsome. All the girls and women wanted him. But he wanted me. And I desperately needed to be wanted.”

I still do.

I didn’t say the words out loud, but Deke knew. Of course he did.

Pressing his lips to the top of my head, he whispered, “That’s why you have me.”

I have him.

Not for a while. Not temporarily.

Not…

A thought hit me, instantly tightening my stomach in a way I couldn’t suppress. Bile burned in my throat, and the vengeance and violence I’d experienced earlier returned.

Times a million.

Deke’s hold tightened like he expected me to bolt and was ready to restrain me. “My one?”

Even though he’d clearly felt the change, I did my best to hide the homicidal intent that filled me at just the idea of Deke coming home smelling like another woman’s perfume. I forced my voice to be nonchalant. “I get that we’re soulmates, destined to be paired together. But I just want to make sure we’re on the same page about what that means.”

“I’m yours. You’re mine. For all of our immortal lives. End of fucking story.”

“I’m immortal?”

“Not anxious to test that, but I would guess so unless Absolve or someone else grows strong enough to change shit. The powers-that-be wouldn’t give me you just to take you away a short lifetime later.”

Huh.

“And you’re okay with just me for all that time?” I asked.

I might’ve, maybe, slightly, kind of been fishing for reassurances.

Deke didn’t let me down.

“There is no just when it comes to you, Aurora. Waited centuries, and now that I have you, I’d have waited centuries longer, and it still would’ve been worth it. If I ever lost my damn mind and even looked at another woman, you have my permission to cut off my left nut and throw it to the moose.”

“Only the left one?”

“Or the right. Dealer’s choice.” Roughly fisting my hair, he tugged me so my body was half on his and his knee was pressed between my spread legs. “But know this… If another man touches you, I will rip his hands off, beat him with them, and then take my time killing him. It’ll be slow. It’ll be painful. And I’ll enjoy every second. Whatever you did to that bastard today, it wasn’t enough.”

“I kicked him in the crotch a few times, and then Denny turned him to dust.”

“Wasn’t enough,” he repeated.

“At least he’s dead, baby.”

His dark eyes lit, a small smile playing at his mouth. “You called me baby.”

Fifteen minutes.

His smile disappeared. “Tell me more about your relationship with that prick.”

“We snuck around for a while. It was exciting. I thought I was happy. Wanted . One day, he pulled me into one of the empty meeting rooms to fool around, and we got caught by Pastor Gideon. He lost his mind. Not at Ryan, even though he was the adult. At me and only me. He dragged me from the building, calling me every name and then some. Once we were at his house, all hell broke loose. Screaming. Pushing. Hitting.”

Staring at the brick wall, I saw every vivid detail like they’d just happened.

My lip had been split. My eyes were both swollen, and I’d known there was blood in them by the red film that’d coated everything.

I’d heard the floor creak. Bleary-eyed, hope had swelled in my chest that someone was there to help. That Ryan had followed us. But it’d been Claire. She’d watched from the doorway as he continued his abuse, smirking at me the whole time.

“I got a vision while he was beating the harlot slut out of me,” I continued. “Him with various members of the church in prayer meetings where their oh-gods were far from holy. Like always, I hadn’t been able to hold back. What I’d seen spilled from my bloody mouth. I think, on some level, I’d wanted to scare him. Show I had some power. Something to hold over him. But it backfired. He lost his mind. He dragged me to my tiny bedroom at the back of the house and tied me to the bed. Bible in one hand and his other a tightly clenched fist, he’d performed an exorcism that’d ended with him burning me with the cross until I lost consciousness.”

“Fucking hell, baby.” His words were muffled as he held me tighter and repeated, “Fucking hell.”

“That’s exactly what it was. I was positive Pastor Gideon would be back to finish me off, and it wouldn’t have taken much. I was weak, in pain, and had given up all hope. Ryan snuck in later that night and took me away. I thought he was rescuing me. He told me it was more than that. He was saving me and my soul. We bounced around for a while to different churches, each growing progressively bigger. I fed him info about the congregation from my visions, and he worked it into his sermons. Helping to build people’s faith was my penance for my curse. And I didn’t talk to anyone else until I met you.” I let out a forced, self-deprecating laugh. “I feel so stupid now.”

“You were young. And lonely. I get that last one. Really fucking get it.”

I did something I rarely did. I gave myself the benefit of the doubt. “I was drugged, too.”

He went alert. “ What ?”

“I’ve never been a good sleeper, so Ryan got me sleeping pills. According to Lennon and then the vision I had earlier, they were strong meds to keep me in a stupor. An obedient stupor.”

I wasn’t sure how my defiance was able to break through such heavy dosages, but I had a feeling it had something to do with fate, the balance of the universe, and the powers-that-be.

And a certain sexy lumberjack I needed to find.

I moved on, telling him the truth about that night. How I’d been in Maine after my brain wouldn’t shut up about the state and how I needed to run in the woods. How Ryan had hit me because I’d fought him when he’d wanted to give me to someone who I was certain was an Absolve member. How I’d jumped out of the car to get away from him.

And to Deke.

“His death was sure as hell not enough,” he said, low and even. “Are the Gideons dead?”

I shrugged. “No idea.”

“They’ll wish they were. And then once they get to Levi, he’ll make them wish their souls no longer existed.”

It wasn’t an empty threat.

I was surprisingly okay with that.

“Tell me about Heaven,” I said, ready to move off the past.

“It’s wet.”

Huh?

“And tight.”

What’s that even mean?

“And I’m ready for it again,” he finished before grasping my wrist to lower it down his body. His hand covered mine as he wrapped it around his hard-on.

I gave it a tentative squeeze, and he groaned, his hips rising from the mattress.

That heady high shot to my head.

He just had me, and he already wants me again.

It was evil, but I wanted to ride that rush. After all, I’d waited five days. He could wait a little longer—while I teased him.

I kept my hold on him. “I actually want to hear about it.”

And get off on tempting you.

“Was it beautiful?” I asked.

He ran his palm down his face to his beard. “It was beige and boring. Couldn’t swear. Couldn’t get back to you. Couldn’t get inside you.”

“What about an archangel? Do you have one?”

“No.” At that bombshell, I started to release him, but he covered my hand again and used it—used me—to stroke himself. He stopped after a moment, which was good because my plan to tease him was backfiring. “ We have one.”

Jump-starting my brain enough to remember what we were talking about, his words clicked. “What? We ?”

“Grip me tighter, and I’ll tell you every-fucking-thing you wanna know.”

My smile grew to a grin as I did the opposite, loosening my hold to graze up his length.

“You’re cruel,” he groaned.

“Who’s our archangel?”

I have an archangel.

Or joint custody of one, but still.

“Uriel.”

My lips curved down as I tried to recall any information past the lust fog that’d settled over my brain. “I’m not overly familiar with him.”

His words were stilted, coming out with rough, heavy breaths. “The archangel of fulfillment—my gift. And light, prophecy, and visions—your gifts. Our archangel.”

Our archangel.

Because I wasn’t a sinner damned to hell.

I slid my palm down to the base of him. “Then what happened?”

“That was it. Talked to Levi and Uriel about where I’d been and how angels were defecting. Ate a beignet. Felt your terror and demanded they send me back.”

“They have beignets?” I asked, though that was far from the most important thing he said. It did explain why he declined Monica’s offer, though.

“Levi smuggled it in.”

“Why are angels deserting Heaven? It’s literal Heaven.”

“Your guess is as good as mine, baby.”

I mulled it over, my nails teasing through the trimmed hair above his cock. Then the hair below. The sides.

Basically, anywhere but where he wanted me most.

Where I wanted to touch most, too.

Is mutual torment still even torment?

At the surge of arousal that mixed with the wetness already dripping from me, another realization formed.

We hadn’t used protection.

And I wasn’t on birth control. Not unless that was one of the pills I’d secretly been given.

“Hey, so… Can The Four, um, reproduce?”

Deke’s brows furrowed, his mouth a bitter slash. “Our purpose is hazardous, and our lifetimes are never-ending. Bringing a child into that would be fucked.”

His words were matter of fact, but his tone and the expression were both resentful.

He cupped my cheek. “Are you upset?”

“No,” I answered honestly. I’d never thought having children was a possibility for me. Why would I want to drag someone innocent into my messed-up life?

Maybe that might’ve changed with Deke, but I would never know.

Deke reached for me again. Rather than putting my hand on him, he hauled my whole body up until I straddled him. His grunt mixed with my moan when his hardness pressed against my soaked sex.

“I wasn’t done talking yet,” I protested—though not that fervently.

“Made a promise, and I intended to keep it.”

“Which was?”

“That I’d make it up to you next time.”

I didn’t bother to tell him that it was unnecessary. That there was nothing to make up for because he’d already given me more pleasure than I’d had in my entire life combined. I kept my mouth shut.

When it came to Deke, I would greedily take anything and everything he had to give.

He palmed the back of my head and pulled my mouth to meet his. With my ass in the air, he reached his other hand around to slide his fingers through my wetness from behind. He froze suddenly, and I thought it was his turn for revenge.

Turnabout being fair play—and a fun cycle of teasing.

But then his eyes narrowed. “The night in the woods, I asked if you were in danger, and you said no.”

“I wasn’t. Even then, I somehow knew you would protect me.”

He shifted me until his cock lined up with my core. In one brutal, vicious drive, he thrust up into me at the same time he yanked me down to meet him.

My neck arched, my scream coming out as a soundless wheeze.

“Next time,” he grunted, setting an intense pace. “I’ll make it up to you next time.”