Chapter 28
Callum
“I’d… I’d be alright with sharing.” Seren’s breath hitches in her throat and her cheeks flush pink.
I drop her hand.
Goddess, but I’d like to keep it right where it was. I’d like to sink my fangs into her, taste her, throw her down on that bed and…
Fuck.
We’re not going to have our first time together be in a small apartment with walls thin enough to hear through, with her friend and another demon right down the hall.
Even just having another demon right down the hall feels wrong. It’s nonsensical, I know, especially because that demon already has his own mate who he’s very evidently devoted to, but it still sets my teeth on edge.
I want to have Seren somewhere private. I want it to just be me and her, away from the world, all on our own with nothing to distract us.
But that’s not what we have tonight.
“Then we’ll share,” I say softly. “If you think we’ll both fit?”
The bed is small. Unfurled from a sofa and made up nicely with pillows and blankets, but still… small.
Not that I mind.
If it means Seren will have to curl up next to me, if it means I can feel the warmth of her and hear her breathing all night long, I don’t mind.
“I think we can make it work.”
Quietly, we go about getting ready for bed. We both duck out of the room and head down the hall to take care of nightly business, and change into our sleeping clothes.
It was kind of Seren’s friends to put us up here for the evening. Their home is small but tidy, set over a cafe on the street level in a small human village, and the two of them appear to be very happy together.
Rhett seems like a good male.
Friendly enough, and very protective of Joan, which I can’t fault him for at all.
And apparently he’s made a life for himself here in the human realm. Like the ring Angelique gave me, he’s got a similar glamour that allows him to walk amongst humans undetected. He works with Joan in her shop and splits his time between realms, as he also does occasional errands for the court.
The possibilities that flooded my mind when he told me about his life here have been hard to ignore.
Seren and I are still nowhere near the end of our hunt. We’re still nowhere near figuring anything out about where we go from here, or what happens between us once the hunt is over.
I also still have my debts, my duty to my mother.
And yet…
A door of possibility has cracked open. A small door, letting in just a sliver of light, but as Seren and I retire for the evening, I can’t stop thinking about it.
I can’t stop thinking about what possibilities may lie ahead for my mate and me.
But first, sleep. I pull on a pair of light linen undershorts, and nearly groan out loud when Seren returns from the bathing chamber.
Another pair of those tiny shorts that show off nearly every inch of her strong, shapely thighs. A tight, sleeveless top that leaves her shoulders bare and clings to every one of her curves. Her hair loose and unbound, looking so soft and silky that my hands ache to bury themselves within it.
I pick up the ring where it lies on the dresser. “Should I wear this to sleep?”
I took it off when we got here. Rhett seemed comfortable enough in his demon form, and all the curtains were drawn so no one from the street below would look up and see a demon lurking in the apartment.
But now…
Perhaps Seren would be more comfortable if I wore it to sleep. It would certainly give her more room in the bed.
Perhaps she would be more comfortable if I wore it always.
I didn’t notice a change in her behavior when I had it on, but perhaps she’d prefer if I looked more like her. If I didn’t have my demon features and could pass for one of her kind. It puts a weight in my stomach as I consider it, turning the ring over and over in my fingers.
“You can…”
When I look up, Seren is watching me with her bottom lip caught between her teeth.
It makes me want to have her bottom lip caught between my teeth.
She shakes her head, color staining her cheeks enough that I can see it even in the low light.
Her scent fills the room. Laced with her power like always, but now with… something else. Something sweet and dark and mouth-watering.
“I can what, star?”
The nickname sends a little tremor through her.
“You can leave the glamour off. If you want. And if you don’t mind being a little crunched in the bed. Sorry it’s not more—”
Ring deposited back on the dresser, I cross the room in two quick strides. I wrap an arm around her waist and draw her near.
“Do you prefer me like this? As I truly am?”
Her eyes answer for her as they trace my horns, my wings, but she also gives me a small nod.
It fills me with an emotion I can’t quite name. Pride mixed with relief, with elation, with affection. A balm for a fear I hadn’t wanted to let myself dwell on.
My mate likes me as I am, and that makes me feel like I could move mountains.
I want to pull her closer, crush my lips to hers, take her to bed and see just how much she likes her demon, but I make myself step back and take her hand instead.
“Come on, let’s get some sleep.”
We crawl into bed, and though it takes a bit of creativity to fit our bodies and limbs together in a way that allows us both to be on the mattress without falling off, we make it work.
I’m on my side with Seren’s back tucked to my chest. Her head rests on one of my arms like a pillow, and the soft cloud of her hair tickles my bare chest. I drape my other arm around her waist, settle her against me, and feel a piece of myself slot into place.
This is right.
Me, Seren, the two of us together, is right.
I’d give my left horn to be somewhere we could do something about it, about the delicious warmth and tension between us when she leans back and nuzzles into me, when all the gentle curves of her body find exactly where they fit.
Tonight’s not the night, though. Not with her friends just down the hall. All that delectable potential will have to wait.
But I can’t resist getting at least one small taste.
Hand curled around her jaw, I tip her head toward me and catch her lips in a kiss.
Just a small kiss. More a brush of lips than anything.
It ignites a blaze.
Instinct wells up, hot and demanding, filling my veins and sending a rush of blood straight to my cock, swelling my knot nearly to the point of pain. I shift my hips and pray to the Goddess that Seren can’t feel it.
Even if she can, she mercifully chooses to ignore it as she settles her head back down.
When her breathing evens out, when she’s still and relaxed and a wonderful, steady weight against me, I finally feel myself relax, too.
I relax enough that something else wells up in me.
Something I’ve never experienced before.
A purr, soft and tentative, fills my chest.
It stutters, stops and starts as I get the feel for it, and Seren cranes her neck back to look at me.
“Are you—”
“Purring.” This time it’s my turn to have my cheeks stained with color. “It’s a… demon thing.”
“And it’s… good?”
Unable to help myself, I pull her closer. I kiss her deeper this time, surging instinct and fire in my veins be damned. My purr crests louder, and when we break the kiss, Seren lets out a long, satisfied sigh.
“It’s very good, star. It’s for you.”
“Me?”
“For my mate.” I kiss her forehead, the tip of her nose. “It’s a sound of comfort and pleasure a demon can only ever make for their fated one.”
Seren lets that sink in for a few moments, then reaches up to cup my cheek. “I wish I could purr for you, too.”
I don’t know what to say to that, don’t know what to do with the bittersweet ache in my chest, so I kiss her again.
Slow and soothing, with my purr rumbling strong and steady between us.
I kiss her until my already frayed-control is hanging by a single thread, then cuddle her close and brush my lips to the top of her rumpled curls.
“We should get some sleep,” I murmur.
Seren grumbles a little, but shifts so her back is pressed to my chest again, every inch of her radiating warmth against me.
“Good night, Callum.”
“Good night, Seren.”
What tomorrow will bring, I don’t know.
But here, tonight, is a little slice of heaven I won’t let myself take for granted.
As sleep rises to claim me, I hold on to every moment. Every inch of Seren against me. Every memory of this incredible, nerve-wracking day.
I’d give anything to make it last a little longer.
I’d give anything for a pause, a moment of peace, a reprieve.
But we’ve got a heart to find and a bounty to win and a murderous fae monarch whose prize might just fix both our lives.
All of it, every last bit, is so terribly, unbelievably strange that I fall asleep with a smile on my lips and a silent laugh in my chest, wishing like anything tomorrow will be at least a little calmer.
But knowing my witch and the way she races forward through life, that’s not likely to happen.