Chapter 24
Lola
“Were you ever going to tell me?” Carter asked, his voice soft as his thumb rubbed slow circles on my stomach, his other hand flat on my hip.
I released a long exhale, my shoulders sagging when my back met his chest. The house that I had viewed as a prison for the first few days I’d been living here now felt comforting and soothing.
Crazy what not even forty-eight hours had done to my relationship with Carter and my overall feeling of this place. He was not just a Divine jerk anymore. He was my Divine jerk.
“I would have,” I said. “Eventually.”
He scoffed. “Eventually?”
Rolling my eyes would have been pointless. After all, my face was focused on the vegetables sizzling in the pan in front of me. “I knew I couldn’t hide them forever. But there’s a lot of things I’m still keeping to myself for now. I’ll open up in time.”
He gave a slow, acknowledging nod, his chin resting on the top of my head. His hand grabbed a small piece of string on the counter next to the stove. Sliding his fingers under my hair, he worked to tie it up in a high ponytail.
“What are you doing?”
“Was it to hide your ears that you always kept your hair in a braid?”
“Yes.”
My neck and ears now visible, Carter’s finger brushed along the shell reverently, following the unusual shape. The touch sent a shiver down my spine.
“Why did you hide them?”
“My reasoning feels stupid now,” I said with a defeated sigh.
He grabbed the wooden spoon from my hand and started to move the food around in the pan. “Tell me anyway. I think they look adorable.”
“They also tell the world about who I am,” I countered. “About what I am. When they know, people expect me to be something I’m not. Expect me to have incredible powers or stuff like this. Which I didn’t when I was still bound to serve Hell, because my powers and abilities were bridled.”
“But they’re not anymore.”
“I know. But people not knowing also allow me to have an edge on others. To fight back when they don’t expect me to even be able to defend myself.”
“So, it’s always about survival with you,” he said, but his voice was soft. Understanding.
I scoffed. “Aren’t we all aiming to just survive in this dumb world?”
His fingers landed on my chin, tilting my head enough for our eyes to meet. “Why would I go for survival when I can actually breathe for the first time?”
Shit. He was good. Who would have thought he’d be such a sweet-talker?
I arched a brow. “Seriously?”
“I’ve been suffering for ages, Lola,” he answered, his face and tone more than serious. “I know it took me a while to wrap my head around it, but you feel like the light at the end of the tunnel. I can’t just survive now that I have someone to live for.”
I reached for his face, cupping his jaw with my hand. This moment. The kindness in his piercing blue eyes. The softness of his gaze, of his face as he looked at me. I needed to enjoy it while it lasted, because soon enough, when his anger would be too strong to ignore, that bubble would pop.
“Why doesn’t it surprise me?” Carter chuckled, holding me closer to him under the covers.
“If it makes you feel better, I made them promise not to tell.”
“It doesn’t. I’m still the last one to know…”
Carter nuzzled his face in my neck, the light scrape of his stubble making me squirm and giggle uncontrollably.
“Dimitri, Arc, Kai, and Marcus. So many who knew about the cute ears before me…If you tell me that Margaret knew too, I’m not sure what I’m going to do to you.”
I snorted, holding my laugh as his hands pinched at my waist and hips, tickling me playfully.
“Oh, she definitely knows,” I said between bursts of laughter. “She must have been here when—ah! When Arc confronted me about it—Oh Hell, stop!”
“Oh, no, no, no…It’s like the missing soul all over again.”
I finally caught his hand and contorted enough for him to pause his relentless attacks. He grinned at me, sliding his nose along my own as he released a long, satisfied sigh.
“Tell me something.”
“What?” I asked.
“Anything. A secret none or very few people know.” I groaned and rolled my eyes, trying to escape his hold. “Come on,” he continued, tightening his arms around my body. “It can be something silly, or that you deem unimportant. I don’t care, I just—I want to be one of the first to know something.”
“There’s nothing about me that Dimitri doesn’t know, you’ll never—”
“I know, Dimitri doesn’t count. Something that maybe only he knows about you.”
I thought about it. For too long. There was something. Something only Dimitri knew…Well, not exactly. Blake and my brother did too. And I wasn’t ready to tell Carter or anyone else about that.
So I settled for something else. Something that didn’t feel too important, and that only the people who knew me before I became a Succubus knew. “My natural hair color was kind of a dark red.”
And that’s all he needed. Carter’s eyes sparkled and his smile grew, illuminating his whole face.
“Dark red,” he repeated. “I like that. And what of your face? Your whole appearance?”
I ran my fingers along his chest, enjoying the smooth skin as my hand went up and down.
“I’d say, pretty similar to the one I have now. When I think back to my reflection back then, that’s the face I think I remember. Maybe some little details changed after so many years and my memory is playing tricks on me, but—yeah. I think I looked like I do now.”
Or maybe I was taller…I wasn’t entirely sure. My mind tended to go blank when I thought about that time. But Dimitri would be able to draw my past self with his eyes closed. I had obviously changed my eye color…The one my brother and father had.
“I think I could recognize you even with a different face,” Carter said.
I arched a brow, my face lifting just enough to look at him. “Are you going to deliver another cheesy line?”
He sighed, muffling a chuckle by burying his head in my hair. “I guess I’m the cheesy one then.”
“Who would have thought…” He pinched my waist again. “Does this mean we won’t be fighting anymore?”
A mischievous spark lit up his eyes.
“Depends…Are we talking about naked fights?” My whole body shivered as his lips slid down my jaw. “Where you end up begging for more?”
Fuck. Turns out my Divine mate was utterly insatiable…
Good.
Because I didn’t think I’d ever get enough of him. Of how savage he became once the clothes were off and our hands were on each other.