Epilogue
Two Weeks Later
“Nic.”
Mira’s gentle whisper had him opening his eyes. He loved all the nicknames she’d made for him. Sometimes she called him Dom instead. He fucking loved that, too.
And he made sure to live up to it whenever she did.
The golden halo of the afternoon sun behind her made him pause, his eyes roaming over her. After getting rid of his Hyde Park apartment and even his downtown condo, they’d found a cozy place uptown.
A little further from the fray.
“I got you something.”
He sat up as she joined him in bed and leaned against the headboard with a tablet.
“I mean, it’s not a new thing. It’s something I found. Or I guess, looked for.” She gave him a quick, uncertain smile.
“I’m sure I’ll love it, whatever it is.”
Mira needed all the love and reassurance she could get. Fuck, they both did, in the new, terrifying times. But where he could content himself with her little smiles and touches, she needed to hear his love.
She handed him the tablet, which had a video waiting to be played. Dominic smiled at her again, pressed Play, and froze.
The jittery, decaying old black and white silent film showed a man waving to a crowd in a circus tent. He climbed the ladder to the platform in his striped leotard, and waved once more.
Poising like a swimmer with his arms above him, he gracefully dived off the platform, toward the packed earth ground.
Seconds from impact, he disappeared, leaving a misty layer of smoke floating a few inches in the air. It rose, solidifying back into the smoke demon as he backflipped to his feet and waved to the crowd’s standing ovation.
The video ended, but Dominic continued staring at the screen in the room’s thick silence. Mira leaned over and wiped the tear from his cheek.
She searched his face. “Is it a good gift?”
“It’s the best gift.” He pulled her into his embrace, and pressed his lips to her forehead. “Best gift I’ve ever received.”
“I found it in Max’s database with some other old videos.” She smiled sadly. “He keeps gifting us with things.”
“Yeah, he does.” Dominic turned off the tablet and set it on the nightstand.
His Briarworth suitcase sat on the dresser, no longer hidden in the back of his closet. An open reminder of what he was, as well of the parts he no longer needed to be.
“Actually, there’s one gift that might be better.”
Mira frowned. “Really?”
“Mm-hm.”
Dominic pushed her onto her back, then stripped off her sleep shorts and panties. He caressed her belly. “I have to keep working on it every day.”
“Do you think I’m already pregnant?” she whispered.
He shrugged. “Don’t know. Until then, I’ll just keep blissfully breeding you. Hell, I might keep going after you are. Just to stay in practice.”
With his constant level of stress, it seemed like his body was in permanent feast, fight, or fuck mode.
Dominic didn’t need to eat now. Fuck knows he was already tired of fighting. He just wanted to stay buried in his mate all day, happily breeding her til his heart’s content.
Seconds later, he had her legs pushed high, so he could see his cock entering her. He watched his thick shaft slide through her slowly as her legs twitched. Then, he was happily grunting and thrusting through her juicy folds while she gasped.
Fuck the rest of the world. He just needed her, and this.
Impatiently, he flipped her onto her belly, wrapped his hand in her hair, and gave her the hard, angry fuck she craved until the bed was slamming the wall. She shrieked beneath him as her pussy drew every drop out of his cock.
Dominic groaned and kissed her damp shoulder.
Mira wiggled. “You’ve got me all sticky again.”
“Then let’s go shower. You can get sticky again in there with no penalty,” he murmured. “Or, get on your knees and have a little afternoon snack.”
Mira’s eyes darkened. She licked her lips. “I am hungry.”
His cock surged to life once more. “Then prepare to get fed.”
Dominic managed a crack on her bare ass as she ran by. Glancing over his shoulder, he walked to the window, and sighed.
She’d washed up, but he’d still smelled the lingering spray paint on her hands. He brushed the sheer curtain aside, and stared several buildings over, to the new demon club that had opened in their neighborhood.
ANGELS ONLY. NO DEMONS, the sign said.
Mira’s angry, scrawled graffiti had crossed out ANGELS and changed the sign to AIR DEMONS ONLY. NO SMOKE DEMONS.
Dominic stared at for a few minutes. He dropped the curtain, and went to go join his mate in the shower.
Smoke Demon Mates will return with Bastian & Laara in The Demon’s Bane.