Strife: Hidden Book Four (28 page)

“Say it again.”

“I’m yours,” I whimpered.

Another deep, hard thrust. “For how long?”

“Forever,” I said, looking into his eyes.

“And who do I belong to?” he asked.

“You’re mine,” I said, meeting his eyes.

“Glad we finally understand one another,” he said as he started moving again, harder, faster, his hands now gripping my hips. I whimpered, moaned, cried his name over and over again as I lost control, lost any semblance of sanity, his demon feeding mine as he reminded me how good it was, how frightening and dirty and addictive he could be. When I felt him explode inside me, I went right over the edge with him.

When he was finally spent, he stayed on top of me, our bodies still joined. We were both breathing hard, sweating. I trembled beneath him, exhausted in every way by the experience. I reveled in the sensation of being crushed by three hundred pounds of cool, muscled demon, of the feel of his hands in my hair, his lips on mine. Of the delicious way my body ached from the things he’d done to me. He kissed his way down my jaw, my throat, and ended up nuzzling my neck. We stayed like that a long time, and I never wanted to be anywhere else, ever again.

He rested his forehead against mine. “I love you, Molly,” he said in a hoarse voice. “I swear to whatever god you want me to that I am gonna spend the rest of my life showing you how much. Remember that when I inevitably fuck up.”

I smiled and rubbed his back, feeling the long scratches I’d left with my fingernails. “I will. Remember the same thing with me.” Then I wrapped my arms around him. He stayed on top of me, our bodies joined, and I whispered how much I loved him.

“I know you wanted to take this slow,” he murmured against my throat.

“We both know where this is going. I’m tired of being without my husband,” I said softly. “I just want you.”

He stilled, and I felt happiness, possessiveness flowing from him. “It feels like I’ve waited an eternity to hear you say that.”

“I love you, Bael,” I said, reaching up and bringing his face back down to mine, kissing him, nibbling his lips and feeling desire roar through him again.

“I love you too.” And then he released me, rolled off of me, and I missed the sensation of being filled by him. He was rooting around in the nightstand drawer on his side, and I turned over and watched him.

He found what he was looking for, and he settled back into the bed, facing me. He opened his hand, and in his palm was the wedding band that matched his, the smaller of the set. Mine.

“We can do the bonding ritual another time. When we can enjoy it and everything isn’t chaos around us. But this is a pretty good start, right?”

I was on the verge of crying. “Yes,” I whispered, and I felt so much happiness from him it nearly broke me. How in the hell could someone like me make anyone this happy?

He took my hand, and placed the ring slowly on my finger, back where it belonged. I looked at our hands, then I smiled up into his face. He was watching me, staring at me as if I was the most fascinating thing he’d ever seen.

I started kissing his jaw, letting the coarse stubble there abrade my lips.

“I love you, my husband,” I whispered to him. “You are my soul. You are the other half of me. If you ever fucking hide anything like your Astaroth plan again I will kick your demonic ass and you will never, ever get laid again.”

He laughed, squeezed me tighter against him. “I love you too, wife.” He was smiling, a rare, pure, open smile on his face. “But we both know you won’t keep to that threat of never sleeping with me again. You like it too much.”

I kissed him, nibbled his lower lip, sucked it between my teeth, and he groaned. “I wasn't kidding, Nain,” I said when I finally released his lip.

“I know you weren’t. Point taken. As long as you understand the same thing.”

“Fine.”

He kissed me again, and I turned over so we could fall asleep the way we liked best, his chest pressed to my back.

“Better now?” he asked, his breath tickling my ear.

“Yes,” I whispered, smiling as my eyelids started to droop.

“Good. Rest now, baby.”

I didn’t think I’d fall asleep, not with his thigh pressed between mine, not with his hands each cupping a breast, not with my very naked husband pressed up against me. But I did, and I slept more soundly than I had in years.

Chapter Seventeen

When I woke up, it was the way it was in so many of my dreams, so many of my memories of him. We were in his bed, bare skin to bare skin, his front to my back, my wings stretched forward. His leg was between my thighs, tangling with my legs beneath the cool white sheets. I laid there, reveling in the feel of waking up next to him, marveling over the way my body still ached, hours after he'd finished with me. I smiled, shook my head, remembering the things the man snoring beside me had done to me the night before. The things he'd said to me. The way he’d woken up again a while later and we’d driven each other insane all over again, his eyes glowing red in the darkness as we loved each other. I’d done things for him, let him do things to me I never would have even imagined. And I hadn’t given them a second thought, fulfilling my need to please my husband, just as I knew he needed to please me to feel whole.

Demons: taking possessiveness to new levels. And I was no less possessive than he was. I understood that about myself now, better than I ever had

I closed my eyes and just tried to enjoy these moments of peace, knowing that, living the life we lived, they were few and precious. I turned over in his arms, trying not to wake him. I settled in again, looked him over as he slept. Strong, bare chest, shoulders, complete with scratches from my fingernails, bite marks I'd left the night before, because he liked it. The large black tattoos he’d had when we’d first met were gone; when he’d been reborn in the Nether, his body was remade, unmarked, the same way mine had. Dark hair, dark stubble on his cheeks and chin.

Damn. What was he doing to me? How could I even be thinking of going down this road again?

I knew him. There was no turning back now. There wasn’t a chance in hell he’d let me walk away from him. There never had been. Not really. And I didn't want to. By his side was where I wanted to be, but I was afraid. We were like two fireflies in the night, always aware of one another, always circling each other, somehow coming back, meeting again, no matter what else was happening around us. The ache in my body, the ring on my finger, both signs that we were back, and I was afraid of it ending too soon, the way it had the first time. If I lost him again, there would be no coming back.

“Stop thinking,” he murmured, running his hand lazily over my hip. His eyes were still closed.

“Could you hear me?” I asked, running my hand over his shoulder, down his arm.

“No. But I know you. Fifty bucks says it was something like ‘I can't believe we did that, this is gonna turn out bad I just know it but goddamn that was the best fuck of my life,’” he said in a slightly higher-pitched voice, a very bad imitation of me.

“Not that you're too cocky or anything like that.”

He opened his eyes, raised his eyebrow as he looked at me. “I seem to remember you begging for my--”

“Shut up, Nain,” I said, grinning. I ran my fingernails down his stomach, earning a groan, a rough squeeze of my waist.

“You trying to start something?”

“Maybe,” I said, leaning forward and kissing his chest.

He was watching me, and he ran his fingers through my hair. He was content. As relaxed as I’d ever seen him. And he seemed to be happy doing nothing more than just looking at me, as if the sight of me in his arms was the best thing on Earth.

Maybe it was. I knew I couldn’t get enough of the sight of him, the smell of him. Running my hands over his broad shoulders, his arms, his back was something I’d never get tired of. I loved the trail of dark hair down his stomach, the muscled “v” of his abdomen. His strong jaw, those sapphire eyes with their long black lashes. I felt like I could spend eternity just staring at him, and it still wouldn’t be enough.

“I think I love you even more now than I did before,” I said softly as he pressed a row of kisses along my shoulder.

“I didn’t think it was possible, but I know I love you more,” he said, kissing my collarbone. “There’s less bullshit between us now.”

“We had to fight hard to get here,” I said.

“We did.” He kissed his way up my throat. “Every second of the fight was worth it. Every moment in hell, every second I had to miss you. Every bit of it was worth it for this moment.”

I was on the verge of tears, and he just kept kissing me, loving me. “It hurt when you died,” I said.

“Still worth it,” he murmured against my neck. “I’d die a hundred times if it meant I’d have you with me again. There is nothing in this world that could keep me away from you now.”

“I can’t lose you again,” I whispered.

He cupped my face in his hands, met my eyes, and the intensity in his gaze took my breath away. “You are never, ever getting rid of me, Molly. I’ll destroy the whole fucking world before I’d let anything come between us again. I am not going anywhere.”

“I’d chase you through hell if I had to. I’d use every scary power I have to keep you safe and with me,” I told him, and the pride that roared over me, from him, was overwhelming. “You’re mine, Bael.”

“From the moment I laid eyes on you, woman,” he said, kissing my temple, then my cheek, my earlobe. “I knew I’d never want anyone else. It took you longer to want me.”

“It did.”

“And once you finally did, I knew I’d do anything to keep you safe. Even if it meant losing you.”

“And now we know I’m unkillable.”

“And nothing is coming between us again. I promise, Mollis Eth-Hades,” he said, his voice low, intimate.

We stayed like that a while longer, in each other’s arms, both of us knowing the moment had to end because we were still needed, both of us grateful that neither of our phones had rung yet. We showered and got dressed, and, cheesy as it was, getting ready with him again in the morning made me happy.

“What are you smiling about now?” he asked when he caught sight of me in the mirror over the dresser.

“What do you think?” I finished pulling on my jeans and grabbed my brush, started working it through the tangles.

He smiled and leaned down and kissed me on his way back into the bathroom to shave. I turned the television back on. Not much had changed from the night before. There were still random battles raging, and people were starting to ask stupid questions like “why doesn’t the SWAT team just shoot them” and “why not just use tear gas?”

Simple answer: because you can’t look at us and tell who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. The good guys aren’t wearing uniforms.

Hm. Maybe we should be, I thought to myself. Not for ourselves, but so people know we’re trustworthy. Something to think about later.

As I was finishing braiding my hair, I felt my mother’s power signature nearby. Nain felt it too, and he glanced toward me.

“Your mom will be happy. She likes me, you know,” he said.

“I know she does. Believe me, I heard all about it.”

He shook his head and went back to shaving. I headed out into the loft just as E was letting my mother in. She was better than most immortals that way; she at least tried to adhere to mortal protocols about stuff like not just appearing in someone’s living room.

As soon as she noticed me, she walked over and folded me in a hug, and I hugged her back. She stepped back and looked me over.

“You look surprisingly relaxed, daughter,” she said. “And is that a… smile?” she asked, a look of disbelief on her face.

I grinned, shook my head. I knew I was blushing. “Maybe.” I brought my hand up, so only my mother could see it. Her eyes lit on the hematite band on my finger, and I felt a barrage of happiness from her. She hugged me again.

“I am so happy for you,” she whispered as she hugged me. “You deserve to be happy, my girl. And as often as you fight, I know the demon is your heart.”

“He is,” I said, and she gave me another squeeze. We went to the living room and sat down. I glanced around. E and Ada were in the kitchen. Brennan was in the dining room, feeding Sean, who was in his high chair. He was watching me, and I was dreading some kind of anger or something there after he’d seen me come out of Nain’s room. Our room. Instead, he gave me a small smile and looked away again.

“I wanted to check in with you,” Tisiphone said as she settled into one of the chairs by the windows.

“I’m glad. I was hoping to talk to you. Things are bad here. We could use you and Aunt Meg and dad. A lot,” I said.

She shook her head. “As bad as things are here, they are worse in the Nether. That’s what I was coming to tell you. And I wanted to check on you as well.”

I took her hand, felt the worry rolling off of her. “I’m fine. She’s still fighting me, but I’m managing,” I said. “What about you guys?”

“Things in the Nether are an absolute disaster,” she said, and Nether (the being) was starting to get all hyper, faced with one of the beings she hated. “Is she getting stronger?”