Page 21 of A Cursed Heart

Malacoda

Surprise, joy, fear, all filtered through me in a fraction of a second. Ryan was kissing me!

I kissed him back hungrily, putting all the feelings I had for him into it. I held him tightly, never wanting to let go as my tongue explored his mouth. He clung to me, opening further to me, making noises which had my cock stirring.

A cough had us shifting apart. Ryan’s face was as scarlet as my hair. Mine felt slightly tender from the rasp of his stubble. He moved further away from me, not meeting my eyes or touching me in any way.

Did he regret it? Was it only to replenish my magic?

“Let’s go home,” Ryan murmured.

We stood awkwardly in the elevator with the person who had interrupted us standing just in front of us.

Finally, Ryan reached for my hand, wrapping his finger around my pinky until he could envelop my hand in his.

With him initiating contact, I felt better about the kiss, like he had wanted it because he wanted to kiss me, not as a quick way to fill my magic after using so much.

“Are you okay?” he asked, his hand tightened on mine.

“Of course.”

Not strictly true. The last couple of hours had been nothing but a series of stressful events on what should have been a peaceful night. Our family day was interrupted in the worst way. Then, I had to leave Ryan alone and drive the car.

Driving was not for the weak. Getting the car to move was not the issue. Understanding the rules of the road and whims of other drivers was impossible! Not far from the apartment, I had abandoned the car in a lot and vanished me and Freya to our home.

Keeping my stress from Ryan was a challenge, especially because his anxiety was leeching through our connection, adding to mine.

Unwilling to let him be alone in this, I left our connection open as much as possible while putting Freya to bed.

The little darling was exhausted after a busy day, and did not wake.

Once I had nothing else to do, I did what I usually did when Ryan went to that damn building: paced the apartment.

Throughout the day, I used a mixture of effort and magic to keep the place clean while also learning about the world I found myself in.

This meant there wasn’t much for me to do when Ryan was gone, aside from watching Freya sleep.

I didn’t want to unnerve the child should she wake, so I paced instead.

When Ryan called for me, I knew things had to be bad.

The neighbor, Mrs. Roberts, was eager to babysit for us.

I wondered if she was lonely. I would have to ask Ryan once this was over.

Humans were so isolated. In my corner of the kingdom, I’d had a few cousins living with me.

My supporters did too. What happened to them?

I never thought to ask about my manor or those who lived there.

One of those cousins likely took control of it, and they probably laughed over my misfortune.

The older woman returned to the apartment with me and found something to watch on the big TV mounted on the wall. “I’ve always liked what Ryan has done with the place. Will you be gone long?”

“Hopefully not. He has the car, and something’s wrong with it. I’m going to take a look at it.”

“Have you ordered a ride?”

“Yeah, it’ll be a couple minutes. I’ll go wait outside for it. Thanks for watching Freya.”

“You’re welcome, Malcolm.”

Hearing her use my new name was odd. However, I found that I liked it.

It felt good to use so much magic! I found Salvatore Holdings easily by following the bond I had with Ryan.

Getting into the office was harder. First, I had to dismantle some of the magic barring me from the room.

Once that was done, it was nothing to get to Ryan’s side and help him with gathering the information.

I feared touching him as much as I wanted to would be noticeable, so I had to refrain.

It was so difficult to restrain myself. All my life I had done what I’d wanted whenever I wanted.

Now I had to hold back, putting Ryan’s safety before my desires.

Maintaining my calm for Ryan was damn near impossible. Everything out of Scythe’s mouth was intended to rock him, to uncover the secrets Ryan held. I hated listening to him, being in that room once again. If I had my way, Ryan would never return.

Ryan, though, he was remarkable as always. He kept his cool mask in place even while sweating underneath. He talked back to the man blackmailing him, the beast running the underbelly of the city, with no outward sign of fear.

Leaving him even though I knew he was almost done himself, was one of the hardest things I had ever done. He was so vulnerable alone, so I was relieved when he left the building to get into the car.

I vanished back to the building. Without Ryan, I could not go upstairs and let Mrs. Roberts go home. Instead, I resumed my pacing just outside in the cool night air. Before the car pulled into the lot, I hid inside the building.

Ryan looked like the hounds of hell were chasing him. What was wrong? Had the bodyguard said something I’d missed? Ryan’s hand stayed in mine as we walked to the apartment, and he let us inside.

“Is the car okay?” Mrs. Roberts asked kindly. “Freya hasn’t moved an inch.”

“Oh, uh, no, it needs a new battery, I guess. We’ll have to deal with it tomorrow. Got it most of the way home though,” Ryan lied easily. “I appreciate you coming over to watch Freya for us.”

“If you ever need me to watch her so you can have a night to yourselves, I’m happy to do it. Freya is a sweet girl, and you are such nice boys. Did Malcolm tell you he took my grocery delivery inside the other day?”

The elevator was out of commission while they performed regular maintenance on it at exactly the same time the delivery arrived.

Unfortunately for Mrs. Roberts, the delivery driver, who was incredibly apologetic, could not manage so many stairs and had left the groceries downstairs for her to take up to her apartment.

I had noticed this whilst speaking to the repair person in the hallway near the entryway after dropping Freya at school.

In my old life, I would have walked away from the situation, believing it was beneath me to help someone.

However, my time with Ryan had taught me much about community.

He asked me often to check on the other older residents of the building.

It was now a habit to check for mail in Mrs. Roberts’ box when I took Ryan’s up.

So I carried those bags to her apartment without even thinking about it.

I even helped her put the heavier items away, worried about how frail she was.

When she clasped my hands, I sent some healing magic into her to ease the pain in her joints. Then, I went back to get the mail.

“He didn’t, but that doesn’t surprise me. Mal’s just kind like that.” Ryan’s pride in me warmed something in my heart.

It was the first time in my life that I’d ever been described as kind.

Once she had offered me more praise, the old lady left for her home.

Ryan watched her at the door until she was safely inside, then turned to face me.

He reached for me, cupping my face and pulling it closer until our lips met once more.

This kiss was soft, sweet, and full of feeling.

I just wanted them to be the right feelings.

I pulled away after a moment, even though it hurt.

All I wanted to do was kiss Ryan forever.

“Ryan—”

“What’s wrong? I thought you wanted to kiss me.”

“I do. So much.”

“So what’s the problem?”

“Do you want this? Is this just to help my magic refill after using so much? I want you to kiss me because you can’t think of anything else, because that’s what I feel for you.

For the first time in my long, long life, I have a family here with you, and I want it to mean the same thing to you as it does me. ”

Ryan chuckled. “You know what I was thinking when I was in that office? I know you weren’t reading everything because you’ve respected my privacy, you also never push for more.

You’ve been waiting for me to tell you I’m ready.

Well, this is me saying today was really fucking scary, and my first thought after Freya was you.

Mal, you are the most important person to me after my daughter.

You are my family, and even though I’m nervous, I want to take that next step with you. ”

I barely let him finish before clasping his chin between my fingers and pressing my lips to his. It started off as a simple brush of lips, once, twice, then his mouth opened to my tongue. Ryan pushed up against me, wrapping his arms around my neck, his fingers in my hair.

The first brush of his tongue along mine elicited shivers. I moaned when he pulled back to nip my lip before kissing me harder. I was at his mercy.

We were pressed together, from hip to shoulder. My fingers played with the hair at the nape of his neck. I felt his hardness against my own. It was so tempting to take this further, but I needed Ryan to be ready to take that step.

Ryan’s phone rang.

“Ignore it,” Ryan said, then he kissed me, emptying my mind as his tongue explored my mouth. When the ringing stopped, he appeared to relax. He tensed when it began again.

“Ry—” I said against his mouth. His grip on my hair stopped me from moving.

“No.” Our cocks brushed when Ryan pushed further into me. The feeling was delicious torture after so long being untouched. His hands left my hair to tentatively explore my body. He cupped me, grinning against my mouth as he felt how hard I was for him.

His phone rang once more. He groaned when he took it out of his pocket. When he glanced at the screen, he cursed.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s my sister. She’s just going to keep calling until I answer.” Ryan’s cheeks were red, his lips puffy, his hair a rumpled mess from my fingers. He had never looked better to me.

“We’ve waited this long. I think wherever this is going can wait a little longer.”

“Hey,” he said, answering the call. Though he didn’t need to, he put it on speakerphone.

“Seriously, Ry, I was about to race over to your place! Why haven’t you called or answered any of my texts? It’s been like a week and you’ve ghosted me!”

Ryan turned sheepish. “Sorry, Liddy. I didn’t want to involve you anymore than I needed to, and, well, there’s been someone watching the apartment. Every time we’ve left, they’ve been there watching. I thought if you stayed away…”

“Jesus H. Christ, Ry, why the fuck do you think I’d care?” Lydia was clearly furious at being excluded. I understood why Ryan had avoided telling her anything, though.

“Because I care,” his voice was raised with his anger. I tilted my head towards Freya’s room with a raised eyebrow. “Salvatore’s bodyguard knows I’m up to stuff,” he said in a quieter voice. “And he knows we have the heart ruby. I think Salvatore suspects, too.”

“How? What?”

“The only way I think he would suspect is if he put something on the gem, or has been tracking magic in the city,” I offered. “I have used a lot of magic, and it does leave a trace. This is my fault.”

Ryan shook his head. Both he and Lydia spoke at the same time. “No, it’s not.”

“It is. I knew he was practicing magic and should have thought he might try to trace the gem in other ways.”

“Mal, shut up,” came Lydia’s harsh voice from the other end of the phone. “You can’t know or be responsible for everything. There was always a chance Scythe could figure out where the gem went. Question is, what do we do now?”

“Where is the ruby?” I asked.

“In the U bend of the sink in Freya’s bathroom. That sink hasn’t worked for a while, and it pretty much blocks it, but we haven’t used it in ages. It’s safe there.”

“Smart.” Lydia clearly approved. I had to agree. No one would think of looking there.

“Okay, we need some time for Ryan to go through the remaining files. He needs to stay away from Salvatore, but he does not want to let him go so easily. How can we keep him away?” I was anxious at the thought of Ryan being near the man.

He just needed a few days to go through the remainder of the files.

Surely he could take time off work to do that?

“We need a distraction,” Lydia said.

“I think I might have one.” Ryan’s eyes gleamed with mischief. “We need to keep him busy, right? He’s been looking for a mole. Why don’t we give him one?”

“Who? The bodyguard?”

“Nah, Anders knows too much about us. We can pick someone from his company.”

“Ryan,” Lydia’s voice held a touch of warning. “That’s not right. You’re potentially giving someone a death sentence.”

“The way I see it,” he explained, “is that they’ve been working for Scythe. They know what shit goes down. Anyone in that building is complicit. If it’s a choice between a random stranger and my family, then I know what I’m picking. Oh, and we can hand over the company that was investigating him.”

“Ry—”

“Lydia, I’m sorry. I need to protect Freya and Mal. If you’ve got another plan, I’m all ears.”

There was silence at the end of the line for a moment. Eventually she said, “You could give everything you have to the FBI now.”

“And pass over proof about Jasmine? Fuck no. They’ll get all of it, just minus any mention of me.”

I was in agreement with Ryan over this. He had to protect himself from the fallout of the FBI investigation, or else all of this was for nothing. The random person at the offices was collateral damage.

She sighed. “Okay. Do what you need to do. Just answer your fucking phone, alright?”

“You got it.”

Ryan hung up and immediately went to his computer. “You up for vanishing over there to plant this? I can walk you through it.” The reflection of his screen shone in his eyes. His lips were still puffy from earlier. All I wanted to do was get back to where we were before Lydia interrupted.

“Will I get another kiss after?”

“Maybe even more.”