Page 22 of A Cursed Heart

Ryan

My heart was racing. Every minute that Mal was away from me felt like a lifetime.

I didn’t know if I could handle it if Salvatore was still in the office and Mal had to wait to plant the “evidence” of the moles.

We’d opted for a couple, and I’d unearthed some information from the investigators to rile Salvatore up there, too.

They already had folders on him like I’d shown him, just with tailored info.

It was more like a dossier of his wrongdoings rather than facts.

He’d have his hands full dealing with all that shit for the next few days, which was exactly what I needed to get this done.

In the meantime, while I waited for Mal to plant it, I should have been looking through everything I’d taken from Salvatore Holdings.

Every single file that implicated me in illegal doings needed to be combed through before it could be sent to Conrad.

I was not doing time for Jasmine. If worst came to worst, then Mal could take us somewhere we could start fresh, or he could fuck up whatever they had on me to keep me out of jail.

I wondered why I was going to all this effort when a keyword search would do the job faster.

I could still skim everything before I handed it over.

It was tempting to use Mal’s magic, but the fear was I’d miss something since I knew better than he did what had gone down.

I used the mental connection I had with Mal to check what he was doing, unable to do anything except worry about him.

Salvatore is still in his office. He is not on his computer, but I fear that entering the office would alert him to my presence. He appears to be on an important call. It is not going well, judging by the pacing he’s doing.

We need a distraction, just not an obvious one.

It’s late. We should just wait a little longer. I am invisible. No one will find me.

Are you sure? I hate you being there alone.

It is less taxing on my magic to have you at home. Besides, someone needs to be there for Freya.

Why did it melt my heart knowing he was thinking about Freya? He’d really stepped into the co-parenting role this last week. Her therapist was loving the changes in her, though cautioned about letting her believe Mal was a demon like her bestie Jinu.

Alright, I’m going to work on the files. Let me know when he leaves.

Once my awareness of Mal faded into the background, I went to work setting up my keyword searches.

My name, and all parts of it, Jasmine’s, her boyfriend’s, the TNT, tainted and all possible alternatives for the word, death…

It wasn’t an exhaustive list, just the best I could do with the clock ticking down on me.

I was very aware I was running out of time.

Soon Salvatore would lose all patience for the game he was playing with me.

I’d outlast my usefulness. Once I did, I would become expendable, likely ending up dead or charged with murder.

Done with that and still nothing on Mal’s side, I went to the bedroom to check out the deliveries I’d gotten.

Ordering Mal some more clothes of his own was a no brainer, but since I’d realized where this was going with him, I thought I’d better get prepared to dive into the world of gay sex, and that meant lube.

Decent lube, not the crappy shit I’d been using when I jerked off.

Freya was super nosy, expecting something for her when she spotted delivery boxes, so I’d thrown this in the back of the closet to check out another time.

I’d used the twenty minutes it usually took Mal to take her to school in the mornings to look at porn, which, yeah, I knew wasn’t the best place to get tips on sex.

After a bit of watching content on adult sites, I’d gotten intimidated.

Determined to learn properly, I’d done some more digging and found a bunch of resources where I’d learned about stretching to take cock and the importance of proper lube.

Though there were plenty who thought spit was enough. Not for my virgin hole, though.

I didn’t want to assume Mal would bottom or that he could create lube. When he needed to fill his magic fast, we wouldn’t want to rely on him for lubricant either.

Was I really thinking about offering up my hole to feed a demon’s magic? Apparently I was.

It wasn’t just that, though. Mal using his power to protect us was amazing. I appreciated how much he had done for us since he’d come into our lives, but that wasn’t why I wanted this with him.

I was deeply attracted to him as a man. If I were being truly honest with myself, I was in love with him.

Hard not to be when he treated me so well.

We had similar views on things, and now that I was sure it wasn’t a fake bond pushing us together, I was sure my feelings for him were right.

Ever since I’d met him, I’d found him attractive. I was done fighting it.

The box at the back of the wardrobe was unopened.

I took it out and tore it open. Inside, under the usual paper packing, was a fairly nondescript bottle.

The seal was a pain in the ass to open, so I was grateful I did it ahead of time.

I poured a little of the cool gel onto my fingers.

I was tempted to tug one out, to take the edge off, before Mal got home.

Since he’d been sleeping with me, I’d been taking longer showers, often confusing myself over thoughts of him in there with me. Now that I had kissed him and finally made a move, that could be a reality.

After setting the bottle on the bedside table, I stripped off for a shower. I was done waiting. Mal wanted me, and I wanted to take things to the next level with him. While I was nervous, deep down I was excited too. I trusted Mal to make the experience special.

The beauty of our mental connection meant that even under the hot spray of the shower, I could still hear Mal just fine.

He’s left the building. I’ll have the trap set in a few moments thanks to your instructions.

He really picked things up quickly.

Good.

Mal left the connection open while he put the files I’d created on there, hidden in drives I was sure Salvatore hadn’t opened. They’d trigger an alert in the morning when he started looking through them.

Where are you?

I’m in the shower, waiting for you to come home.

He was silent for a long moment. “May I join you?” His smile was wicked. I pushed open the shower door.

“Get in here.”

His grin widened while he stripped off, leaving his clothes, the ones I’d bought especially for him, on the floor in his haste to join me under the water.

Drawing him close with an arm around his waist, I pulled him into a kiss, relieved to have him home with me.

The sensations of the water and hot, smooth skin against my body had me hardening so fast my knees felt weak from it. Mal’s arms were safe and secure around me, pressing me against him in the tight space. He was hard too.

“Can I touch you?” he asked against the shell of my ear.

I nodded, my tongue thick, desire blanking out my brain.

His hand felt amazing when it wrapped around my shaft. He stroked me in long, slow pulls, with a delicious twist at the tip. His motions were confident as he brought me pleasure.

“Mal… Can…?”

“Yes, touch me, Ryan, please. I need you.”

My hand trembled as I reached for him. His cock looked similar to mine, though it was maybe an inch longer and slightly thicker.

With tentative fingers, I stroked over his length.

He was cut, like me, with a vein running down his length.

Stroking him didn’t feel all that different from touching myself, though there was this awareness that I was touching another guy.

Still, I loved how hard and heavy he felt in my palm, how his cock throbbed when I copied his motions on me.

I braced one hand on his firm chest while stroking his cock with the other.

All the while I kept kissing him like he was giving me all the air I needed to breathe, and I’d die if I stopped.

I’d never dreamed I could become addicted to kissing someone, since I’d never been that into it before.

Then Mal came along, with those perfect lips and kisses that changed my world.

“Close,” Mal panted, breaking away from me. He rested his damp head on my shoulder, pressed desperate kisses onto my neck, and increased the speed of his strokes.

“Me too.” I tightened my grip on him, giving a squeeze at the tip. “Fuck, Mal, I’m so close.”

“Ry—” Mal let out a low groan as he came over my hand.

The noise he made and the elation of making him feel that way had me following him over the edge.

Mal’s smirk was dangerous as he raised his hand and licked off the remainder of my come. “Fancy another round?”

My dick gave a twitch. “Yeah. Why don’t we go to bed?”

I was nervous as I led Mal into our bedroom, both of us wrapped in towels.

The space was more ours than mine now there were traces of Mal all over the place.

His clothes spilled out of the closet, a painting he’d made with Freya hung on the wall.

Ever since the night he’d apologized to me for lying and had offered to move to the couch, I hadn’t even thought about letting him.

I hadn’t lied when I said I slept better with him beside me.

I dunno if it was our bond, or just him.

It didn’t matter. This was where Mal belonged.

He noticed the lube bottle immediately. “What’s this?”

“I bought it because I thought—”

“Ryan, we don’t have to go any further than we have done. Ever.” He sat on the edge of the bed and reached for my hands. “Today, tomorrow, next week, it doesn’t matter if it never happens between us. If you wake up and decide you want to go back to how things were—“”