Page 24 of A Cursed Heart

Ryan

I was still reeling from my first time with Mal when he cleaned us up with his magic. “I’ve got plenty to spare. It’s like I’m overflowing with it!” Mal was practically glowing. His movements were languid as he pulled me into a hug. “Do you feel alright?”

“Better than. I’ve had great sex before, but that just felt on another level!” Every nerve felt like it was lit up.

“Hmmm, me too,” Mal whispered sleepily.

“Do you think part of it is the bond?” I wondered aloud.

He roused some, peering at me with half-closed eyes.

“Perhaps.” Then, he seemed to give it more consideration.

“We have spent the past… over a week now together. We are with each other almost all day. Even when you go to that awful place, we have our mental connection. It could be that with our bond, whatever we have with each other is deeper than with previous partners.”

“Yeah, that sounds about right. I loved Jasmine. She was sexy as hell when we met. We burned up the sheets when we got together. Even after she had Freya, I thought she was stunning. Our sex life was fantastic. We just didn’t connect the same, I guess.”

“Ryan, I do not like you talking about having sex with other people,” Mal grumbled. He turned over, pushing back into me in a sulk. His hair felt like silk against my chest, though I was grateful he’d hidden away his tail and horns, or I’d be getting impaled.

“No, that’s fair,” I murmured into his ear, looping my arm around his waist to get him even closer.

“I’m sorry. She’s just the only person I can compare you to because my other relationships didn’t get all that far.

Really, I shouldn’t be comparing you at all.

” I thought I heard him mutter something like, “You shouldn’t.

” Fuck, he was cute! “Guess I’m trying to make sense of it all. I thought I was straight!”

He scoffed. “You humans love labels. I understand it is to feel a sense of belonging. We demons do not care for such things. We like what we like and make no apologies for it.”

“Sounds like a great way to be.”

Mal turned so that he could meet my eyes. “Do you regret it?”

“The only thing I regret is not doing it sooner.”

His smile was bright in the low light of the room.

We fell asleep soon after and instead of waking to make out a little, maybe go for another round, my phone ringing rudely awoke me. I had to fight the urge to ignore it, knowing who it probably was.

I fumbled with it, unplugging it from the charger. “Hey.”

“On my way over! Thought I’d take Frey for a girls’ day and maybe a sleepover. Keep her away in case anything goes down with that asshole.”

“Sounds good, Liddy. We’re not up yet, but I’ll go wake her, get her breakfast before you steal her away.”

A whole day alone with Mal sounded fantastic.

I hoped we could spend some time together, maybe even go out for an early dinner in between sorting the files to send away to Conrad.

There was every chance that Scythe would want me to come in and make sense of the mole situation.

Which reminded me, I also needed to set a virus in Salvatore’s system to hide the deletion of his copies of the evidence.

Though that could wait a couple of days to take the heat off me. It was all in the timing.

“Oh? Not up yet… Is there something you want to tell me?” she asked with glee in her voice. Damn, she was cheery early on a freaking Saturday!

“See you in a bit.” Then I hung up on her.

Mal cuddled closer. “There goes my plan for waking you.”

My sister had the worst timing!

“Daddy!” Freya’s footsteps sounded outside of our door. Okay, so this morning was doomed to be this way then. She opened the door without knocking. I made sure the blankets were covering everything important before she dived onto the bed. “Mal! I got cereal.”

I felt Mal’s magic put clothing into place around me, likely him too, ensuring Freya wouldn’t see anything she shouldn’t.

“You did? Well done, Princess!” Mal drew Freya into a hug, listening to her tell him how she went about getting her food.

“Finley from school says only babies get their parents to make them breakfast. His mama likes to sleep in on the weekend, so he gets his own food and watches TV! I wanted to be big, then I heard Daddy’s phone.”

“Well, that’s maybe how it works in his house, but what if I like making breakfast for you?” Mal asked her.

“Then you can make me breakfast,” she said magnanimously.

Honestly, the pair of them were too cute.

“Okay, if you’ve had breakfast, do you want me to help you get dressed? Auntie Lydia wants to take you out for the day!” I said.

Her face lit up. “Really?” She scrambled out of Mal’s arms to the end of the bed.

“Yeah, then you can have a sleepover.”

She froze. “No, Daddy. I want to stay here with you.”

“Don’t you want to go out with Auntie Lydia?”

I saw Mal eyeing me with a frown on his face. He was so in tune with Freya’s emotions after taking up more than his fair share of childcare duties. They’d bonded deeply.

“Yes. No. Not to sleep. I want to sleep in my bed, in my house, with Daddy and Mal.” When she turned to face us, her pout was epic.

With how much she had been through recently, it was kind of unfair for us to expect her to be away all day, then straight after for her to spend the night somewhere new.

I didn’t think there was room for Freya at Lydia’s student housing, so where were they going to sleep?

I felt a prickle of guilt for not thinking about her feelings first before agreeing to it.

“I’ll speak to Liddy for you, okay? You don’t have to sleep over. You can come home to us. We’ll be here waiting for you,” I promised.

I spared a glance as if to apologize to Mal. It must suck to be constantly stuck at home with me and my kid.

“Yes, we’ll be right here waiting. You better have lots of fun and tell us about your adventures when you get back,” Mal soothed. He flashed me a grin.

Mollified, Freya went off to her room.

“Mal—” I didn’t know what to say. I felt so damn guilty that we were under all this outside pressure. We barely got any time alone.

“What’s wrong?”

“Do you ever wish I didn’t have Fre—”

“No,” He cut me off sharply. “Never. That child is my second favorite human in the world and was made by my favorite. I love her.” His words were so firm, he almost sounded angry. There was no room for doubt.

“But we never get any time alone.”

“Ryan… this,” he waved a hand, “all this mess with Salvatore, will pass. Once things settle down and Freya has grieved more, there will be time for dates, for family adventures. Besides, I’m sure we can manage lunch somewhere, right? You don’t have to work on the files all day, do you?”

“No, you’re right there. I just… other relationships have failed because I had a kid.” Well, usually helped along by Jasmine, but it really didn’t help matters when I had Freya for half the week, usually over the weekend too just so my ex could work.

“Freya is the best parts of you, the man I have feelings for, condensed into this little fascinating person. I adore her. Now, let’s get her ready for a day out. You’ll have to break the news to Lydia.”

My sister was unimpressed. “What if something happens?”

“Liddy, Mal’s literally magic. He can vanish Freya out of any situation if something happens. She won’t go with you today if you try to make her sleep over. She just isn’t ready.”

She softened. “Was she upset?”

“Yeah. The only way we could get her to go out at all was to promise she could come home for bedtime stories with Mal.”

Freya wasn’t prone to tantrums. Honestly, she was a pretty easy-going kid.

Slept well as a baby, the terrible twos weren’t so terrible compared to some.

I thought we were going to get her first tantrum in a long while when I’d tried to suggest she sleep over with Lydia one more time.

Mal had been the one to shoot me down, complaining that he would miss story time too much.

They were ganging up on me. All I wanted was a night with my… boyfriend? Just one night!

After all this was over, we could take a trip.

Maybe Lydia could come and be on kid duty, or my mom.

Actually, Mom would be better. She would love that, and I knew Freya would love to see her.

Mom had booked a cruise before Jasmine had died.

She wasn’t going to go and instead planned to come to the funeral to support me, but I’d insisted she take the trip.

Mom only offered to cancel it out of love for me and who Jasmine once was.

Their relationship had broken down after Jasmine had stolen from her and never recovered.

Still, I knew my mom grieved her former daughter-in-law.

She had worked so hard to pay for the month-long trip, I hadn’t wanted her to miss out on it.

“So… how’s things with Mal?” Lydia sidled up to me to ask in an undertone. I could feel my face getting hot. “Something happened!”

“Shh…”

“It totally did!” Her voice got louder in her excitement. Luckily, Mal was with Freya in her room, packing a bag of things she might need that day. “You look so happy! Are you happy? You are, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, I am,” I relented. I took a sip of my coffee and sighed. “After yesterday, it felt natural to make the next move. I didn’t want to miss out on anything with him.”

Lydia nodded. “Smart, especially with the Salvatore shit going down. Are you sure you won’t let me take Freya for the night? Then Mal can go with you if you get called to his office again.”

While I knew she was thinking of both mine and Freya’s safety, I didn’t think she appreciated how clingy Freya could be to me, or rather, to Mal these days.

I looked her dead in the eye, giving her my most serious tone, wishing she would understand that we weren’t rejecting her or her help. My daughter just wasn’t able to go so long without me yet.

“She won’t go, Lydia. You didn’t see her. She just isn’t ready. I think we should do a practice run where Mal takes you to your place, though.”

“Ry, I’m scared something will happen to her. To any of you, really.”

“Even Mal?” I teased.

“Especially Mal, with how much you and Freya love him.” I nearly choked on the next sip of my coffee. “Get a grip, Ry, you are in love with that… man, demon, whatever. Just be careful, okay?”

My phone buzzed with a text. I glanced down at the screen to see it was Salvatore. Hurriedly, I picked up the device to read it properly.

SS

With the information you have finally given me, I find myself too busy to entertain you this weekend. I expect to see you in my office at our usual time on Monday.

The sense of relief was staggering. Our plan to distract him had bought me two days!

“Everything okay?” Mal asked, coming into the kitchen holding Freya’s hand.

He’d given her two neat French braids rather than the Rumi singular style she’d been sporting recently.

I guess since he had long hair as well, it was easier for him to do her hair.

It had looked a lot better since he had come into our lives.

Mal, wearing his long hair in a high ponytail, which had no right to look so sexy, came to my side. He looked torn about whether signs of affection were appropriate. I kissed his cheek, earning myself a bashful smile.

“Daddy, are you boyfriends with Mal now?”

I glanced at the demon by my side, who looked like he wanted the answer just as much as Freya did.

“Ooh, I also want to know this,” my sister butted in.

“Yes, Mal is my boyfriend. Is that okay?”