Page 30 of Buzz Kill (Smoke & Mirrors Tavern #7)

Chapter thirty

ALWIN

We were barely through the door before I had Declan pinned up against it with my mouth sealed over his. He squeaked in surprise as I ripped the clothes from his body. They still smelled faintly of a flowery perfume and I didn’t bother being gentle, dropping the shredded fabric to the floor before hoisting him into my arms.

“We’re supposed to pick up Rith in an hour,” he murmured against my mouth as I carried him upstairs.

“We will not be late,” I promised as I settled him on his feet outside the shower and turned the water on. I’d wanted to drag him into the shower with me since the day he’d found me in the showers at the hunter compound. It had taken a huge amount of self control to keep myself under control while the other hunters were watching, but I’d wanted nothing more than to pull him under the spray and watch the water run over that gorgeous body of his. So I did just that.

The second the water was warm, I pulled him into the stone shower and settled him on the bench while I washed every inch of him. When he smelled only of my sandalwood and herb wash and there wasn’t a trace of that awful flowery perfume, I finally relaxed.

Declan blinked up at me, his wet lashed accentuating those whiskey-colored eyes and one dark eyebrow arched at the thorough job I’d done. “Feel better now?”

There was no hiding anything from him, he knew exactly what I was doing. He understood me in a way no one else did. No words needed to be said. My thumb brushed over the smirk at the corner of his mouth.

“I do.”

“Good.”

Then he slid off the bench and kneeled in front of me, swiping his tongue over the tip of my painfully hard cock. For once he didn’t bother teasing. After that first taste, his hot mouth enveloped me completely as his hand wrapped around the base and I couldn’t contain the groan that burst from my throat. His tongue traced some kind of magic along the underside of my dick that caused shivers to run up my spine and I sank my hands into his wet hair with a hiss.

“Declan.” His name fell from my lips, half warning, half prayer, and I braced one hand on the stone wall, not sure if my legs would continue to hold me up through this.

He hummed against my skin in response and the vibration sent me over the edge. It had been too long since I’d had him under me, panting my name. And while I regretted that I couldn’t hear that while his mouth was full, I hadn’t been able to hold back any longer.

Declan leaned back, panting. His lips were wet and full, his eyes half-lidded as he stared up at me with flushed cheeks and messy hair, his hand stroking his cock as if he’d never been more turned on in his life. But I wasn’t nearly done with him.

I pulled him to his feet and swiped a bottle I’d grabbed on the way to the shower before dropping to my knees in front of him. Declan’s mouth opened on a groan as I swallowed him down and spread lube over his entrance, brushing gently again and again until he was pushing back against my fingers.

My fingers slid into his body and I worked him open a little too eagerly. Luckily, Declan seemed to be on the same page, eagerly pushing himself forward into my mouth and back to work himself open on my fingers. When I couldn’t take another second, I stood and spun him to face the shower wall, forcing myself to hold back as I sank into him slowly. My arms wrapped around him, hands sliding over his skin. My teeth grazed the column of his neck before I pressed gentle kisses to the tiny faded scars that shimmered along his back and shoulders between the lines of his tattoos.

I didn’t need to ask to know that those marks were the result of being attacked by pixies. They were faded enough to know it happened when he was quite young, barely noticeable. Yet the fact that they were there at all meant he’d suffered through prolonged exposure before they finally healed him. Never again would I let the Prescott Sorcerers lay a finger on this man and I silently imprinted that vow into his skin with every press of my lips.

“Alwin,” he panted, pleading as he chanted my name over and over. His voice was smooth as velvet, but broken with need. I slid my hand up his chest to trace my fingers over his throat, needing to feel his words in every way possible.

I stepped back suddenly and Declan growled in frustration as I withdrew from his body. The sound turned into a yelp when I spun him and picked him up, pressing him against the wall and sinking back inside him in the span of a single breath. His legs wrapped around my waist and his hand hit the shower control panel when he braced himself, changing the full body spray to the overhead rainfall setting.

I paid no attention to the water now pouring down over us as I pressed kisses to the dark marks along his shoulders, overwriting the curse with my affection. Declan went quiet and when I looked up, I couldn’t quite decipher the look in his eyes any more than I could tell if his eyes were glassy because of the water pouring down over us or the emotion he was struggling to control.

His hand hooked behind my neck and he dragged me in for a kiss that made something inside of me break. I pressed him into the wall, driving into him over and over yet never quite sating that need to be closer, to possess every inch of him.

Declan made me feel things I’d never imagined. Terrifying things that threatened to shatter my control and held me together at the same time. I’d never experienced anything like it in all my years. The truth was, I loved Declan more than I’d ever thought possible. He drove me crazy, and saw right through me, and half the time I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. He made me feel light and alive in a way I hadn’t in a long time. And he made me smile, even if it wasn’t outwardly.

I loved him. Had for a long time now. And I would never let him doubt that for as long as I lived.

Blunt nails dragged across my shoulders as Declan squirmed restlessly in my arms. I shifted my angle and drove up into him harder and faster. He moaned loudly when I hit his prostate with every thrust.

“Al,” he whined, sounding on the verge of tears as he reached for his cock.

I pushed his hand aside and stroked him in time with my thrusts. It was fast and desperate and a little out of control, but Declan didn’t seem to mind. Little chants of “yes” and “there” and “Alwin” spilled from his kiss-bitten lips.

When I couldn’t take it anymore, I smothered his words with a sloppy kiss as I drove into him hard, sinking as deep as I could as he fell apart in my arms. His shout was muffled against my mouth as he bit down on my lip. The little bite of pain sent a shiver down my spine and I followed him over the edge with an orgasm that made me see stars.

My face was buried in his neck when my senses came back to me. His heart pounded under the palm of my hand that had at some point pressed him to the wall. And while I would normally be able to hold Declan up with one arm without issue, my whole body suddenly felt a little weak. He lowered his legs and I settled him on his feet before pressing one hand to the stone wall while I caught my breath.

Perhaps the issue wasn’t so much the physical exertion, but the emotional aspect of the night that had left me reeling. It was certainly the part I had far less experience with. And while I was supposed to be the one taking care of him, Declan washed us both up while I was still recovering.

By the time we stepped out of the shower, I’d managed to pull myself together and took over wrapping Declan in towels and drying him off before directing him to my bedroom.

“You okay?” he asked after a long silence. “Regretting this already?”

The second part was clearly a joke but I still made sure my answer wiped away any underlying doubt.

“Never,” I said firmly before placing a tender kiss to his lips that wouldn’t allow him to question my affection for a second.

When his eyes fluttered open again, he looked a little dazed and I was strangely satisfied with that reaction.

“I will get your clothes.”

“I can get them,” he snickered. “You don’t have to do everything for me just because I told you I love you.”

Both of us froze.

My eyes were glued to the way his ears turned red as his eyes darted away. “Er, I guess I didn’t actually say that, did I?”

It wasn’t until that moment that I realized something important. While I still maintained that love was in everyday actions big and small. It was the way you cared for someone, and respected them, and did whatever it took to make them happy and safe. It was in everything you did every single day.

But in hearing Declan say those words to me, I realized that my stubborn adherence to this idea was not entirely correct. I’d always insisted that “love” wasn’t something you say, but the way those words made me feel told me I was wrong. It was something you do. But maybe there was room to back those actions up with words.

I stalked toward Declan with an intent that made his eyes widen before I shoved him back onto the bed.

“I love you too,” I growled against his skin as I tore the towels off his body and mauled the man without restraint.

“Al!” he gasped. “We’re supposed to be at Elliot’s in like ten minutes.

“We’re going to be late.”

DECLAN

“Sorry we’re late,” I grumbled as an unexpected weight slammed into me, knocking me back a step.

I patted Rith’s back, a little surprised by the reaction. And while his hug didn’t last more than a second, he was glued to my side for the rest of the night while Elliot explained our options for the binding.

Surprisingly, it took me more convincing than it did Rith. He made a face as the reality of the situation was explained to him, but he understood the risks in this world. And while he still had the option to return home, both Rith and Alwin immediately shot that idea down.

In the end, Rith’s main condition was that he would only agree to be bound to me or Alwin. And since Alwin was an elf with limited magic and the binding needed to be effective against the strongest Prescott sorcerers, it was decided that the poor kid was stuck with me.

Once everything was sorted, Elliot performed the binding and I forced myself not to squirm under the feeling of the magic being cast on me. Alwin had to stay back, but Rith must have sensed my discomfort because he took my hand and squeezed.

It was such a strange feeling to know I had people in my corner now. Even over my dumbest hangups, this kid offered comfort. It was such a foreign thing to me that I was sill getting used to it.

Accepting his kindness and returning some comfort of my own, I squeezed back, knowing that giving up even a fraction of your freedom wasn’t easy for anyone. But as much as I wanted to fight against all of it — against the magic, against the need for it — the longer the casting went on, the less I could ignore the strange warmth in my chest. A faint forming presence that I didn’t feel the need to cringe away from at all.

“That’s it,” Elliot finally said. “He should be safe now. The only thing I’m not sure of is what happens if you die. It’s rare since usually a demon would die before their sorcerer, but technically if a sorcerer truly dies first the binding is automatically broken unless there’s contracts in place to pass the demon on to someone else. Since the curse brings you back, I’m not sure if we’ll have to re-do the binding if you die again or if it will remain since you can’t really die.”

Though his expression didn’t so much as flicker, it was like I could see Alwin’s face darkening at the topic and I quickly steered things in another direction. “Good to know. How’s the kid doing?”

Jet, Elliot’s rather unfriendly hellhound mate, showed up with their chubby little girl a moment later. Now that she was a few months old and did more than sleep, shit, and cry, she was actually kind of cute. Oddly enough, she reminded me a little of Elliot when he was young, despite the fact that she wasn’t biologically related and I hadn’t had the chance to interact with Elliot until he was a bit older. Something about that wide-eyed curiosity she held about the world around her was just like the look I hadn’t been able to ignore in his stare when he was little. An innocence that I couldn’t stand being around my family, knowing it would be corrupted in time.

Alwin’s hand rubbed over my back, shaking me out of the memories as if he could sense where my thoughts had wandered off to. I shook it off and flashed him a reassuring smile, though my eyes were drawn back to the kid again.

I didn’t dare move closer. Not only was it a bad idea for me to get close to her, but Jet looked like he would bite the arm off of anyone that tried to take her from him. A good thing for sure, but would it be enough?

Elliot suddenly tested my theory by plucking the child from Jet’s arms and swiftly dropping her in mine. I immediately tensed, even as my arms instinctively came up to support her.

“What are you doing?”

“She wanted to see you,” Elliot said simply.

“You shouldn’t just hand your kid off to random people,” I practically snapped.

Elliot raised an eyebrow at my reaction. “I would never. You’re not random people, you’re family.”

“I’m still a Prescott and family doesn’t mean safe.”

Elliot shook his head. “The problem is that you’re still thinking of those people as your family. They’re not. As far as I’m concerned, they never were. They might have blood ties to you, and in this world, that doesn’t mean nothing. But we need to redefine your idea of family and it starts here and now. Alwin and Rith are your family, and so is Evie and the rest of us. The Prescott’s are just people you’re related to.”

“Also,” Ollie chimed in. “Now that you two are mated, you might consider changing your name. Words and names have power, you could take Alwin’s name or even just change it to something else all together. It puts another layer of distance between you and the Prescott family.”

“Something to consider,” Alwin agreed.

I rolled my eyes at him. He obviously liked the idea of me taking his name but he would never have brought it up unless I showed interest first. I shook my head and returned my attention to the chubby baby in my arms. Rith had taken over playing with her while we talked, but now her big eyes were on me.

I’ll do better this time , I silently promised her. I couldn’t do anything to protect Elliot when he was little, but this time I wasn’t alone. My entire life had been lived in a loop of surviving my family long enough to get away only to be dragged back again, sometimes at the expense of anyone around me. This time would be different. I would get stronger. I would protect them.

Rith’s eyebrow’s scrunched up as he stared at me. “You’re thinking something stupid,” he decided as Jet lost patience and stole Evie from my arms.

“What? You can read minds now?”

He shook his head at me and grabbed his bags, indicating he was ready to go home. “Don’t need to.”

I was waiting for him to make a “you’re always thinking something stupid” joke. But then he turned to me with a bag stuffed full of far more things than we’d left him with.

“Stop worrying.” He patted his chest with his free hand. “I will protect you.”

I blinked. “You’re still a kid, I’m supposed to be the one protecting you.”

Rith sighed and shook his head. “Stupid.”

Ollie burst out laughing. “He’s got a point. How are you still not getting it?”

Alwin pulled me into his side and murmured in my ear. “Family protect’s each other. You will never have to face anything alone again.”

Needing a moment, I buried my face in Alwin’s shoulder and he rubbed a hand over my back soothingly while Rith gave my arm an impatient shove.

“Let’s go home.”

It was the first time in my life those words brought comfort instead of terror.

“Yeah,” I agreed, clutching Alwin’s hand tightly as if I could squeeze out some of his strength for myself. “Let’s go home.”