Page 12 of Deviled Eggs (One Handed Holidays: Crossed Swords Edition #4)

Xalreth

A drowsy warmth surrounds me as I drift between sleep and consciousness. Micah flexes, rocking his hips back in a silent test of whether I’m awake. It was late, into the wee hours of the morning, when I filled him with yet another load. As I went to pull out, he grabbed at my thighs and begged me to stay inside him. Wrung out and exhausted, I’d been more than happy to keep my cock seated in his ass all night.

Doesn’t mean I didn’t make him beg for it.

He is such a beautiful beggar, after all.

“Mmm,” I murmur, pressing a kiss to the back of his neck as my cock perks up. “Someone still not satisfied?”

He whimpers my name as I graze a gentle bite on his shoulder, and I run my fingers down the front of his body. His gorgeous lacy getup lies in tatters around the room, ripped off by my hands and teeth as the night progressed.

“How many is this, angel? How many marks are on your leg?”

“Six,” he moans as he rolls his hips harder.

“That’s right, beautiful. And how many are on mine?”

“Hmm… four.”

“Seems like the odds are stacked in your favor, doesn’t it?” He releases a breathy little laugh as I drag my fingertips along the defined V in his abs. “Do you know what I call these?” I ask as I nip his shoulder a second time, and he shakes his head as he thrusts back on me. “Cum gutters. And…” My finger travels over the muscles and lower, tracing the openings of his cage as he releases another of his perfect fucking whines. “Any idea why I call them that?”

“Wh… why?”

“Because when I come all over your chest and abs, they’ll make sure it lands where it’s supposed to… right on top of this pretty cock.”

“ Please ,” he whispers, and I grip his hips, thrusting harder and meeting him for every backward push. My lips chart a path across his back, noticing the raised sections of flesh between his shoulder blades for the first time. Faint light pulses underneath the skin, the same purple as his eyes. I press a kiss on one and he stiffens with a moan.

“Oh, that’s fascinating, isn’t it? What do we have here?”

“Wings,” he manages to say as I pull my hand to his shoulder and trace them. Static charge crackles over my fingertips as Micah moans louder.

“Are they sensitive, angel?” His head nods in a frantic rush as he tenses and his muscles grow tight. I’m able to read his body so well that I know he’s close to falling over the edge again. “Has anyone else ever touched you here?”

“No,” he whispers, glancing over his shoulder at me.

“I’m your first?” In the darkness, his eyes glow with a faint purple that reflects off the dark hues of my skin, but it disappears as his eyelids slam closed. He nods, and my inner demon purrs its satisfaction. “What if I said I want to be your only? That I never want anyone else to see you like this? Would you grant me that?”

“I think I’d give you anything you asked for,” he whispers, so quiet I’m not sure he meant me to hear it.

My heart pinches as I kiss along his spine, and I change direction before we cross a line neither of us could return from. “You’re going to come too fast if I keep touching them.”

“Please, just let me, Xal? Please?” His eyes open, and I lose myself in them as another few pieces of my defenses crumble. “Darling, please?”

Darling. That pinch in my heart turns into a vise at the term of endearment.

“Do you believe you get whatever you want from me by begging?” The words were meant to be playful, but there’s a somberness to my voice as his faint smile flickers in the darkness.

“Please?” he asks again, then whines as my fingertips traces back over the raised skin.

“Why can’t I deny you?” I murmur, more to myself than to him.

“Because you lo—” Whatever he’s about to say is interrupted by a moan as I rub harder over his sensitive wing nub, feeling it roll underneath his skin. His shoulders and arms tremble as I kiss his neck, the raised flesh between his shoulders twitching under my fingers and making his entire body jolt. My heart thunders, thankful that the bomb he was about to put into the universe was disarmed before it could detonate.

If you never speak something aloud, it doesn’t become real. It can still be pretend, and secret, and it never has to turn into more than you can handle.

More than you can offer.

“Does that feel good, Micah?” Incapable of words, he nods again as his head thunks back onto my shoulder. Sweat beads on his forehead, and his tangled hair is wild around his flushed face. Swollen lips part in a silent gasp. “You’re such a beautiful mess,” I whisper, and I drive my hips forward as I press my thumb onto the root of his wing, putting more pressure on it as I spin in a steady circle. “ My beautiful mess. Say it, angel… tell me you’re mine.”

“Yours,” he agrees as he twists his face to mine, and I catch his lips in a fumbling kiss. I find a spot on that sensitive flesh that makes his entire body jolt, and he moans against my mouth as I press harder on it. His mouth rips away from our kiss with a gasp as he compresses around me, his back arching as he trembles.

“Fuck,” I grunt as I drive forward, my whole body seized with the unexpected orgasm. I surround his torso with my arms and hold him against me, waves of pleasure passing between us as his heart pounds beneath my palm.

“Stay inside me,” he begs, shifting his hips as my release slides out of him. We’re both sticky and slick, but neither of us attempts to move. “Let me keep you there… don’t leave.”

“I won’t leave you, angel,” I whisper with another kiss to his shoulder, and he pushes out a relieved sigh as he lets himself relax. Soon, his muscles are twitching as he falls back asleep.

But not me.

No, I’m lying here, staring at the shape of his body and how well it fits against mine. I’m wide awake, wondering how in the world I got myself into this position.

“Mmm… we gotta get up. We worked up an appetite last night, and I’m hungry,” I murmur against the nape of Micah’s neck as he pulls in a sleepy breath, stretching his back like a cat. He rolls in my arms to face me as he pouts.

“Why do we have to leave this warm bed? You can have me for breakfast.” I chuckle as I push his hair out of his face. The white strands are a wild, tangled mess. Its normally smooth texture is disrupted by knots and stray hairs.

I prefer this version of him.

Mussed hair, pillow crease on his cheek, and what might be a drop of dried drool on the corner of his mouth. The weight of the world hasn’t hit him yet, and his sleepy eyes are full of a relaxed happiness that changes his entire appearance.

“As much as I’d love to sustain myself indefinitely on that juicy ass…” I give a slap to his bare cheek that makes him yelp. “… I need some actual food.”

“Room service?” he asks hopefully, and I laugh again as I hug him into my chest.

“This isn’t the Heavenly realm, Micah, and I’m not important enough to live somewhere with servants at my beck and call. If we want to eat, we have to make it.”

“Make it?” He sounds aghast, which only makes me laugh harder. “I like it when you do that,” he whispers.

“Do what?” I brush a kiss on his forehead.

“Laugh.”

It hits me then—how much I’ve laughed with him since we came back from that disastrous mission. I’m light in a way I haven’t been in years… in as long as I can remember. “Let’s get some breakfast, angel.”

We climb out of bed, and I marvel again at the perfect planes of his body. The early morning sun comes through the window, shining off every defined muscle. He darts into the bathroom and shoots me a mischievous grin as he steals my toothbrush and scrubs his mouth, and I hip check him aside as I steal it back.

“I’m filthy,” he says with a wrinkled nose, once we both brush our teeth.

“Yeah, you are.” I smack his ass again and he jolts, glaring at me as I walk over to start the shower. We climb under the warm water and take turns washing each other. Micah jerks with a squeak and loses his balance as I swipe a soapy hand up his ass crack. A booming blast of a laugh leaves me as I catch him. It earns me a glare, but I promptly wash it away with a long kiss under the spray. After we’re clean, we dry off and I redraw the tally marks on his thighs, placing a kiss over each of them.

Micah’s more relaxed than I’ve ever seen him as I toss him sweatpants and a t-shirt to wear, even if he wrinkles his nose at them. “Say something, I dare you.” I challenge him with a raised brow, but he only shakes his head and grins at me. He pulls them on without complaint, and the beast inside me purrs at seeing him in my clothes. Once we’re both dressed, I sit on the edge of the bed and spread my legs, gesturing to the space between them.

His eyes light up and he obediently sinks onto his knees and drags his palms up my thighs, but I catch his wrists before he makes it to my cock. “As much as I love seeing those perfect lips hard at work, I had something else in mind.”

His brows scrunch as I turn him and guide him to sit on the floor, facing away from me. “What are we doing?”

I pull the hairbrush out and drag it through his long, damp hair, and he hums a contented sound at the sensation. “What’s something no one knows about you?” I ask, and he gets quiet as I brush his hair. When I start to divide it into sections, he twists to glance at me curiously. “Sisters, remember?”

“You’re fixing my hair?”

“Braiding it,” I explain, leaning down to kiss his cheek before steering his head to face forward again. “Now, stop dodging the question.”

He’s quiet for a minute while he thinks. “I’ve always wanted someone to take me dancing,” he finally says, and I say nothing, only continue to weave the sections of hair as I listen. “That’s silly, isn’t it? Such a pointless activity.”

“It’s not pointless if you want to do it.” I keep my voice gentle as he gives a small nod. “Not everything has to serve a purpose, Micah. Sometimes, it’s okay just to have fun.”

“I’m not very good at having fun,” he says, and I hate how sad he sounds.

“I beg to differ. I’m having a great time.”

Even from my position behind him, I can see his cheeks rise in a smile. “Despite my vast age, I haven’t ever had a proper relationship,” he confesses. “No one has ever stuck around, and I never cared enough to chase them when they left. I know I’m hard to deal with, Xal. People don’t voluntarily spend time with me. The fact that you’re even tolerating me—”

“Hey now… don’t put words in my mouth. Who said anything about tolerating you? Last night was incredible.”

“Yes, it was,” he whispers with a sigh. “But you’ll grow tired of me too, Xalreth. I’m not foolish enough to believe otherwise, though I’m afraid…” He trails off, his shoulders drooping.

“You’re afraid…?” I nudge, fingers moving nimbly now as I get closer to the bottom of the braid.

“I’m afraid this one is going to hurt.” Emotions ball in my throat as I fight to get myself under control, tying the end of his hair.

“I won’t—”

“No, just wait,” he interrupts, and I snap my mouth shut. “I don’t want you to lie to me and make me feel better with promises you have no intention of keeping. Just… before you’re done with me… maybe you could take me dancing?” He sounds so small as he says it, and fuck, how my heart breaks at the soft request.

My voice is thick as I say, “Yeah, I can do that.”

He twists and lifts onto his knees, and he looks so young and innocent as he stares at me, wearing my t-shirt that’s a little baggy on him with his hair pulled back in the braid. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to kill the mood.”

“You didn’t.” I smooth his hair and give him my sunniest smile before leaning in and pressing a kiss to his lips. “Why don’t we grab some breakfast? There’s an amazing diner right down the street.”

“Diner food, how common,” he says, and I scoff before I catch the sneaky grin on his face. I reach around to swat his ass once more.

“Come on.” I stand and pull him to his feet. We walk hand-in-hand through the lobby and along the sidewalk, and I can’t remember the last time I’ve been so happy.