Page 10 of Lovesick Titan (Lovesick #2)

The man had come here in a fit of fury and had a superiority complex Mal loathed. Still, he needed Dunkirk to leave of his own accord so he could get Carla and Michael inside without incident. Nobody breached those walls. No one who knew this neighborhood, who knew Mal’s history, would ever dare.

So he waited.

Finally, Dunkirk huffed and leaned back. He glanced behind him at Dom, whose fingertips were ignited, then at Lucy, who had vines coiled around all four of her limbs just waiting to lash out, and finally, at Oz behind Mal.

“He put you up to this? That freak she’s fucking?” Dunkirk bit out. “All you freaks stick together, that it? Or are you fucking him too?”

Mal’s fist flew faster than his senses. It was still ice and it cracked Dunkirk’s nose with a distinctive crunch. Broken— pulverized . Dunkirk Senior had started wars for less, but Mal hoped he’d get a pass for a few broken bones given the carnage he could actually inflict .

Dunkirk staggered back, cursing and spitting blood.

He nearly ran into Dom, who had no trouble reminding him that she was there with a flare of her flames.

“I’m not gonna forget this!” he coughed and choked as he held his face, stumbling away from the shelter and out into the street.

He made it to a motorcycle that he took off on like he had every intention of coming back.

Mal knew he likely would, but at least Carla and Michael would be inside by then.

He’d have to think of other ways to keep them safe in the coming months.

“Michael!” Carla’s voice rang out, and Mal spun, afraid he’d missed an accomplice, but Michael had merely escaped his mother’s clutches so he could throw himself at Mal’s legs. He hugged Mal as tightly as two tiny arms could.

“Thank you,” the little boy said, hiding his face inside Mal’s duster.

Lucy cast them an amused smile. Giving into the unexpected gesture, Mal patted Michael’s back. As Carla and Oz came closer, he looked up to meet the woman’s eyes.

“He’ll never lay a hand on you again.”

The explosion shook the night, right at that moment when everything had seemed okay.

It was quiet but tangible, a definite rumble traveling through the ground.

From the vantage point of the neighborhood, Mal could see the power station plainly.

Orange flames and smoke were already visible. He was too late.

Rushing Michael and Carla into the shelter, he told Lucy and Dom to stay put and keep a lookout for Dunkirk, then told Oz to get him to the power station, “ Now .”

R

“I went to the station, but the cops were already swarming. I knew the people inside were dead. I figured somehow you’d won anyway, because Thanatos wasn’t gloating or attacking anyone, and the uniforms talked about seeing you jump away.

Those deaths that night aren’t on you, Sparky. They’re on me. Your mother— ”

“It was the same night,” Danny muttered, staring back at him without any of the rancor Mal expected. “Michael said you saved them, but I didn’t know it was the same night . Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I don’t know,” Mal said, trying to measure his words and not reveal too much, but he’d been doing that his entire life and he was so tired.

“I almost did a few times. Didn’t think it was a good enough excuse.

Better if you thought I was a selfish coward.

If I’d known then that your mother was involved—”

“I wouldn’t have wanted you there,” Danny cut him off. “You saved an entire family.”

“There were dozens of people in that power station.”

“You didn’t know what would happen. All you knew was that a few good people right in front of you were in trouble and you could help, so you did. I can’t blame you for that. I never should have blamed you…” Danny cringed like he hated admitting he ever had.

Finally, they knew where each other stood. It should have been a sweet moment between them, but Danny’s voice faded into something more like sobs.

“I-I’m sorry,” he said as he wiped his eyes. “It’s not fair. It’s not f-fair it had to be this way…”

“Hey…” Mal held Danny’s hand still resting against his stomach and reached with the other for Danny’s face. He brushed away the tears that had formed with a gentle swipe. “It’s okay. It’s okay …if you’re not okay.”

Sucking in a breath, Danny fell forward until their foreheads touched, and the soft press of their lips was an easy conclusion. Neither of them hurried, even though four days had felt like four weeks, and Mal had missed this kid like he’d lost a limb.

Just their lips—moving, whispering against each other.

Hands touching as they pressed to Mal’s stomach.

Mal’s palm on Danny’s cheek. It was all so much weightier than before.

Until now, all Mal had ever done to get what he wanted was lie.

Tonight he wanted to tell the truth and give Danny everything he deserved .

R

Prometheus hadn’t bothered to draw his curtains. The slits for windows didn’t allow much of a view into the apartment, but Hades wasn’t sneaking a peek from outside. He saw everything through the reflection he’d chosen within the safety of his mirror world.

Dunkirk had worked out beautifully.

Hades wasn’t much of a voyeur, usually made scarce if he caught them this far along, but tonight he grinned as he sat back to watch. He had to be sure everything played out according to plan.

So far the cards were in his favor.

R

Cho’s tongue teased Danny’s lips and pushed inside with a subtle request, then delved in deep once he had permission like he was starved for a taste. He hadn’t abandoned Danny. He’d been here that night, helping his neighbors.

When would they catch a break? When did they get to be happy? Happiness was here, touching Mal , kissing him, keeping him safe. But Danny was awful for wanting that when it had all been built on a lie.

“Wait…” he gasped, pulling from the kiss.

Cho clung to him, pleading with his grip that Danny not let go.

“It’s too much…it’s too much …”

“Do you want to leave?” Cho asked, almost too softly to be heard.

When Danny looked up into those bright, beautiful blue eyes, instantly he was lost and couldn’t find the strength to pull away again. “No.”

“Then don’t ,” Cho smiled with a stroke of Danny’s cheek.

They moved to reconnect at the same time like an exhale.

Lips crashed together, Cho’s thumb hooking around Danny’s jaw as his hand slid from Cho’s stomach to loop around his waist and hold him close, careful to leave his injured arm out of the fray.

Cho’s lips and tongue and skin —God, Danny had missed it.

He almost tipped the man back into the cushions .

They should slow down. And think. Danny had so much to say .

“Danny…” Cho breathed against his lips.

They were practically on top of each other as Cho reached between Danny’s legs and felt the growing hardness there. Danny rocked into his touch. It was as if all the adrenaline from before had fueled into want and nothing but each other could quench it.

“Take me apart again, Sparky,” Cho begged. “ Please .”

Diving forward, Danny kissed Cho deeper, hands fumbling for the clasps of their jeans, trying to find some way to do it all faster without hurting Cho when he was still beaten.

His hand came down on the couch cushion into something squishy and he pulled back with a grimace. The steak.

“Upstairs,” Cho said with a chuckle as he tossed the steak onto the coffee table. “Get us upstairs.”

“Okay…”

“And take your shoes off first.”

Danny laughed. He’d completely forgotten he still had his shoes on. He looked Cho in the eyes and had never wanted him more.

Lightning jumping them to the bedroom—after leaving his shoes at the door—he laid Cho out on the bed. On his new bed, still with the same frame as the one he’d destroyed but the bedding was brighter blue now with accents in white instead of navy.

The bruises that had faded on Cho had been replaced by a new one budding around his eye, but his cuts were lighter, even the one on his lip, and his arm was bandaged. Danny could be gentle. Danny could take such good care of him. He wanted to make it better for Cho than it had ever been before.

Hurrying out of his clothes, he returned to run both hands up Cho’s stomach before dragging them down again and bringing the man’s jeans and underwear down with him. Cho was hard just from the promise of this. And he was so beautiful. The scars didn’t diminish that; they never could.

Claiming supplies from the nightstand and setting them on the bed, Danny barely paused for breath.

He returned to kiss Cho and settled between his legs, parting them, lifting them.

Never once did he stop the desperate lapping of their tongues as he brought two lube-coated fingers down and teased Cho’s entrance .

He didn’t rush, much as their pace insisted they wanted to.

He took his time twirling the slick pads of his fingers, scarcely pushing inside of Cho more than the barest breach.

Free hand finding the scar at Cho’s hip, he touched it with all the reverence it deserved as he pressed a finger in past the knuckle that sparked with electricity.

“ Fuck ,” Cho snapped his head aside to moan, “I missed you.”

“Me too, Mal,” Danny nudged his nose along Cho’s jaw, “me too…”

Each twist of his finger inside of Cho was accompanied by a graze of his other hand across a scar. The one on Cho’s stomach. His clavicle. His shoulder. A gentle, barely-there pass over the bandage on his arm. Cho shivered and opened up eagerly when Danny pushed a second finger inside.

His legs encircled Danny as he was worked open, scars teased, neck gently kissed.

It was when Cho’s moans faded into soft, pleading whimpers that Danny looked him in the eyes.

Rolling on a condom without breaking the connection of their gazes, when Danny was ready and pressed to the slick, puckered skin, he held Cho at his hip and the side of his face and kissed him.

Each new inch inside was punctuated by a flick of Danny’s tongue—along Cho’s lips, past his teeth, plunged in deep .

Cho whined through it all, shivering as Danny sheathed himself slowly.

Danny drifted his hand down from Cho’s hip to beneath his knee and lifted it higher. Cho tried to keep their lips and tongues connected, but with each slow, rhythmic thrust, the noises leaving him increased. His voice wrecked was like nothing Danny ever thought he’d crave.

As they rocked and Danny mouthed light kisses along Cho’s cheek and ear, his free hand danced lazy circles over Cho’s skin.

When he trailed down Cho’s arm past the bandage again, Cho lifted his hand to grip Danny tight and laced their fingers together.

Every part of them was connected. Their hands and thighs and lips.

It was intimate. And slow. And so much more than any time before it.

Danny didn’t mean to surge with more lightning, the sparks merely took control as he picked up the pace and felt the end approaching. Swaths of frost kept appearing across Cho’s skin in kind, but then would melt away like he was fighting his powers. Danny wanted to feel the chill .

“Please…your ice feels so good .”

“Now, now, Sparky...wouldn’t wanna freeze the bed again.”

Danny laughed—no one had ever made him laugh so much.

Cho’s moans fell away to litanies of Danny’s name, and “Yes” and “Sparky” and “ Please ,” that spurred Danny on until he felt tears in his eyes as he came. He paused for breath only to feel a warmth between their stomachs as Cho released as well. They’d found their way to the end together.

Panting as they looked at each other in the stillness, the only thing left that made sense was to kiss again. Unhurried. Lazy. And filled with all the emotion between them.

“I don’t deserve you,” Danny said.

Cho huffed a laugh. “Enough with the martyr complex already. There is so much about you worth wanting. While I’m just a—”

“What? An old thief?” Danny smiled as he pulled back just enough to slip out of Cho and roll the condom off to toss it away. “That’s one of the best things about you, Ice Man.”

Cho raised an eyebrow as their pulses slowed, legs still framing Danny despite the mess between them. “That I’m old and of questionable morals?”

“No,” Danny snorted. “That you know who you are and what you want. I love that about you. Your confidence. Your intelligence.” He trailed his hand down beneath Cho’s leg again. “I love your thighs. Your ass.” Back up beneath his knee, to his hip. “Your skin. Your scars .” And dove for a kiss.

“I love you , Danny.”

Then stopped. “…what?”

Danny pulled up, expression blank and disbelieving as he took Cho in, this flushed and beautiful and impossible man beneath him who he’d thought he hated so much he wanted to ruin him forever.

Now those hypnotic blue eyes looked at him without any guile or lies.

Cho’s forehead smoothed in resignation of what he’d said, what he meant, looking ten years younger as he held Danny’s gaze and said it again.

“I love you.”