Page 28 of Malice: The Mate Games (Apocalypse #3)

Chapter

Twenty-One

MALICE

M y mind was an absolute shitshow, to borrow one of Sin’s favorite expressions.

I hadn’t known I was susceptible to a lust demon, but then, they’d never had reason to set their sights on me before.

I’d had no defense. None. All my bluff and bluster about Merri needing to work on her mental barriers, and here I was, the weakest link in our chain.

Shameful. I’d never live it down.

“Christian!” I bellowed, forcing myself to push down the distracting emotions trying to control me. “Christian!”

My groundskeeper, resident mage, and most trusted human employee was in for a reckoning. He appeared with Merri at his side at the top of the stairs, looking better than he had but still a bit peaked.

He raised his hands in a placating gesture, already sensing what was coming. “Merri filled me in. I have no explanation, monsieur. It should not have been possible.”

Merri appeared behind him, freshly showered and barefoot. “Do you think the humans were a way for them to trick the wards?” she asked as she raced down the stairs and toward us.

I don’t know what possessed me, but as soon as she was within reach, I grabbed her and pulled her into my arms. Her sweet scent soothed something inside me, and I couldn’t help but take a few deep inhalations of her shampoo.

She accepted the embrace willingly, returning it with a strong one of her own. Then she surprised me by not only staying put but snuggling closer.

“Hi,” she murmured.

“Hello, hellcat.”

A pointed cough had both of us turning in Chaos’s direction, Sin and Grim standing just behind him.

“To answer your question,” he said, “it shouldn’t work that way.”

“But it did,” she pointed out.

“It did,” he confirmed, arms crossed as he sat back against a sideboard.

Christian scrubbed a hand down his face.

“I suppose they could have used some sort of cloaking spell, their possession of the humans in partnership with the spell fully masking the demonic presence, but...” He shrugged helplessly.

“I’ve never encountered anything like it.

I don’t think there’s any way to know for sure. ”

“This cannot happen, Christian. Merri’s safety is of the utmost importance. I expect you to rectify this situation.”

Merri pulled away from me and looked into my eyes. “How can he? As far as I know, wards don’t work like a force field for human bodies. If the demons are using them as Trojan horses, I don’t know what we can do.”

“I would need an entire coven behind me for something of that caliber.”

“Do you have one?”

Christian shook his head. “My family has been on our own for a long time. Our allegiance is to our goddess and this land. Covens have too many rules that conflict with the vows we’ve already taken.”

“Is there someone you trust enough to partner with?” she asked, eyes flicking up to me before returning to him, telling me that the question was for both of us.

Christian let out a heavy sigh. “None that I have connections with. This isn’t the sort of favor you spring on someone. It comes with strings. And potential alliances that are in direct conflict with our own interests.”

“Politics,” Chaos spat.

“ Exactement. ”

A thought wormed its way to the surface, and I looked to Grim. “There may be someone we could ask.”

He frowned, not quite following me. Surprisingly, though perhaps by now it shouldn’t have been, Merri did.

“What about that guy that sent the video? Asher?”

Grim’s gaze went to Merri, then to Chaos, before landing on me at the warrior’s nod. “Contact Hades. See what he knows.”

“We don’t have a way to reach him while the phones are down,” I pointed out.

“I might have a way,” Christian offered. “But it will take me awhile to gather what I need.”

“Do it.”

He nodded and rushed off.

“And in the meantime?” Sin asked. “Are we supposed to just sit around and wait for the next attack?”

“Doesn’t seem like we have much of a choice,” Chaos said. “At least now we know what to expect. And the wards still give us a heads-up, so it’s something. Even if it’s not much.”

That was for me, and I didn’t dignify it with a response.

Instead I turned to Merri. “We can’t forget the task at hand, even with the enemies we just faced.

That’s what they want. We’ve stopped them once again, at least for the time being.

Now that the immediate threat has been dealt with, we continue on with our quest to end this apocalypse before Lucifer can claim his throne. ”

“So... fucking?” Sin asked with an amused grin.

“Fucking,” I agreed. My eyes never left Merri’s, which is why I caught the flare of arousal the instant it sparked.

“Come on then,” she said, taking my hand. “It’s your turn.”

Falling asleep on purpose was a unique experience. There was no slow, steady descent where you can’t quite connect the dots between sleep and consciousness. It was more akin to plunging into a cold pool. Immediate, overwhelming, and more than a little disorientating.

I didn’t mind it, though, not when Merri was joining me and I was going to get my chance to show her exactly what being mine meant.

This dreamwalk gave me so much Merri couldn’t comprehend.

The freedom to let go of everything else swirling in my head and focus on her, on us.

I also needed to erase the lingering pain of the nightmare that demon had trapped me in, and I couldn’t think of a better way than losing myself in Merri.

Or maybe what I was truly trying to do was find myself. Seeing my son—fictional as he’d been—had unmoored me, and I was in desperate need of a safe haven.

“What has you frowning like that, Mal?” Merri’s voice pulled me from the threat of despair.

“My thoughts are getting the better of me.”

“The demon?” she guessed, expression free from judgment.

I nodded, a muscle twitching in my clenched jaw.

“Come here,” she murmured, cupping my cheek with her hand and feathering her lips over mine.

I closed my eyes and just let myself feel her, the tension melting away as quickly as the two of us melted into the kiss. Why couldn’t I be this man for her all the time? The one who could give himself over to her without fear of being destroyed again?

Merri let out a soft hum of contentment as she pulled back.

My eyes were slow to open, as if keeping them closed might extend the moment we’d just shared.

When they finally opened, I found the space around us transformed.

I hadn’t paid much attention to it when I’d arrived, but I thought it had just been my room from the chateau.

Now it was something far more sumptuous, the bed covered in a thick black comforter and the room filled with candlelight.

I arched a brow and gave her an inquisitive look. “Very romantic, hellcat.”

She shrugged, reaching up and brushing her fingers through my hair. “I thought we deserved it. Our first time wasn’t what I’d have chosen for us.”

Hearing her echo my thoughts from a few days ago made me smile. “Me neither.”

“So you like it?”

I grasped her arse and reeled her back into my body. “More than,” I admitted, my free hand weaving into her long hair and pulling her face back to mine.

Her little gasp of delight washed over me, settling directly between my legs.

I’d been more than a little bitter that I’d drawn the short straw when it came time to divvy out the dreamwalk assignments.

I assumed that being last meant that Merri might forget about what was blossoming between us.

But I should have known better. Merri never made any of us feel less than.

Whoever she was with was the only person she was thinking about, the only one who mattered. And that was more than enough for me.

Oh hell, I was more of a romantic than I’d ever admitted to myself. But perhaps that wasn’t such a bad thing. Perhaps keeping myself closed off from everyone and everything had only hurt me in the end.

Scooping Merri up, I twisted until I could walk us to the bed. “You’re brilliant, Merri. In so many ways.”

Placing her in the center of the lush bedclothes, I took her in. The delicate black lace covering her was so sheer it was almost obscene, and the fall of her scarlet locks spilled down her shoulders. She was everything I never thought I could have.

I placed a knee on the bed, intending to crawl over her, but she stopped me with a hand to the chest. “This is more to me than just trying to get pregnant and feeding. I need you to know that. It started out as a means to an end, but I’m... attached to all four of you.”

Any lingering denial fled. Here, if nowhere else, I could be honest. With her and myself.

“For me too. I’m not like the others, Merri. I don’t do casual. I don’t know how. There’s no half-measure. It’s all or nothing for me.”

Fisting the fabric of my shirt, she pulled me toward her. “All, Malice. Give me all of you.”

Warmth spread through my chest, and my lips twitched up in a smile. “I’m pretty sure I warned you about asking me for that.”

She matched my smile, her eyes twinkling in the soft golden light. “Malice, you and I both know I am more than a match for you. Do your worst.” Then she winked. “And by worst, I mean very, very best.”

Kissing her long and slow, I ran my hands down her body until I reached her thighs and the hem of the piss-poor excuse for a nightie. Pain blossomed on my bottom lip as her teeth caught it and she bit down, not hard enough to draw blood, but soundly enough to elicit an erotic groan.

I chuckled. “Naughty, naughty, hellcat.”

She purred up at me while simultaneously raking her nails down my back. “Just living up to your name for me.”

“Fuck,” I said in a harsh whisper.

“That is the idea.”

Running my fingers up, up, up until I found her slick, bare pussy, I teased her until she was writhing and begging me to let her come.

“Watch me while I fill you up,” I ordered, freeing myself from my clothes and taking my cock in hand.

Her eyes found mine, the bright blue full of want, and it was all directed at me.

My gaze locked with hers, I pressed into her tight opening, memorizing the way her mouth parted on a sigh and the way color spread across her chest and cheeks.

The feel of her hot, wet cunt squeezing my cock was even better than I remembered.

Last time we’d been frantic with need, but tonight time wasn’t an issue.

I watched her expression change with every inch I fed into her, little hitches of breath betraying her pleasure. Fuck, she was perfect.

“You feel so good,” she breathed.

“Likewise.”

“Kiss me,” she begged, reaching up for me.

I dropped a fist on either side of her head so our faces were separated by inches. “As you wish.”

Then I drove all the way inside her, sinking to the hilt. Our tongues danced as we moved together, trading sighs and moans with each languid thrust. Our pleasure built together, but I never increased my tempo. I wanted to keep us right here on the edge for as long as possible.

Merri never complained, but it wasn’t long before her thighs were trembling and she was clutching at both me and the sheets.

I needed to be closer to her, to hold her tight and make sure she knew how much this moment meant.

Wrapping my arms around her, I closed the distance between us and buried my face in her neck, kissing and biting the soft place where her neck met her shoulder.

“Merri, fuck. I’m close. I’m so fucking close.”

“Me too. God, it feels like you’ve been edging me for hours.”

I laughed, but it was little more than a harsh bark. “I wanted to make up for the last time.”

She turned until she could meet my gaze again. “Malice, you have nothing to make up for, you ... You are, and have always been, exactly what I need. You’re mine.”

The words absolutely decimated what little control I had left.

I came with a last roll of my hips, pressing deep and holding there until I could no longer tell where I ended and she began.

She fed on me; I knew it was happening, but this new connection and honesty between us made that all the more meaningful. I gave her what she needed and together, we created something beautiful. All I wanted was for us to continue on this path forever.

Pulling out of her, I rolled onto my back and brought her with me until she was resting on my chest. I ran my fingertips along her spine and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

“I just want to hold you for a while, if you don’t mind.”

She hummed happily. “Hold me as long as you want. Never let go.”

Emotion clogged my throat, and it took me longer than usual before I could form a response.

“Careful, hellcat. You might get what you want.”