Page 55 of Soothsayer

“You already got your chance to use it. It’s my turn now.”

“Cillian…” Sören surged forward and pressed his lips to mine. Oh god, this,thisfelt good, it felt incredible, warm and soft and so full of want for me that I couldn’t help but respond. This wasn’t anyone but Sören, the man I loved. My body responded so fast it left me dizzy, my cock straining in my briefs. Sören didn’t reach down to touch me, and he didn’t touch himself, although I wasn’t sure if that was because he didn’t know how I would take it or if he wasn’t hard himself, but he thrust his thigh between my legs and pulled me into the kiss, going deeper, taking even more of me.

I let him have me. I let him have everything?it was all his anyway. I had never felt so overwhelmed by another person, so desperate for them. I didn’t know if it was good or not, what we had together?a love forged on a bedrock of violence and guilt and sacrifice. It wasn’t normal, I knew that, but then normal wasn’t ever going to apply to me in any meaningful way.

Sören held me close and I rutted against his thigh like a teenager, pressure and heat and an unbearable ache growing in my groin. God, it had been forever since I’d come and even longer since I’d actually enjoyed it, and now I was withhim, and it might be the last time, and I needed?I needed?

Sören swallowed my cry, muffled it with his lips and soothed the wreckage of my body afterward with hands gone gentle now, almost worshipful as he stroked over my chest and neck.

He finally cupped my cheek and stared at me. “You’re crazy,” he whispered, and I managed to nod through the fugue of my orgasm. “You’re so fucking crazy that whatever you’ve got planned just might work.”

“Will work,” I mumbled. Sören didn’t call me on my bullshit, just helped pull off my soiled clothes, wiped me down gently with my T-shirt, and then wrapped his arms around my waist and settled his head on my stomach.

“I love you.” He pressed the words into my skin, rolled them across my belly and the ink I had there, a tree with branches like a skeleton’s fingers, reaching into the pale sky of my torso for an empty embrace. “I fucking love you, you crazy bastard. You have to live, Cillian. Youhaveto live.”

“That’s up to Fate, babe.” And some very careful timing, but for the first time since I’d kidnapped Sören out of that hotel room, I had faith, finally, that something good might come out of this. “I need to sleep,” I added regretfully, because my vision was blurring, and I was so tired I thought I might pass out in a minute. “Will you stay with me?”Just you, not both of you?

“I will. All night.”

“Good.” I fell asleep with my hands in his hair, the comfort of his weight—his warm, living weight—on my body. It was a perfect moment.

* * * * *

When I woke up, Sören was no longer holding me. He also wasn’t Sören anymore. Eyes like purple smoke stared at me curiously, and my heart sank. “Where is?he said?”

“That he would hold you all night. It is no longer nighttime, Cillian. The sun is high, and you have much to accomplish this day.” He held out a bundle of clothes. “Roger brought these for you.”

“Oh.” Well, letter of the law and all that. I was grateful for what little time we’d had. I sat up, gave myself a cursory sniff, and decided fuck it, I didn’t really need a shower. I did my best with the sink and some paper towels before I came back out and started getting into my new gear.

The suit was nicer than I’d expected, a light gray herringbone with a beige shirt. No tie, a sturdy leather belt with a Texas-style buckle shined to a mirror sheen overlaying the standard one, a leather jacket, new shoes, and on top of it all, a lighter and a pack of cigarettes. Oh fuck, I’d just asked for them for verisimilitude,but I hadn’t realized just how badly Iwantedone until I laid eyes on them. I opened the pack, pulled one out, and lit it, smoke alarms be damned. The first drag felt like a fucking blessing.

“You made that face with Sören last night.”

“Shut up,” I muttered, blowing the smoke out with a grateful sigh. Nasty habit, true, but sometimes all you needed was a fucking cigarette. This was the only one of my needs I could control right now, so I took my time with it, smoked the cigarette down to ash, and tapped it out in the sink before I got back with the program.

I dressed quickly, rummaged in the pocket of the jacket until I found the thin gold chain I’d asked for, and knotted it around the Buddha’s neck before clasping it around my own. Kind of an awkward necklace, but I’d deal.

I grabbed my gun, because that would certainly be expected, and then headed out into the main room, with Sören blissfully silent behind me. Good, I didn’t want to answer any questions about last night.

Roger was there, playing on his phone, but he looked up when we came in. “Hey. Lookin’ sharp!”

My answering smile was vicious. “Good to know.”

“You got everything you need?”

“I think so.”

“Well then.” He put his phone away and stood up. “Where can I drop you boys?”

I glanced at Roger’s eyes and, happily, got a glimpse of something I’d been wondering about. “You can drop us at the nearest Denny’s.”

“Really?” Sören asked excitedly.

“Really.”

Roger didn’t ask, just drove us ten blocks to the garish yellow building that had become synonymous with the landvættir’sfavorite things. “See you later,” Roger said with perfect assurance. I shook his hand.

“You know it. Tell Annie thanks, from both of us.”

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