Page 14 of All Hallows Trick

His warm hand lifted to my face, and my eyes screwed shut, pain forming a tight band around my chest. There was forgiveness in the tender glance of knuckles on my jaw, in the arm that locked around my back, pulling me into his strength and comfort, his hand cradling the back of my neck.

“Nothing to be sorry for, beautiful.”

His voice was a hug and a dagger to the heart all at once. “But I hurt you.”

Tor’s arm tightened, pressing me so hard into him that he must have hurt. “And I fuckinglovedyou marking me. I hope this scars so I can bear it for the rest of my life.”

His response made me jerk against him, staring at his beautiful face, that dichotomy of softness and severity, his plush lips curved into an unrepentant smile and latte eyes so soft that my eyes stung. His skin had warmed a few degrees, his ink not quite so stark against his arms and throat, and helookedwell but looks could be deceiving. I swallowed the lump in my throat, unable to forget the way he looked pale and sweating and sick on the sofa just last night.

“You’re completely mad,” I rasped.

“Actually—” Madde began.

“Shut the fuck up,” Miz snapped. “Let them have their moment.”

“I hurt you,” I said in a small voice, my chest hurting as I looked at Tor, felt him solid and warm in my arms. “Even if you like being marked like a total lunatic, Ihurtyou. You were bleeding and weak and poisoned because of me, Tor. I need—I need to know how you feel. Don’t sugarcoat it.”

He sighed, fingers stroking up and down my back. “My shoulder hurts. The back of my thigh feels like it got rampaged by a unicorn horn covered in acid. And my back’s aching like a bitch because of the shitty position I slept in.”

“You’re welcome, asshole,” Miz muttered. “You’d still be dressed in bloody clothes if I hadn’t changed you. And you looked comfy enough.”

“I wasn’t,” Tor quipped, nuzzling my shoulder even as he shot Miz a smirk. “You should know I’m only comfortable pressed up against my wife.”

“You were right beside me,” I said, tentatively stroking my fingers up his side where he hadn’t been injured.

“Not close enough.” He dipped his head, warm lips lingering on the shell of my ear. I remembered the vibrator inside me all at once, my pussy fluttering around it. “Unless my cock’s buried inside you, I’m never fucking close enough. You wanna know how I’m really feeling, my cute little succulent? My cock’s as hard as diamond andachingto be in your pussy. I want to feel you rippling around me as you come. I want you to fucking drench me until the scent of you is burned into my senses and I can’t get you out for the rest of the day. No, fuck that, the rest of the week. I want to consume every last inch of you, and I want you to ruin me in return. My beautiful girl, my perfect wife. If you think seeing you shifted into a gorgeous creature has changed my affection for you, you’ll be surprised to learn I am even more obsessed with you now.”

I couldn’t breathe.

A second pulse pounded between my legs even as I wanted to cry. I settled for pulling him closer, resting my head on his good shoulder as emotion and heat burned up in my chest, scorching my throat, my face, my eyes.

“I love you,” I choked out. “Tell me you’ll be okay.”

“I’ll be just fine, Cat.” Tor’s lips brushed my ear, then my jaw. “I might be short, but I’m stronger than I look.”

“You’re not short,” I mumbled.

“Ha! Please inform our darling Misery of that factthis instant.”

I laughed, tucking my face into his shoulder, dragging in the scent of him, revelling in the feeling of him here, teasing, smirking, seducing…alive.

“You’re really okay.”

“My cock’s in constant agony at the mere sight of you, but otherwise, yeah.”

I kissed an intricate tattoo on the side of his neck, a smile pulling up my lips. “I’ll take care of you later.” My pussyclenched at the thought of all the delicious things he could do to me—and oh, god, all the things I could do tohim.I knew I was making a mess of my underwear, the vibrator still but an exhilarating threat. I shot Miz a dark look at the reminder of his demands, and he returned a neutral, innocent look over the top of a teacup painted with pink sunflowers.

Finally accepting that Tor was okay, even if he wasn’t remotely healed yet, I turned my attention to my other men, scanning Miz first; sleep-rumpled and smug with his ivory hair loose and his white tee riding up to bare a sliver of toned stomach, unhurt except for the bandage ringing his bicep. Death, watching Tor and I with an endless well of love, wearing dark sweatpants and a rare hoodie emblazoned with a prairie dog and the words LITTLE HOUND ON THE PRAIRIE.2 His posture was stiff with what I realised now was more than just hostility at Madness’s nearness, the baggy clothes concealing his injury.

“Death?” I asked, kissing Tor’s jaw before I released him, approaching the rose quartz island where he leaned beside Miz. “How’s your back?”

“Much better,” he assured me, his voice oozing warmth and care, making an answering warmth bloom in my chest. We’d been gentle during sex but he still could have aggravated the wound.

I rested my palms on his chest when I came to stand before him, my head tipped back to meet his soft grey eyes. “I know you’re lying. Tell me the truth, and tell me what you were arguing about before we came in.”

“We weren’t arguing,” Death began, but he sighed when I gave him alook.“It’s nothing you need to worry about, little bride. I’m handling it.”

I looked at Miz, then Tor, but they wore matching expressions of softness and stubbornness. They weren’t going totell me. Right. I turned my attention to the madman lounged across the island, currently throwing chocolate-covered-peanuts into the air with hands tipped with hot pink fingernails, catching them with his mouth.

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