Page 28 of Beltane

His death is my fault, too.

“Hey,” came a soft voice behind me before a warm palm settled between my shoulder blades. Miri’s springtime scent hit me next, morning frost and daffodils. She sat next to me, pressing her silk-covered chest along my arm so she could snatch my box of cigarettes from my lap and light one for herself.

“Hey.” I turned to face her, tracing the way the moonlight reflected off her cheekbones and forehead. She’d always been so beautiful, one of the loveliest people I’d ever seen.

“I couldn’t sleep either,” she said, wrapping her arms tight around herself. “I close my eyes and I just…” She pressed her lids together, squinting against the monster on the other side. “We need to defeat him, Lex.”

“I know.” I wrapped an arm over her shoulders and pulled her closer, pressing my lips to her temple. “We will.”

“I’m sorry I stayed away so long. You were right.”

“I’m sorry I was angry when you got here.” I shook my head. “I’m sorry for the things I said. I missed you so much. We need you.”

“You were right to be upset.” She stuffed her face into my chest, reminding me of the girl I’d met so many years ago—heartbroken and vulnerable and delicate. “I was an idiot. I knew what would happen if I stayed away. I can’t be surprised that it did.”

“Enough now,” I said, tilting her chin up so she had to look me in the eye. “Can we put the past behind us?”

She nodded and smiled, pushing up so she could kiss me, and I melted into the contact like a starved man. Christ, I didn’t realize how much I’d craved her until she was back in my arms. Carter and I had a yearning that went back nearly a decade, and Ivy and I had only just discovered the burning thing between us. But Miri always felt like home. She was the safe place that remained constant all these years, somewhere to put the most tender side of me, the side no one else knew existed.

Miri brought it out. She made me want to protect her, to shield her from everything else in this world save for my own worst impulses. In a polycule that, admittedly, revolved around my former archnemesis, Miri was the first thing I’d ever claimed as mine. Maybe it made me a ravenous asshole, but part of me still felt that way. Carter got to have his Weeds, and Ivy adored Miri unconditionally, but she and I had seen the worst side of each other and embraced that darkness with no judgment.

“I love you, my prince,” she said against my mouth, running her fingers up my neck and into my hair.

“I love you, my princess.” I nearly groaned when she dragged her nails against my scalp, slamming all my fuck-yeah buttons. Without a second thought, I grabbed the back of her legs and shifted us so I was between them, laying her on the couch. Her ankles twisted behind my lower back, her heels digging into the waistband of my pants to shuck them down. God, how I wanted to give in to her impatience, to shove myself deep inside her and refuel the intimacy between us.

But I didn’t. I cupped her jaw and devoured her mouth, relishing the way our tongues danced together. Her soft little moans had my dick jerking between us, and when I bit my way down her throat to her shoulder, she rocked her hips, brushing her beautiful, warm cunt up against me. I groaned and wilted, licking between her breasts while I stared up at her. I teased the hemline of her nightie, brushing my fingers over the tops of her thighs while I continued my descent.

Her deep honey-brown gaze held me the whole way, her bruised lips parted in that adorable O-shape. I couldn’t help myself; I brushed my hands over her chest and up her neck, tracing one finger over her bottom lip. She sucked it into her warm, wet mouth, rolling her tongue around it the way she used to do to my dick.

Fuck.

“Tell me I can touch you.” My balls clenched and I couldn’t restrain myself anymore, tracing soft circles over her thighs with my thumbs. Even if all we did was kiss, that would be enough for me. I just wanted her, any way she’d let me have her.

She nodded, but her eyes shifted away, so I grabbed her chin, forcing her to look back at me.

“Tell me.” I gave her a slow kiss. “Use your words, Princess. You know I love to hear how much you want me.”

A soft chuckle greeted me before she smiled and darted her tongue out to brush against my mouth, reigniting that old flame in my heart. “Touch me, Lex. Please. I’ve missed you so much.”

Fuck. Yeah.

I pushed her silk dress up and clamped my fingers on her knees, coaxing her legs farther apart. But then we both froze as my gaze dropped to the violet lines on the insides of her thighs, scars she’d carved into herself as a way to cope with the mental barrier in her memories. She tried to put a hand over them, but I shoved that away, taking my time to run my fingertips over each one.

My beautiful princess had survived, no matter what that monster had put her through. She was here, in front of me, and I’d been so ravenous for her all this time that I wouldn’t let her hide anything from me, not anymore.

We couldn’t go on like we had, all solitary schemes and plots. We needed to be open from here on out. And I wanted to make sure she really understood that.

10

Miri

Lex stared up at me from his knees, a smile spreading across his aristocratic features when I agreed. Normally, he was so good about hiding his emotions, locking all of it away so no one could tell what was going on in that brilliant, maniacal brain. But I knew him too well.

I’d seen the brief flash of fear that I might turn him away. After everything I’d been through, after all we’d seen together, he should have known that was the last thing I would have done. Silly boy. I had always loved him.

He looked again at the vibrant scars on the insides of my thighs, and I knew better than to try to hide them this time. He held my eyes with his penetrating hazel counterparts, keeping my thigh firmly in place while he leaned in and kissed the one farthest down. A spark of lust shot up my leg, ending with a hard throb at my clit. I gasped, watching as his pink tongue darted out and dragged up the next one, and that silky warmth radiated everywhere. A moan barreled over my lips, my fingers clenching the sofa for stability. My heart pounded and my muscles shook, especially the ones by his head. He must have felt it, must have known what he did to me, because he smirked and laughed and did it to the next scar. And the next one, each lick bringing us one step closer to each other. Then, he turned his head and did it to the other leg, kissing and sucking, his gaze firmly locked on mine.

The eye contact would have been uncomfortable with anyone else, but not with Lex, not like this. The intimacy between us could rival epic romances. There was nothing Lex and I hadn’t shared, even other people, even other great love stories.

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