Page 42 of My Saintly Demon

In the mirror, his reddened and peeling skin shows the unmistakable outline of feathers.

“I think you’re growing wings.”

CHAPTERSIXTEEN

DAVE

Charles’s fingertips dust over the new… addition on my back. Gentle and reverent is his touch, and it shouldn’t comfort me so much, but it does.

“Does it hurt at all?”

I shake my head, still staring at the reflection in the mirror.

“It’s just itchy. Can you… will you still put some lotion on and see if it takes away the itch?” I pause. He’s still sore and recovering. I should be taking care of him. I’m just itchy, but he was some asshole’s punching bag. “I mean, if you’re ok to? You’ve had a traumatic experience. I want you to be okay first.”

“The magic helped. My ribs are still sore, but I’m okay. Let me do this for you.”

Swallowing, I touch my forehead to his. “If you change your mind after you start, please tell me.”

“Of course I will. Go lay down again. It will be easier for me.”

Returning to my position on the bed, I bury my face in the pillow while Charles positions himself over my ass, his warm ass cheeks against the small of my back.

“Is this okay? Are you comfortable?” he murmurs, and I nod because I don’t trust my voice.

The snick of the cap on the lotion bottle precedes the sound of a squirt and his hands are on my back with a feather-light touch. The lotion is cool, and I shiver.

“Sorry, I should have warmed it for you.”

“S’okay.”

The gentleness of his hands as he works the lotion into my itching skin seeps into my resolve to remain calm. Every light stroke and touch across my back is a direct line to something in me I can’t name, and I find the pillow wet.

Gentle lips on my neck draw a gasp from my lungs.

“I know it might not mean much, but you’re the most beautiful man I’ve ever been with, Dave.” He lays a gentle bite at the nape of my neck and continues to kiss my head, his nose in my hair. “I don’t know how you’re feeling with whatever is happening to you on the outside, but it doesn’t change how I feel about you on the inside.”

His words are like a balm to the bruised heart I’ve protected for years as I’ve floated through existence, wondering why I was so different. This feeling of finding someone who understands my pull between the world I was born to and the world I’m now in brings a rush of new, unexplained things inside my chest.

“Let me turn over.”

Charles adjusts so I can turn onto my back, and I pull him down to straddle me. Needing him to be in the most intimate of contact.

He wipes the wetness off my face and kisses me with a kiss as soft as a butterfly’s wing.

“Our existence is meant to change as we grow older. No one ever stays in the same line their whole life, Dave. As humans, we often grow and find new things about ourselves.”

“I’m not human though, remember?”

“How can I forget? But I don’t see a demon when I look at you. I never have.”

Swallowing, I allow myself to drown in the depth of his green eyes when he firmly holds my head in place.

“Tell me what you see then, Chuck. Because I don’t know what I am anymore. Demons don’t grow feathered wings.”

His smile is soft and sweet. “I see a man. A man who disregards his safety for others, who breaks rules he thinks aren’t fair, and who is literally my biggest fantasy. I thought about you and there you were.”

I can’t help the smile that forms.

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