Page 95 of Avidian
I tilt my head slightly, surprised by how much thought he’s put into something so small. “I like it when you say it. Trust me, it doesn’t sound the same coming from you. And when I’m with you, I’m not thinking about him at all,” I say.
He exhales, his breath warm against the back of my neck, and I feel him relax behind me. “Good. I like calling you my clever demon,” he murmurs.
“So possessive,” I tease, though the flutter in my chest betrays how much I love it.
He pulls me closer until there’s no space left between us.
“Why does my father call you a demon?” he asks, his hand trailing over my bare skin.
I shrug, nonchalant. “I think he’s superstitious. He’s always said seeing the dead is the work of the devil, so I must be one of his creatures. I don’t mind, really. It actually makes some of the guards fear me, and I kind of like that.”
He chuckles, but eventually a calm silence settles between us.
I ask, “What happens when this ends? When we get back and everything goes back to normal?”
The weight of reality is pressing against the edges of this fragile moment.
“This is my normal now, you’re my normal now. The world will have to adjust,” Malachi says without hesitation, his tone so steady it leaves no room for doubt.
I blink, caught off guard by the simplicity in his answer, the certainty in his voice. But the reality of Marco looms large in my mind, and I can’t help but press further. “Care to clue me in on your plan when Marco shows up to claim me?”
His fingers, which had been tracing lazy patterns along my arm, still for a moment. “I’m still working on it,” he admits, uneasy. “But trust me, Kat—no one is taking you away from me. If Orin or anyone else ever tries to hurt you again, I’ll bury them so deep the wolves won’t find their bones.”
I shiver, but not from the cold. He’s making a vow, one he intends to keep no matter the cost. His fingers move again, this time brushing against my bare skin with a tenderness that contrasts with the deadly promise he made.
“You make it sound like you own me now,” I say, teasing him, though I’m curious too.
“I don’t own you, Kat.” He leans in so close that his breath warms my cheek and brushes his lips against my ear. “But I’ll destroy anyone who tries to.”
I can’t tell whether I should feel comforted or terrified—or maybe a little of both. I turn over in his arms to face him, our heads resting on the worn pillows next to each other.
“I never would have imagined this.” I stare into the flickering shadows cast by the single candle on the nightstand. My thoughts drift back to that night in the park when everything started—when I had no idea how much my life was about to change. How much he would change it.
Malachi tilts his head, watching me. “What do you mean?”
“I had given up,” I admit. “On life, on the idea of ever finding someone I’d want to let in. I didn’t think I’d ever feel like this about a man. And even if I did, it’s not like I ever thought I’d get the freedom to act on it.” I glance down at his chest, feeling too vulnerable to meet his eyes, swallowing hard. “But now...after everything I’ve been through, I wouldn’t change asingle moment—not if it meant it wouldn’t lead me here. To this moment. To you.”
The silence that follows is heavy but not uncomfortable. Malachi doesn’t rush to fill it. Instead, his hand brushes against my cheek, the calluses on his fingers soft against my skin. He tucks a strand of hair behind my ear, touching my chin and coaxing me to look at him, his dark-brown eyes searching mine.
“You know,” he says, shaking his head, “I knew you’d ruin me the moment I saw you. That night in the park. Those eyes, that smart-ass mouth of yours...” His lips curve in a grin, and I feel it in my chest. “And when you bit my ear instead of kissing me, called me out on my shit flirting—I was done for.”
I laugh softly, the memory vivid in my mind. “You were such a cocky jerk. I didn’t trust you for a second.”
“You didn’t have to,” he says with a shrug. “But the more I got to know you—even when you made it painfully difficult—I knew you were going to destroy me. And I didn’t even care.”
“I think I knew I was falling for you,” I say, my lips quirking into a smile, “the moment I saw you reading that spicy romance book. You looked so smug about it, until you got caught. Then you tried to hide it like a teenager with a dirty magazine.”
He groans, dropping his forehead to my shoulder. “I was hoping you forgot about that.”
“Never,” I tease, giggling. “It was adorable.”
He pulls back, mock glaring. “Hey, spicy romance books are top-tier literature. I’ve learned important lessons from them.”
“Oh, I’m sure you have,” I say, still laughing.
“Don’t laugh at me. Those books taught me how to flirt with dangerous demons and live to tell the tale,” he says, squeezing me tight enough to make me gasp.
“You’re ridiculous,” I say, breathless but smiling as he holds me closer.
