Page 15 of Unleashing Mayhem
Nightmare had gotten rid of his antlers somehow, though he was still almost too tall for Matty’s bed. He sat half-upright against the headboard, hands clasped together on his chest.
Matty reached out, his fingertips just shy of touching Nightmare’s side. He sighed happily, letting his eyes fall closed. “Thank you, Scary,” he whispered.
A huff of near-silent laughter was the last thing Matty heard before drifting into sleep.
5
Matty
Waking up well rested wasn’t something Matty was used to. It had definitely never happened when he’d been living in Luca Caruso’s house. Not since Matty had been freed from that place either.
But this morning, Matty felt…nice.
Not exactly like all the damage from countless sleepless nights had been miraculously undone, but less like Matty was clawing himself out of a shallow grave just trying to get out of bed in the morning.
And it was all thanks to his demon.
Matty wasn’t even surprised to find himself cuddled up to a long, lean male body this morning. Nightmare was warm, and he smelled nice, and he’d protected Matty all night long. It was only natural that Matty had migrated Nightmare’s way at some point.
Mattywasa little surprised at the…situation the top of his thigh—which he’d at some point hitched up over Nightmare’s lap—was brushing up against.
Matty cleared the sleep out of his throat. He already knew Nightmare was awake. He could feel him watching. “I didn’t know demons got morning wood.”
Well, that was eloquent.
There was a long, slow sigh from above Matty. “You slept well, little human?”
Matty tilted his head to blink up at the demon. With the angle of Matty’s bedroom window and the way the curtains were drawn, Nightmare’s head was still bathed in shadow. Or maybe those werehisshadows, the ones who’d tickled Matty’s arms the night before.
Matty directed a smile somewhere in the vicinity of where Nightmare’s face should be. “I can’t remember the last time I didn’t dream.”
A satisfied rumble left Nightmare’s chest. At some point Matty had thrown his arm over Nightmare’s stomach too, but Nightmare didn’t seem to be trying to get rid of him, so Matty let himself cuddle a little closer. The movement had his thigh brushing up against that same…predicament again.
Matty left his thigh where it was.
“You were alone in the Void a long time, right?” he asked. “With just a few other demons?”
That was what Kai had told Matty. That the Book the demons were all summoned with had been lost, and it had just been the four of them—Kai, Nix, Chaos, and Nightmare—in the Void for centuries, unable to return to the demon realm on their own. Just…stuck.
“Yes,” Nightmare confirmed.
“And you didn’t have sex with any of them?” Matty guessed. He thought Kai might have mentioned if any of the demons had been dating, but maybe that hadn’t been the warrior demon’s priority at the time.
There was a longer pause before his answer this time, but eventually Nightmare told him, “No.”
Matty hummed in thought. “Then it’s been a long time for you.”
There was that soft sigh again. Or maybe it was a huff of laughter, Matty couldn’t tell.
“Yes.”
Matty was being pretty damn nosy right now. He wasn’t even sure why, exactly, except that he felt so cozy and protected, and Nightmare was so…odd. Larger than life and powerful enough that it felt like he was outside the normal fear-based restrictions Matty lived by.
What could Matty really do to offend a being like that? Nightmare wouldn’t answer any questions he didn’t want to.
Still…
Matty rested his chin on Nightmare’s chest, peering up into those shadows again. “If I annoy you, just tell me, and I’ll stop.”
