Page 78 of Unleashing Mayhem
“Bits and pieces,” Nightmare told him, unable to stop the curl of his lips at the thought. He’d be reliving the memories of Dominico’s screams over and over again in the coming days.
Ivan gave him an appraising look. “You could come in handy sometimes.”
Nightmare had no interest in being a mobster’s pet. He turned his attention to the wall, irritated by everyone’s presence all over again. “I serve at my mate’s pleasure.”
“And was itMatty’spleasure to cut that man into bits and pieces?” Kaisyir asked with a decided note of hostility, rubbing Sascha’s back in soothing strokes when his human made a gagging noise at the question.
Nightmare sneered in the warrior’s direction. Kaisyir had always struggled with foes he couldn’t vanquish with his fists or knives. Had always been leery of Nightmare’s shadows and thirst for unconventional violence. Surely that discomfort had been exacerbated tonight, with the pain demon’s arrival and the threat to his own mate.
“It was,” Matteo countered fiercely. Loudly. “Itwasmy pleasure.”
All eyes turned to him, the little human draped in shadows from neck to ankle. He looked tired and lovely and vicious, and Nightmare wanted to kiss him until their mouths were bruised with the force of it.
“I wanted him to hurt,” Matteo said, each word deliberate. “I wanted him to die screaming. I’d ask Sarkaron to do it again a hundred times over if I could.”
He was met with silence, and then Chaos cackled. “I told you,” he said gleefully to the room at large. “Hardcore.”
No one else said a word.
“My five minutes are up,” Matteo announced, lifting his arms into the air. Nightmare swooped in and lifted him, heading to the house’s staircase without another thought to the rabble.
The weight of Matteo in his hold again soothed something in Nightmare. He hitched him up even higher, until his chin was brushing Matteo’s dark hair. “Did I live up to my promises, sweet?” he asked as he stepped onto the stairs.
Perhaps Nightmare should have let Dominico linger for days. He’d wanted the deed done and had extended it as long as his impatience had allowed. But perhaps it hadn’t been enough.
But Matteo let out a happy sigh. “You did, Scary.” He tucked his head into the crook of Nightmare’s neck. “Every single one.”
It didn’t take longfor Nightmare to have a clean and naked Matteo tucked into bed.
Naked but for the shadows, that was, who refused to give up their tight hold on Nightmare’s mate.
Possessive little beasts.
“I’m not actually sleepy,” Matteo grumbled, glaring out from under the covers at Nightmare.
Nightmare didn’t call him out on the lie. “It is I who needs rest,” he said instead. “We’ll watch one of your films.”
He turned on the TV in Matteo’s bedroom and chose a horror film withNightmarein the title, because doing so made Matteo laugh. Nightmare set the remote on the little bedside table, sent his clothes away to the ether, and curled up behind Matteo on the bed. He wanted as much of their skin pressed together as possible while Matteo slumbered.
“Could he have killed you?” Matteo asked after the opening scene of a knife-embedded glove being made had played out. “The pain demon?”
Nightmare scoffed, his breath stirring the wayward hairs at the back of Matteo’s neck. “A mere pest.”
Matteo clutched Nightmare’s arm tighter to his chest. “And he’s gone?”
“Kaisyir removed his head with a demon blade,” Nightmare confirmed. “He’s gone.”
“Good.” Matteo relaxed again. After a few more minutes of filmed terror, he yawned. “Scary?”
“Yes, sweet?”
“If I fall asleep, I want you to be inside me.” Matteo hitched his leg up in front of him, making his invitation clear. “You don’t have to be, like, locked in. But I need that—to have you in me. There’s lube in the bedside drawer.”
Nightmare’s cock stirred, and his belly warmed, his hunger for his mate immediate.
One of Nightmare’s shadows—eager as ever to get their mate exactly what he wanted—peeled off Matteo and returned with a little bottle. Nightmare pushed the covers down and traced a finger over Matteo’s bottom, parting his cheeks to reveal that furled pink hole.
After the many unpleasantries of the night, such a gift as this seemed almost outside the realm of possibility.
