Page 44 of All the Devils are Here

“I haven’t been in that form since I left this island the last time. Not fully. Until you, I was sure I never would be again.”

My heart hurt for him. It was part of who he was. What had it cost him to deny that for all this time? “Why?”

Lifting his hand, he ran his thumb over my lower lip, and that little motion shouldn’t ignite the kind of heat under my skin that it did. I leaned into the touch, and he noticed. “Later.”

“Promise?”

“I promise, Meg.”

I didn’t want it to be later. I wanted it to be now. But I had so many questions about this place and about everything else. I could hold on. For a little while.

We turned, and the others were intentionally not staring at us. I laughed, feeling so much relief that I could laugh instead of cry, even if there were things we needed to deal with.

“Feel like joining me in the water?” Trin asked with a smirk. “It’s warm.”

“Why do I feel like if I get in the water with you, talking won’t get done?”

“I’ll be good,” he promised. “But I think you could use a bit of hot water.”

I flushed, and I saw Ariel roll his eyes.

“Are you saying I smell?” I asked mildly.

Trin’s eyes went wide. “No.”

I laughed. “I’m kidding. I figured you meant like a hot tub.”

“Exactly.”

Crossing the space, Laurent held my hand until I couldn’t hold it anymore, and Trin met me at a shallow edge of the water. It was easy to see the way it got deeper the farther back it went into the cave.

He hadn’t lied. It was warm—much warmer than the pool in the cell Prospero gave me. Taking his hand, I stepped down the rocks deeper into the water, soaking the fabric of my dress. Pale as it was, it was nearly invisible now.

“Sure you don’t want to take that off?” The low question made his voice sound deeper.

A flush crept up my skin, over my face and neck. Getting naked with all of them was a priority, but none of the needed talking would get done if I did. “You said you’d be good.”

All I got was a smirk.

The water where I stood was up to my waist, and Trin guided me back to where he’d been, leaning against the edge so we could see the others. Lining himself up behind me, he wrapped his arms around my chest, and… everything else around my legs.

I thought I’d imagined everything.

In seconds, I realized I had not. Because the tentacles gently curling around my legs now made me realize the way he could hold me open and pin me down. I gasped quietly, leaning back into him.

Fuck, getting in the water might have been a terrible idea.

Trin’s lips grazed my neck. “And you say I’m the one who needs to behave?”

There were no thoughts in my head at the moment. Not when all I could feel were a hundred gentle suckers on my thighs, curling down my legs, all the way down beneath the arches of my feet, pulsing and releasing like an incredible massage. Or more than that.

“It’s been a long time,” Laurent said, clearing his throat and forcing his gaze away from me. “I’m sorry for what happened.”

“We’re not.” Ariel leaned forward where he sat, elbows on his knees. “It wasn’t ideal, but it worked. Kept him here. And we need to continue to do that, or kill him.”

“Who is he?” I asked, breathless, trying to focus.

Ban snorted. “A monster.”

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