Page 54 of All the Devils are Here

“And you will have me,” he growled. “As much as you want me. But—”

“If you tell mebutone more time I am going to spontaneously combust.”

He grinned. “But, our conversation earlier was interrupted. We need a plan before I lose the next twelve hours ravishing you. Because there’s one thing happening to you I can’t fix.”

Lifting my hand, he held it out. I blinked at my fingers. I’d thought I’d gotten so cold that my extremities had started to turn colors. But no, I was warm enough now, and my fingers were distinctly… purple. The same color purple that had glowed beneath my skin when Ariel touched it.

“It’s in the roots of your hair as well. And on your toes.”

“What’s happening to me?”

“He put the island’s magic inside you. He let it poison you.” Laurent’s voice was low, and it shook with dark rage. I felt the way his hand struggled not to crush mine. “Every day it will progress until you’re a part of it. And it will kill you.”

“He said something about transforming, too.”

“That’s not better,” he said. “I promise.”

“What do we do?”

He slid his hands behind my back and stroked down my spine, pulling me to his chest. “That’s what we need to talk about. And what happens after that is anyone’s guess. You have four mates. We all want you, and I’m a patient man.”

I ran my fingers over his ribs, finally feeling all the skin I’d been dying to feel for years. “If you’d taken me home from the club? What would you have done?”

Laurent’s eyes darkened with heat. “Don’t ask me that when I can’t act on it.”

I smirked. “Fine. But I am going to ask you.”

“I look forward to it.”

Glancing down, what was left of his pants did little to hide how he felt about it.

Reaching over, Laurent picked up the pile of clothes that Ariel had brought and immediately tossed aside the bra and underwear.

“Hey.”

He pinned me with a stare. “In less than an hour, faster if I can manage, one of us or all of us are going to tear these off you anyway. I’m saving us time.”

My whole body turned red, and I grabbed the blanket, pulling it up to my chest. One corner of Laurent’s mouth curled up. “Not suddenly going shy on me, are you, Meg?”

“Maybe.”

“That’s never been who you are. Don’t start now.” Lifting the large shirt up, he helped me thread my arms through. “It’s different though.”

“Why?”

Fear clung to my chest, and I didn’t know how to say it. “Sex is good,” I said. “Sex is great. But everything else is… harder. You’re my mates, and that means everything, and…” I didn’t know how to voice the rest of it.

There was a pair of soft cotton shorts in his hand, and I pushed out from underneath the blankets and grabbed them. Because I wasn’t ready for him to dress me like that.

“And?”

“Nothing,” I said. “It’s okay. It’s just a lot.”

Laurent’s hands landed on my hips, pulling me to stand between his knees. I couldn’t help but smile a little, my stomach fluttering, because the sudden, easy closeness was what I’d dreamed about.

“Meg,” he said gently. “Talk to me.”

That faint accent on his words and intensity in his eyes made my heart pound. The only person I’d ever talked about this with was Christine, and even then I hadn’t told her everything. It felt mean to complain about how lonely and sad I was when my best friend was the center of everything I wanted.

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