Page 65 of All the Devils are Here

Finally, I raised my head a little so I could see Laurent’s face. He smiled. “There you are.”

“How long have I been asleep?”

“A while. We wore you out.”

A flush crept up my cheeks. “Yeah.”

“Don’t be embarrassed,” he whispered even more quietly. “You have nothing to be embarrassed about.”

He was right. I didn’t. But it was still new, and everything…

The things I felt and wanted were different from what I imagined. The dream I’d had that Ariel had seen was, until last night, the hottest thing I’d ever experienced.

After years of feeling lonely and broken, it was strange to be dropped into the middle of happiness, no matter how strained everything else was.

He grinned and kissed my forehead. “Did we fuck your voice out of you?”

“No.” They hadn’t, but my throat was scratchy from the sounds I’d made.

“Good.”

“I just can’t believe it,” I mumbled the words into his skin. “You’re here. You’re real. You… want me.”

Sorrow entered his gaze, and he pressed his forehead to mine without breaking the contact. “It will always be one of the biggest regrets of my life, Meg. Pushing you away. And I’m so fucking sorry if I made you think you weren’t worthy of wanting.” My stomach tumbled into butterflies. “You are everything,” he said. “And were everything, even before I knew this.”

Picking up my hand, he placed it over the center of his chest, where he could feel I was his mate.

I wanted to feel it too.

My hand covered some of the scars on his chest, and I traced them. Now I knew the truth. “He carved your heart out.”

“Yes.”

“Does it hurt?”

Laurent shook his head. “Not anymore. It did when he held it captive. But I still have dreams about that moment.” A flicker of a smile. “It was actually what happened when you arrived in Paris. You brought me out of that dream.”

“That was what happened? You seemed so off and I didn’t know what it was.”

He chuckled. “Yes. I was off. Going from one of my worst memories to having you in my house, smelling fuckingedible. I was barely holding it together.”

“Could have fooled me,” I said quietly. “I just thought you were sleepy.”

Slowly, I traced the scars on his chest. They were a web. A shattering. But he’d taken his heart back.

“Are you going to tell me the truth?” I asked, not looking at him, instead still drawing gentle patterns on his skin. “About what changed your mind?”

He sighed. “It’s not an easy thing to hear, sweetheart. And I… I don’t want you to think less of me.”

I pressed myself against his body and wrapped my arms around him. “If you’re my mate, I want to know all of you. The good and the bad. You’re not who a monster made you to be.”

He chuckled. “I’m a gargoyle, Meg. By definition, I am a monster.”

I made a face into his neck, and he felt it. “You know what I mean.”

“I do.” He stroked down my spine, making me arch into his touch like a cat. Touch starved as I was, I couldn’t get enough of the simple joy of something like that.

“When Prospero finally had me, he decided his revenge wasn’t finished. He thought he wanted revenge just like you thought you wanted mates. It wasn’t true.”

---