Then he was moving inside me with short, careful thrusts and slow, delicious circles.
I didn’t think I could ever get something soft and sweet and—dare I even think it?—loving from a man.
But that was exactly what he was giving me.
As he was driving me up little by little.
“That’s it,” he murmured, breathing hard with his effort to go against his nature, to be gentle. “Come for me, baby,” he demanded as his thumb found my clit again.
His thumb stroked.
His hips circled.
And I shattered.
The sound that escaped me was more of a cry than a moan as the waves moved through me, slow and deep and more intense than I knew was possible, leaving me falling forward into his chest, trying to suck in a desperate breath as he slammed up into me and came with my name like a vow on his lips.
His wings went and stayed around me for a long couple of minutes as we both pulled ourselves back together.
“We should get you some food,” he said as his fingers sifted through my hair.
“How long was I out for?” I asked, pressing back to look down at him.
“Sixteen hours,” he told me. “Maybe if you get some calories in you, your healing will speed up,” he suggested.
“This is a little slower than usual,” I admitted.
I’d had gaping wounds and broken bones before and I was usually feeling mostly better in half a day.
Granted, I’d never taken a beating like that before, though.
“How about you help me with a shower first?” I suggested, shooting him a saucy smile as I carefully slid off his lap. “I can’t reach all my… places,” I told him as he slid off the bed to follow me into the adjoining bathroom.
“Luckily, I’m an expert in your… places,” he said, shutting the door behind us.
And as I slid back into my borrowed shirt an hour later with Minos a few feet away, but his damned loyal wing reaching out toward me, I knew I found it.
The very beginnings of happiness.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Minos
“You found this near where the demon was?” Arick asked when we finally made it down to the kitchen after the shower.
After Dale stared at Arick like he was some rock star that the humans were known to lose their shit over, I got her to sit down with a pad of paper and a pen while I moved around Arick’s well-stocked kitchen, finding various pre-made meals all ready and waiting to be heated up.
Maybe another man would be jealous of her awe. But the fact of the matter was, Arick was incredibly rare. And if you were attune to that sort of thing, the power that radiated off of him was almost overwhelming.
Besides, she was mine.
And she was finally starting to see that herself.
“Yes. It was in the creek not far from where we encountered the demon.”
“The demon who did all that to you,” Arick said, head tilted to the side as he looked at her.
“Yeah. He shouldn’t have had power like that.”
“No. Not on his own, anyway.”
“What does that—oh, that looks amazing,” Dale said when I dropped down some sort of baked pasta dish in front of her.
“I have a chef who comes in and prepares meals for me a few times a week,” Arick explained. “In exchange for advice on his next business move,” he added.
“You’re about to tell me that it is some sort of uber-famous TV chef, aren’t you?” Dale asked, shaking her head at him.
“Well, I can’t confirm or deny anything,” Arick said, but he tapped his finger to the side of his nose.
“Crazy,” Dale said, shaking her head as she dug into the food.
The sound she made nearly made me tell Arick to get out of his own house, so I could have her right there on the table.
“You were saying,” I said, dragging Arick’s gaze over toward me. “About the demon not being so strong on his own.”
“Right. Yeah, I think he had help.”
“Ace mentioned there being a history of puppy and kitten sacrifices in those woods.”
“What? You didn’t tell me that,” Dale said, tone accusing, even if her mouth was full.
“We haven’t exactly had a lot of time to talk,” I reminded her, shooting her a smirk that had her gaze immediately falling.
“And this has to do with the missing babies too, right?” Arick asked, eyes far away.
Suddenly, the tattoos all over his skin were moving faster and faster, like they were responding to whatever was going on in that head of his.
“Yes,” Dale confirmed. “The bones we found had chew marks.”
“Right. Yeah. You have yourself a cult,” Arick said, shrugging.
“A cult of what? Demon-worshippers?”
“Yes. And no.”
“How yes and no?” I pressed.
“My best guess is they conjured this particular demon because it was meant to bring them success in life. Tale as old as time. And, of course, they would have needed to give it sacrifices to bribe it to do that for them.