Page 51 of A Cursed Heart
A Changed Bond
Ryan
Iwasstillreelingfrom my first time with Mal when he cleaned us up with his magic. “I’ve got plenty to spare. It’s like I’m overflowing with it!” Mal was practically glowing. His movements were languid as he pulled me into a hug. “Do you feel alright?”
“Better than. I’ve had great sex before, but that just felt on another level!” Every nerve felt like it was lit up.
“Hmmm, me too,” Mal whispered sleepily.
“Do you think part of it is the bond?” I wondered aloud.
He roused some, peering at me with half-closed eyes. “Perhaps.” Then, he seemed to give it more consideration. “We have spent the past… over a week now together. We are with each other almost all day. Even when you go to that awful place, we have our mental connection. It could be that with our bond, whatever we have with each other is deeper than with previous partners.”
“Yeah, that sounds about right. I loved Jasmine. She was sexy as hell when we met. We burned up the sheets when we got together. Even after she had Freya, I thought she was stunning. Our sex life was fantastic. We just didn’t connect the same, I guess.”
“Ryan, I do not like you talking about having sex with other people,” Mal grumbled. He turned over, pushing back into me in a sulk. His hair felt like silk against my chest, though I was grateful he’d hidden away his tail and horns, or I’d be getting impaled.
“No, that’s fair,” I murmured into his ear, looping my arm around his waist to get him even closer. “I’m sorry. She’s just the only person I can compare you to because my other relationships didn’t get all that far. Really, I shouldn’t be comparing you at all.” I thought I heard him mutter something like, “You shouldn’t.” Fuck, he was cute! “Guess I’m trying to make sense of it all. I thought I was straight!”
He scoffed. “You humans love labels. I understand it is to feel a sense of belonging. We demons do not care for such things. We like what we like and make no apologies for it.”
“Sounds like a great way to be.”
Mal turned so that he could meet my eyes. “Do you regret it?”
“The only thing I regret is not doing it sooner.”
His smile was bright in the low light of the room.
We fell asleep soon after and instead of waking to make out a little, maybe go for another round, my phone ringing rudelyawoke me. I had to fight the urge to ignore it, knowing who it probably was.
I fumbled with it, unplugging it from the charger. “Hey.”
“On my way over! Thought I’d take Frey for a girls’ day and maybe a sleepover. Keep her away in case anything goes down with that asshole.”
“Sounds good, Liddy. We’re not up yet, but I’ll go wake her, get her breakfast before you steal her away.”
A whole day alone with Mal sounded fantastic. I hoped we could spend some time together, maybe even go out for an early dinner in between sorting the files to send away to Conrad. There was every chance that Scythe would want me to come in and make sense of the mole situation. Which reminded me, I also needed to set a virus in Salvatore’s system to hide the deletion of his copies of the evidence. Though that could wait a couple of days to take the heat off me. It was all in the timing.
“Oh? Not up yet… Is there something you want to tell me?” she asked with glee in her voice. Damn, she was cheery early on a freaking Saturday!
“See you in a bit.” Then I hung up on her.
Mal cuddled closer. “There goes my plan for waking you.”
My sister had the worst timing!
“Daddy!” Freya’s footsteps sounded outside of our door. Okay, so this morning was doomed to be this way then. She opened the door without knocking. I made sure the blankets were covering everything important before she dived onto the bed. “Mal! I got cereal.”
I felt Mal’s magic put clothing into place around me, likely him too, ensuring Freya wouldn’t see anything she shouldn’t.
“You did? Well done, Princess!” Mal drew Freya into a hug, listening to her tell him how she went about getting her food.
“Finley from school says only babies get their parents to make them breakfast. His mama likes to sleep in on the weekend, sohe gets his own food and watches TV! I wanted to be big, then I heard Daddy’s phone.”
“Well, that’s maybe how it works in his house, but what if I like making breakfast for you?” Mal asked her.
“Then you can make me breakfast,” she said magnanimously.
