Текст книги "Prince of Demons"

Автор книги: Nora Ash

сообщить о нарушении

Текущая страница: 23 (всего у книги 24 страниц)

Georgia’s eyes flicked back to his at the sound of his plea. The tension in them softened at the raw promise in his.

“I love you,” she whispered, and it wasn’t just the words themselves that struck through him like lightning—it was everything they represented: forgiveness, hope, trust. Kesh groaned like a wounded beast and flung himself down on top of her again, mouth seeking hers with a desperation he could do nothing to rein in. Hard, desperate kisses fell on her lips, her chin, her cheeks, her eyelids, then lips again. His tongue flicked against the seam, begging for entrance. He groaned again, deep and needy, and when it was granted and wet, soft heat enveloped him.

She mewled underneath him, sweet, feminine surrender, and clung to his shoulders, all thoughts of hiding her naked body from the onlookers forgotten as she embraced the firestorm of his love. She would never have to shield herself again. He would always be there to protect her. Always.

“I will burn the world for you,” he rasped, fist tightening in her hair. A tug and she bared her throat for his mouth with a soft whine. “And I will build it back up again, so you are surrounded by nothing but beauty and adoration. Mine. Always mine.” His rumbling devotions came between heated kisses to her jaw, her throat, her collarbone, his brain fogging over with every brush of her skin against his lips. “Georgia.”

She was his apocalypse. His everything.

Slim fingers tugged at his hair. He pulled his mouth from her collarbone with effort and groaned softly at the heat in her gaze as it met his.

“You’re mine, too,” she whispered. “Always.”

His breath left him in an explosion. “I can’t wait. My heart, I need you—I need to have you, claim you. Tell me you want it, tell me you want me⁠—”

Her hands slid to his face, framing his jaw. “Yes.”

His last vestige of control broke.

His hand found the softness between her thighs as he descended on her breasts, mouth hungry and fingers shaking with need to feel her⁠—

“Fuck!” He snarled the word into her flesh as his fingers slid through her cleft and found her already soaked and swollen open for him. Darkness descended from all sides, narrowing his focus to the hot little cunt pulsing under his digits. Everything male and monstrous in him roared up from within, obliterating anything but the need to claim.

Her sheath clung to the two fingers he pushed up inside, and he groaned with her as her hips bucked to accept the intrusion.

“Kesh—!” His name broke on a moan that went straight to his groin, her fingernails digging into the plush carpet. “Ah, deeper⁠—!”

He obeyed on fevered instinct alone, curving for her G-spot with frantic reverence. The fleshy spot pulsed under his touch, warm slickness coating his fingers every time he dug into the cushioned bundle of nerves.

“S-hit! Don’t stop, don’t stop!” Her syrupy mewls rang in his ears as he kissed his way down her stomach, desperate to taste her need. Her clit lay swollen between her splayed labia, pressing against the ring confining it, begging for him.

“Nothing and no one’s gonna make me stop,” he growled, the gravel in his voice making it sound like a threat. It wasn’t.

The second his tongue flicked over the bared tip of her clit, her entire body arched up and her hands released the carpet to wind into his hair instead.

“Fuck yes! Kesh, yes! Kesh, Kesh, Kesh!” She sang his name like a filthy prayer, yanking on his hair to force him harder into her pussy. Her legs wound around his ribs, holding him to her as she rocked up against him in rhythm with his fingers and tongue, riding his face like the shameless slut she’d always bloomed into underneath him. If he hadn’t known she was meant to be his since the moment he first laid eyes on her, he’d have known it now, with her pussy pressed to his face and her limbs clutched to him like he was the center of her whole world. Like she lived for the pleasure only he could give.

His lips closed around her clit. On the first suck, her fingernails bit into his scalp.

Fuck, she smelled like life. Tasted like Fate. Felt like redemption.

He forced a third finger up inside her fluttering cunt and was rewarded with a hard gasp and a buck up against his mouth for “more!” The word rang through the cabin, pleading when he sucked her clit hard, demanding when he teased with long licks. When a fourth digit speared into her, her sweet voice took on a hoarse note, the demands finally turning soft and submissive.

“Shit, that’s—oh, Kesh, please, please…!”

Every instinct in his body understood what she needed. Snarling, he pulled her clit into his mouth, let the metal of her ring catch on his teeth to trap the base—and then sucked her so hard and fast, the tip of her small nub of nerves pulled long and taut within the hot cavern of his mouth.

She shrieked and arched off the floor, knees slamming closed on his ears, and hands shoving at his head instead of pulling in. He didn’t let her dislodge him, didn’t falter for a single second, because he was hard-wired for her, made for her, and nothing and no one would stop him from bringing her to completion—not even her.

It took seconds.

One moment she was frantically writhing to escape, the next, her pelvis bucked hard three times in a row, her back arched⁠—

The second her pussy pulsed on his hand, he curled his fingers in against his palm and pushed deep, forcing his knuckles through her spasming opening until his thumb caught on her flesh.

“Ah-ow! F-ah! Kesh, n-naah!” She shrieked, clinging to his hair, and finally, mercifully, came.

His name thundered in his ears as he fucked her on his hand, instincts ensuring he opened her pelvis for every thrust, even as his full focus remained on the tortured clit between his lips, the apex of her pleasure.

The smell of her release, rich and deep and Georgia, flooded his nostrils and lit up every cell in his body until there was nothing left of him but pulsing, aching need.

His female went boneless beneath him, thighs splaying wide and arms flopping down next to her body. Even her pussy eased its bone-breaking grip on his hand, the soft wetness of her turning pliant and submissive once more.

Releasing her clit from the vacuum of his mouth, Kesh pulled back up to his knees and stared down at her.

She was flushed and spent, mouth pulled up in a lopsided smile. Eyes dazed and full of worship. For him.

There was nothing he could do to hold back any longer.

Georgia let out a gasp of surprise when he grabbed her by the hips and flipped her onto her stomach, and a mewl of protest when he yanked her to her knees, ass toward him.

“Wait, Kesh⁠—”

Her cunt was swollen bright pink between her thighs, still soaking from her orgasm. Her entrance flushed open in anticipation.

“No.”

His voice was not his own. His body was not his own.

Kesh kept her anchored with a hand curled around her hip. He ripped his leathers open with the other, ruining them in the process. His cock sprang free, and the relief of it made a hoarse moan tear from his throat. It throbbed with his pounding heartbeat, the pronounced ridges nearly purple with the need to claim what was his.

He didn’t have a single drop of patience left to spare. Growling, he palmed her pussy, forced her thighs wider apart until her cunt gaped like a little mouth for him, pressed his knees between hers to keep her spread, and sank his cock into her without a moment’s hesitation.

“Ah! Sh-it! Fuck!”

He pushed the cartilage ridges on his crown through her opening in one, smooth push of his hips, and she screamed and cursed and smacked the floor with one hand.

He didn’t stop—couldn’t. He pushed deeper, forcing her pelvic bone to give way with the brutal shape of his cock. Everything was sharp, deep bliss, so powerful he could barely contain it.

He reached the narrowest part of her pelvis, and her hips jerked forward, instincts to escape briefly overriding trust. He caught her around the waist, fingers gripping tight, and held her steady as he slowly pushed through her final resistance.

She cried out again, but this time, the pain was laced with pleasure-laced submission as the tip of his cock finally kissed her cervix. “Kesh…!”

He fell on top of her, one arm trembling around her middle, the other barely holding his weight. Every inch of his cock screamed with sensation, the wet, tight heat of her more than he could take, yet nothing—nothing—would ever make him separate from her again. This was redemption. This was home.

“I love you so much I can barely breathe, Georgia. You are my everything, my reason, my soul.” The words spilled from his lips, raw and unfiltered, pulled from the bliss of their connection.

“As you are mine,” she whispered, one hand briefly lifting to skim his arm in a caress before she planted it on the plush carpet again. Bracing for what her body knew came next.

His first thrust was slow, reverent. It didn’t last.

White-hot pleasure raked through his blood as her pussy grasped at his cock and squeezed his ridges. There was nothing left of his control. Nothing left in the world but burning, all-consuming need.

She screamed as he fucked her, bucked and writhed and clawed at the floor, first to get away, then in an orgasm that had her cunt fluttering and squeezing on his thrusting cock in maddening spasms.

It didn’t so much as slow him.

His hips slapped a hard, brutal rhythm against her ass, every hard-wired instinct in his body determined to wring the strength from her trembling form, until the power in her blood could no longer hope to resist his claim.

“Mine!”

“Mine!”

“Mine!”

She came again, and this time, when her pussy seized on his girth, he surrendered.

“Fuck! Fuck, Georgia—!” His magic came in a torrent, the darkness sweeping through his blood as his balls drew up tight. And released.

He cried out, blind with ecstasy, gone on the bliss of orgasm and instinct. Everything was heat and relief and tight, maddening perfection. He pounded her pussy through their shared orgasm, snarling with the maddening sensation until, finally, she collapsed underneath him, wrung of the last ounce of her strength.

Then, he struck.

His teeth clamped shut around the back of her neck as the most primordial part of his power flooded from him and deep into her, searing her skin and marking her blood.

Only some long minutes later, when his magic finally ebbed and his cock had no more semen left to give her cervix, did he relax his jaws and gently lower them both to the floor, bodies still locked together.

Georgia panted softly underneath him, eyes rolled back, barely conscious. But when he kissed her nape and curled his body on top of hers with the instinctive need to protect her while she recovered, she let out a soft laugh.

“That… hnngh… wow.”

“Agreed,” he murmured softly, as lightness slowly swept through his body, replacing the wave of dark madness of the mating high.

This… this was what it felt like to claim his mate?

‘Wow’ was as good a word as any, because none would ever come close to describing the molecular remaking of everything he’d ever been, and everything he’d ever thought he’d wanted. Now, there was only her.

The woman who, in defiance of his very nature, he loved with his entire being.

The woman who, in defiance of reason itself, loved him in return.

And finally, finally… she was his.

Epilogue Georgia: 10 days later

“This is a terrible idea.”

“So you’ve said. Repeatedly.” She reached over to pat her mate’s arm, half to soothe him, half to aggravate him with her sweetly patronizing tone.

Kesh clenched his hands around the steering wheel and gave her a glare out the corner of his eye. “Perhaps, then, you should consider listening.”

“Nah.”

“Fuck’s sake, Georgia—!” Kesh’s growl died at the involuntary grin spread across her lips at his predictable response. Softness edged into his expression despite the annoyed sigh. “You enjoy playing with fire a little too much, mate.”

Warmth fluttered in her chest at his use of the word ‘mate’. It had been less than two weeks since he claimed her, and it had taken her less than a day to realize how inadequate ‘wife’ sounded in comparison. Being his mate was something far more foundational, far more eternal. She leaned over to kiss his arm. “It’s not my fault you’re adorable when you get cranky. Nor that it’s extremely easy to light this particular fire.”

A flash of darkness passed through his eyes before he returned his full focus to the road. “Careful now. There are other fires you tend to stoke with your sass, and I am more than happy to arrive at your family’s home with you wearing my semen around your pretty neck, little one. Are you?”

“You’re such a brute.” She huffed with faux annoyance. But despite the clench of well-used muscles down below, she pulled back to the safety of the passenger seat. Seeing Larry again was going to be emotional enough without first getting pelvicly, emotionally, and spiritually wrecked by a roadside sexathon with her enthusiastic mate.

“Hmm,” he agreed, without so much as the good grace to sound remotely ashamed of this fact.

Twenty minutes later, Kesh pulled the car to a stop in front of her mother’s house. What had been her home, too, up until very recently. Funny, in a way. As she peered up the path to the front door from the passenger side window, the thought that she’d never really felt like it was hers in any meaningful way struck. She just hadn’t realized until the day she’d carved herself a space to call her own among demons and darkness.

In this house, she’d always been a supporting role.

Kesh’s large, warm hand cupped her cheek and gently guided her face back to meet his gaze. His beautiful, human features were pulled into a soft frown. “Your scent tells me you are worried. I won’t let anyone hurt you, ever again, Georgia. Not demons, and certainly not these people.”

The distaste in his voice as he spat out the word ‘people’ made an involuntary smile ghost across her lips. “My family isn’t about to attempt to sell me off in exchange for world peace or anything. We’re good.”

His eyes narrowed. It was only slightly, but it was enough for her to see the anger buried deep in his black gaze. “You were harmed before you ever came to me. The people responsible live behind this door. And I need you to know, mate, that you will be safe in there. In every way.”

She hadn’t been aware of the tightness in her stomach until it eased under Kesh’s protective declaration.

“I love you,” she murmured, leaning forward to rest her forehead against his.

His free hand slid to the back of her neck, pulling her in closer. “It still takes my breath away. I don’t think I’ll ever stop marveling at hearing those words from your lips.” He bent lower, mouth seeking hers with the desperation usually following confirmation that she truly did love him.

Georgia gasped softly against his lips, the heat of him overwhelming as always, but when he flicked his tongue for entrance, she combed her fingers through his hair and pulled back. “Okay. We both know how this tends to end, and I’m not fucking you parked outside my mom’s house. Come on. Let’s go in.”

Kesh arched an eyebrow, clearly not convinced about the need to not fuck her in the car, but when she reached for the handle to get out, he relented. He was around the car and taking her hand before she’d fully managed to climb out of the passenger side.

Together, they walked up the path to the small house.

The door opened before she could knock. Larry rushed out and, ignoring Kesh’s instinctive growl of warning—ignoring Kesh entirely—wrapped both arms around her and hugged her so tight, her feet came off the floor.

“Georgie,” he whispered into her hair, voice hoarse and deep. “Oh my God, I thought… I thought I’d never see you again.”

“I know. But I’m here now.” The past several weeks might have put her upbringing into sobering perspective, and she’d finally come to accept that how she’d been made to care for her younger brother as his second mother hadn’t been fair to her. It didn’t change how every part of her lit up and softened at the same time as she wrapped her arms around the back of his neck and clung on.

“I missed you, Baby,” she cooed, in a tone so soft Larry let out a raspy laugh and pulled back enough to look at her with sparkling eyes, the same shade of blue as her own.

“You know I’ve been half a head taller than you for like… Three years, right? Baby is a bit ridiculous, sis.” His smile softened, the corners of his lips trembling before he finally looked up at Kesh. “You’ve brought her back. That means she’s free?”

Kesh’s eyes narrowed to slits, but Georgia quickly intervened before he could say something that would undoubtedly ruin the mood. “I’m free. As for being back… perhaps we better talk inside?”

“Yes. Of course. Sorry.” Larry finally released her, but reached for her hand as he stepped back to lead them into the house. Kesh let out another disapproving rumble and claimed the other, shutting the door behind them as they entered. The house suddenly seemed even smaller than she remembered it, with his huge frame taking up most of the hallway.

Georgia looked into the living room. Everything was as it had been before she left. The pictures on the walls—mostly of Larry, many with her by his side. More without. Her mother, when she was younger, in pretty makeup and posing for the camera. Mike was an avid amateur photographer, and ever after the pictures of him had been taken down, the ones he’d shot of her through the lens of an enchanted man remained.

“I’ll… make some coffee.” Larry turned to Kesh, hesitance painted across every feature, but politeness won out. “Do you take milk or sugar…?”

Kesh just stared at him.

Georgia gave her mate a minor glare out the corner of her eye, but she supposed she should be grateful he wasn’t currently growling like some sort of overgrown terrier. “Kesh doesn’t drink coffee. But I’ll have a mug, thank you Larry.”

“Oh. Okay. Um… tea?”

“No.” Kesh more or less grunted his response but at least it was a word.

“Right. Well, we’re fresh out of blood of virgins, so…”

Kesh rumbled a laugh—a surprise to him as much as it was to Larry, judging by his raised eyebrows. “I ate before we got here. No virgins needed.”

Larry paled, no doubt imagining every gory way a creature like the big male by her side might eat. Georgia, who knew exactly how he’d fed and how there’d definitely been no virgins involved, smacked his arm. “We’ll wait in the living room.”

Her brother disappeared into the kitchen, and Georgia steered Kesh into the living room.

He took in the small room with a blank expression. “Quaint.”

“Not really. Most people don’t grow up in a palace. This is normal.” She gently nudged him toward the couch. He obediently sat down, immediately making the old piece of furniture look doll-sized and ridiculous.

Then she spotted the throw blanket on the armrest. New.

“I didn’t grow up in a palace. My dad had an estate in Idaho.” His eyes landed on her face, then followed her gaze to the throw blanket.

“It’s new,” she said softly. Then, because putting words to the hollow feeling blooming low in her gut was easier when he was near, she sat down on the sofa by his side and ran a hand over the soft blanket. “My mom was talking about how it would spruce up the room to get a cashmere throw blanket, back before Larry got sick. I guess she celebrated his recovery by finally treating herself to one. I just… I guess a part of me expected everything to stay the same. That she’d be too distraught with my disappearance like she was with Larry’s illness to consider home decor. Which is petty and selfish, of course. I’m glad she’s been able to find little joys.”

“No, you’re not.” Kesh cupped her cheek and turned her face to his. His eyes were calm and gentle. “And that’s okay. You’re allowed to be hurt, Georgia. You’re allowed to expect a mourning period. You’ve not been gone that long. But you know what she is. You’ve known for a long time. You’re simply still getting used to acknowledging it out loud to yourself, and so it still hurts.

“But you’re not replaceable, Georgia. You never were. Ache for the mother you so richly deserved to have—pity her if you must. Once we leave here today, you’ll never feel second best ever again. I promise.”

Wordlessly, she pressed her head into his shoulder and let his warmth wash away the ache of what never was.

Larry found them still tightly embraced when he returned from the kitchen with two mugs of coffee. He hesitated on the doorstep, eyes flicking between them. The question mark painted across his face was nearly audible.

Georgia gave him a small smile and pulled back far enough from Kesh’s shoulder to hold a hand out for her coffee mug. “You can ask.”

Hesitantly, Larry crossed the floor and held out her mug for her to grab. His attention remained mostly on Kesh. “I thought… you made a bargain. Like Rumpelstiltskin.”

“Rum…what?”

“Rumpelstiltskin. Since you… left. I’ve been researching, about demons.” Larry’s lips pinched as he took a cautious seat on the edge of the armchair facing them. “That’s what you are, isn’t it? A demon? That’s what she’s been seeing all these years? She made a bargain with you in exchange for healing me.”

Kesh nodded once in confirmation.

Larry looked back to Georgia, his eyes searching hers. “You don’t seem… in distress, like you did at the hospital. Have you been… magicked? Mind controlled?”

Georgia gave him a soft smile. He was brave, her baby brother, to ask in front of the male who’d just confirmed his demonic nature. And concerned enough about her safety to risk his own. “No. I haven’t.” She shot Kesh a fond look. “He can’t—even if he wanted to. I’m immune, as it turns out. And also… we’re married.”

“Married?” Larry placed his mug on the coffee table with a clonk, eyes wide in alarm. “You married one of them? That was the bargain? Oh, Georgie, no⁠—”

She held up a hand before he managed to say something that might offend her mate. “No, no. Nothing like that. I married Kesh because I love him. It’s been… a bit of a whirlwind. A lot has happened since I’ve been gone, but… it’s been good. This is good.” Then, because there was still a distinct look of alarm on her brother’s face, she added, “I’m happy, Lar. Really, truly, happy. You don’t have to worry about me anymore. I promise.”

“You always said that.” His voice was soft. “That I shouldn’t worry about you. You know I always will, right? You’re my sister.”

“Your big sister. It’s my job to worry about you, not the other way around.”

“No. It isn’t. It wasn’t.” He frowned and looked down at the mug in his hands for a moment. When he raised his eyes to hers again, for the first time, she saw the young man he’d become, rather than the child she’d raised. “What happened when we were kids wasn’t okay, Georgia. You deserved so much better. Even if I’ll forever be grateful for everything you sacrificed for me.”

“I know.” Her voice was quiet, choked by the unexpected lump in her throat.

The silence stretched across the living room.

Finally, Larry looked at Kesh. “If you ever hurt her, I will find a way to kill you.”

“Larry!”

“If I ever hurt her, I’ll let you.” Kesh ghosted his hand down her thigh and closed his fingers gently around her knee. “My kind doesn’t find love easily. Be assured that I will protect her against anything and everything—in your world, and mine.”

Larry nodded once, clearly understanding the demon’s words as the solemn promise they were. “Good. I will hold you to that.”

“Well, this sure is a nice family visit. Anything else you’d like to threaten my new husband with, or…?”

“Considering you brought back a demon, I think it’s going pretty well,” Larry shot back. He took a sip of his coffee and shook his head.

She chuckled, the unexpected levity nestling in like a warm blanket. This moment? This was more than she’d ever thought she’d get.

“So… are you still in town? Can we… hang out more often?”

She grimaced and shook her head. “Not for a while. We’re moving to Europe. I don’t know how long for, but at least a few years. But… we can email? Maybe video call, if you’d like?”

“Yeah. I’d like that.” Larry smiled at her. “I could even try to save up and come visit over the summer?”

Kesh squeezed her knee in warning. She ignored him.

“You’re always welcome wherever I am.”

By her side, her mate swallowed an annoyed sigh.

Larry, however, lit up. “I can’t wait. Do you know where you’re going yet? Please say Paris.”

“Milan.”

“Oh.” He bit his lip, his easy smile fading. “Is it… related to the… Rome-thing?”

The Rome-thing. The human world was still beside itself from the disaster. Understandably. There were not logical answers to be found, no explanation for what had happened, and while governments were still searching through every possible explanation involving terrorism or freak accidents, the internet was split down the middle on an alien super weapon, and magic. No matter the combined efforts of the demon lords around the globe, there was no stopping this. It was only a matter of time before the truth came out and Breeders were no longer the only ones who knew about the demons who lived among humanity.

Until then, however…

“It’s not… not about that.”

“Ah.” The frown was back on her brother’s face. “But… you’ll be safe?”

“She’ll be safe,” Kesh rumbled. He exhaled and nudged gently at her shoulder. “It’s time for us to leave, little one. We have a long drive home.”

Home. He meant the casino where they temporarily had their base while he and his brother prepared for their trip to Milan where they were to take point on the clusterfuck that was ‘the Rome situation.’ It didn’t matter, though, that they didn’t have a comfortable house or a place that was truly theirs yet. Her home was with him. Always would be.

“Alright.” She placed her coffee mug on the table and got to her feet. “It was good to see you, Larry.”

“You don’t want to stay a little longer? Mom should be back from work in half an hour or so.” He stood, too, and followed them to the hallway, clearly reluctant to say goodbye.

“No, that’s alright. But you give her my best.” There was an ache in her chest again, but softer this time. Lighter.

“I will.” He pulled her into a hug again, tight and long enough for Kesh to start making impatient noises. When he finally released her, she took his face between her palms and gave him a reassuring smile. “We’ll email. And video chat. And you’ll come to Milan this summer, and fall in love with a pretty Italian girl.”

Larry let out a chuckle and lifted his hands to cup hers where they bracketed his face. “I love you, Georgia.”

She brushed her thumbs over his cheeks and finally took a reluctant step back, releasing him. “I love you more.”

***

“For a human, he’s not… the worst.”

“You just liked that he threatened you. You big weirdo.” Georgia leant her head against the car window as the city lights passed them by. Exhaustion that had little to do with anything physical flirted at the edges.

A large hand found her thigh, anchoring her. “I like that he’s protective of you. Even if you are stronger than most other beings on this plane of existence.”

An involuntary smile quirked her lips. “Thank you. For taking me to see him. It meant… a lot.”

“If it makes you happy, it’s my job to make it happen, little one.”

“Well. I hope you don’t expect me not to take advantage of that for the rest of our lives.” She turned her head from the window to give him a tired grin. “Which reminds me… I seem to remember something about a pumpkin pie situation you were trying to resolve. Ya know, before you blew up your penthouse, and—I assume—the million squashes along with it.”

“Hmm. You remember correctly. I suppose I will have to rectify that—in between political and global chaos.” He gave her thigh a squeeze.

“Yup. Gotta learn to bake. It’s in the mate handbook. I’m certain your brother bakes for Selma, too.”

“I have absolute faith you’re correct about that,” he mumbled, just the slightest sardonic note sneaking into his deep voice.

She paused as something struck her. “Speaking of Selma… Why did it never occur to you that I might have been Pure, too? From day one, you were all ‘you are not for me, Breeder. Only the purest of Breeders can withstand the might of my dick.’ Yet apparently your dad knew the moment I shook off his restraints, back when I, ah… tried to climb him like a tree. Due to evil ring manipulation, I will hasten to add. Wouldn’t it have been prudent to, I don’t know… tickle me with magic or something, just to make sure?”

To her amusement, a flush of pink colored his cheeks. “Yes. In hindsight. Obviously, that would have been helpful. But Pure Breeders…” He glanced at her out the corner of his eye. “You are rare, Georgia.”

“Yes, I know.”

“I don’t think you do. With you, there have been three within this past century, globally. That’s unheard of. Before that, it was perhaps one per century. You being Pure… it was impossible. And testing you…” His expression turned agonized, and his fingers tightened around her thigh, as if afraid she’d vanish if he didn’t cling on. “It would have required me to entertain the possibility that you… that you could have been mine, only to then face the very real possibility—the almost guarantee that you wouldn’t be compatible. I couldn’t face that. So no. I didn’t test you.”

Her heart did something stupid and mushy in her chest. Gently, she placed her hand on top of his, warm into the marrow of her bones. “Well. I guess you’ll just have to make it up with monthly—no, weekly—pumpkin pie baking.”

Kesh rumbled a soft laugh. “I guess so.”

“Maybe you don’t buy a whole field of dick-shaped gourds every time. Your feeder kink is a little out of control,” she teased, the lightness in his voice nestling in deep behind her ribs.

“Is that a complaint in how I care for you, mate?” His tone turned to a playful rumble. “You know what else those dick-shaped gourds can be used for, if you have objections to eating them, hmm?”

A scandalized gasp escaped her throat when the implication—and the exact, huge shape of his last pumpkin-heist hit her. She turned fully to face him, mouth agape. “You wouldn’t!”