Chapter Eleven
“She has the baby here,” Dedrus said. He knelt before the fireplace and struck a match against the flint of the box. “Then what?”
Maggie had retired to her makeshift bedroom for the night. Kinzer and Dedrus had moved into the living area.
Dedrus tossed the lit match between crumpled up newspapers that surrounded stacked logs.
Kinzer sprawled across a couch that he’d slid before the fireplace.
“I don’t know.” He gazed at the flame that morphed slowly into a building fire.
“We need a plan.” Dedrus rose to his feet and set the matchbox on the mantel. He slipped back to the couch, falling onto the cushion opposite Kinzer. “That baby isn’t going to just walk out and be able to take on the Almighty. It’s gonna be a long time before it can even defend itself. And you know the Almighty will do everything in His power to destroy it. That’s a lot of things against us.”
Kinzer nodded. “I know. But we can’t really plan for the next fifteen…maybe twenty years. We gotta plan for tomorrow.”
Dedrus knew he was right, but there was so much more to this than either of them were considering. As his mind wandered in that direction, it became so overwhelming that he had to stop. He couldn’t bear it.
“So what do we do tomorrow?” Dedrus tucked a bang that had settled in his face behind his ear.
“Get some supplies. Try to give the Antichrist the best delivery we can.”
Dedrus sighed. What did higherlings and fallens know about delivering an immortal child from a mortal? For all they knew, the labor would kill Maggie. And she was close…too close for them not to be considering those sorts of things.
Dedrus was tired of his mind being ravaged by those kind of thoughts.
He needed an escape. He assumed Kinzer felt the same way.
We can just fuck.
He knew that wasn’t true. He could never just fuck Kinzer.
He wanted to be close to him, though. He needed to be close to him again.
He crawled across the couch and rubbed his nose against Kinzer’s cheek, pressing his lips softly against his chin.
In the light of the fire, Kinzer’s eyebrows cast shadows over his eyes, making him appear almost menacing. Kinzer pushed off the arm of the couch and firmly kissed Dedrus. He wrapped his arms around him, swapping places as he forced Dedrus on his back.
Dedrus’s neck dragged across the fabric lining the arm of the couch. He savored Kinzer’s hot, wet mouth, sliding his hands under Kinzer’s shirt, feeling his way across his abs. The dips between his muscles were jagged, as if he was feeling across a jagged rock covered in a thin layer of cushioned flesh.
Kinzer grabbed one of Dedrus’s wrists and pulled it over his head, pressing it against the arm of the couch. He did the same with the other. Pulling from their embrace, he moved his lips close to Dedrus’s. Not close enough to kiss him. Just close enough for Dedrus to be tormented by the thought.
Dedrus’s mouth instinctively attacked.
Kinzer withdrew.
This had always been their relationship—him attempting to show Kinzer his affections, and Kinzer pulling away.
Though the deprivation was cruel, it was also erotic.
He lay there, waiting for Kinzer to kiss him, hoping, praying to the Leader, that it would come sooner rather than later.
Kinzer’s lips hovered over his.
Dedrus thought of it as a test. If Kinzer kissed him, it meant that he wanted to be with him—it would give him hope that they might actually have a future together. If he just fucked him, then he was just using him for his body.
Kinzer planted a hard, deep kiss on Dedrus, his tongue slipping between his lips, tasting as it wished. His mouth made its way down Dedrus’s chin and slid across his neck.
Dedrus delighted in the warmth and the confirmation of Kinzer’s affection.
