“We’ll discuss my brother soon enough. Before you fill your head with him, I want to fill the rest of you with me. After a good bath and a full night’s sleep.”
12
Lust was paradise compared to the hot, arid atmosphere of the Eighth Circle. For one, there was air conditioning.
The big hotel was like something you’d find on the Vegas strip, complete with a casino and all sorts of other attractions. Lucifer had already shown me most of the building, but now that my memories had mostly returned, it had a different impact. A lot had changed since we’d built this place together, eons ago. But despite its new fancy chandeliers, marble flooring, and modern art, it still felt like home.
Lucifer carried me through the lobby, with a million people trailing behind us, eager to look at me. It must have been common knowledge now who I was, or at least that I’d gotten my memories back, because everyone was eager to greet me. All their faces were a blur, though. I was so tired I could barely keep my eyes open. Nyx’s was the only face I registered. She hurried along beside Lucifer, fussing over me, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“I’ll let you be alone with the king tonight, but I’ll come to your room first thing in the morning with breakfast, and we can catch up. Alright?”
I managed a weak nod. I felt her cool lips press a soft kiss to my forehead then I must have nodded off for a few minutes because the next thing I felt was myself slipping into a hot bubbly bath. I moaned as the hot water enveloped my aching muscles.
“Is the water warm enough?”
“It’s perfection.”
“Good.” My mate let out a pleased purr, the sound making my eyes flit open. My whole body heated, a delicious warmth pooling in my belly that had nothing to do with the bathwater when I saw him on his knees beside the bathtub, his shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows with a loofah and a bottle of soap in hand.
He was going to wash me himself.
My mouth went dry as I watched him squirt out the soap onto the loofah, sweep my hair off my back, and set it over my bare shoulders.
I don’t know why I was nervous. He’d already had me back on the Seventh Floor when I finally realized who I was. I’d been so overwhelmed with emotion then, but establishing the mating bond had felt urgent. It was like my beast had been desperate to fill that hole—no pun intended—that had felt so empty ever since I could remember. Now with Abaddon dead and gone and no deep-seated internal instincts in the driver seat, things felt....different.
This felt more intimate, and part of me still felt like I was stepping into a stranger’s shoes. Even though I knew I was Lilith, I wasn’t the same as I’d been back then. And Lucifer wasn’t the same either. We had so much catching up to do.
Gleaning my thoughts, Lucifer’s fingers curved over my shoulders, the touch soft and reverent. “We have all the time in the world, Jessica. There is no need to rush things.”
His words, combined with the smooth, massaging pattern his fingers were making on my shoulders, eased the tension in them some. But part of me couldn’t help but wonder how true it was. Abaddon might be dead, but we still had the celestials to worry about. Gabriel was one of them, I knew that. But I doubted he held so much clout with Michael to go so as far as to change the archangel’s mind about his own brother. And before that, I’d have to change Gabe’s mind about Lucifer.
Eager to divert my mind, I turned my attention to the bathroom’s immaculate details. It was complete with marble and steel finishes that would look right as home in a multimillion-dollar mansion. “Where are we? This can’t be one of the hotel’s rooms. It’s too fancy.”
“It was the firstroom with occupants.” He sat back on his heels, a warm and reminiscent look banked in the depths of his amber orbs. “Of course, it didn’t look anything like this when you were here last.”
I sat up in the water, swiveling my head around. “You mean...?”
“This was our room when we lived in Lust for the handful of years we had, yes.”
My throat tightened with emotion as I took in all the details more closely. But I recognized none of them. This room was completely modern. Decorative hand towels, high-end fixtures, and even indoor plumbing hadn’t existed back then.
As if reading my mind, Lucifer’s hand slipped into the water to stroke my knee. “A lot has changed since you’ve been gone. I would have kept this room exactly as it was when we’d shared it, but—”
“That’s okay,” I assured him with a lazy smile, leaning my head back against his shoulder. “If you’d kept it the same, it would have collapsed in on itself by now. I’m still not sure why you trusted me with nails and a hammer.”
“I’d trust you with anything, Jessica.” The tenderness in his voice was disarming.
I squirmed in the water, heat rising to my cheeks and sinking down between my thighs as his hands returned to my body, working the grime of the day off my skin in gentle, circular motions.
“Anyway…” I swallowed hard. “I’m glad you changed it. It hurts to think about you living in the past, trying to hold onto me after I’d gone. It doesn’t seem fair that for the time that I was living that I didn’t remember what exactly was missing from my life. After being reunited, when Abaddon took me away, being away from you was pure torture.” It was like I had left behind half my heart. “I can’t imagine you going through that for several centuries.”
His fingers trailed over my hip, his knuckles grazing my side and making me jump at their tickle. He chuckled as he reached for a bottle on the side of the bathtub and squeezed some shampoo into my hair to begin messaging it into my scalp. “I did sulk for a long time back then. I didn’t want to change anything at first. But your sister wouldn’t let me wallow for too long. I owe a great deal to her.”
My heart squeezed at the mention of Nyx. I’d lost so many years with my twin. It would be impossible to go back to the way things had been between us. Back then, she was as comfortable and as needed as my own left arm. Back then, I had needed her for survival. Now, life was easier for both of us. This was a new beginning, and I hoped we’d find a new normal, together.
“Did Erebus ever come back?”
Lucifer’s fingers went rigid on my scalp for a beat. He let out a sharp sigh and continued working the shampoo into my hair. “He never came back, no. When the triplets learned of his location, they went to be with him.”
