“I love the shit out of you,” I said. “I would die for you. If you told me never to touch another person again, you know it’s done. But selflessness is a virtue…”
His eyes softened. Love touched the corner of his upturned smirk as he said, “And I’m six of the deadly sins.”
My lips twitched. “Are you leaving out sloth?”
“I’m leaving out sloth,” he confirmed in a murmur, pressing into me. His lips met mine, tongue encircling mine. My legs wrapped around his hips, pulling him close as his hands tangled in my hair. He crushed me against him, pressing mybreasts into his chest. I wished he weren’t wearing clothes, mostly because I knew that once he pulled away, the guilty smudge of my arousal would blot against his black pants.
A hand went to my lower back, forcing me closer as he kissed me.
Three successive thumps pounded on the door. Caliban’s hands tensed against me. Filtered through the door, we heard a deep, male voice call, “Marlow? Coffee’s on.”
Caliban broke his kiss, chuckling into my neck.
I suppressed a nervous giggle. “You gotta hand it to him. He’s ballsy.”
“I’ll hand him nothing,” came his husky response. Caliban pulled away. He smoothed my hair before smiling sadly. He tucked a knuckle beneath my chin. His diamond-bright eyes burned into mine as he cut into me with a stare. “Never again. Not alone. Not like that.”
A lump of panic lodged in my throat.
“His cards are on the table. So are mine. He won’t get another chance to touch you. Not unless I’m there to show him who you belong to.”
Sweat prickled on my forehead. I couldn’t even echo what I thought he was saying.
He did it for me. “If he wants to put his hands on you, and you want to feel him inside you, he’ll have to stare down a real man’s cock when he does it. Hold me in both hands and do a line of snake venom off it. Look him in the eye and then suck me clean. Do what you need to do, Love, but put him in his place.”
A new shot of electricity that had nothing to do with the powder caused my brain to short-circuit. I crackled somewhere between discomfort and excitement at the ironic thought ofa devil’s threesome.
I dared a question. “Or…?”
“I’ll kill him,” he said simply.
My ears rang. My face fell as I understood these were parting words. “You’re leaving me again, aren’t you.”
His hand softened as he cradled my cheek. “Only because you’ve got spiritual muscle while being actively invisible to every realm. And trust me: There’s nowhere I’d rather be than at your side. I hate leaving you with my rival.”
“He’s not your rival,” I said.
His answering smirk didn’t quite reach his eyes. There was something angry and intentional to the set of his jaw.
I tried again. “Off to save the world?”
“Off to destroy it,” he amended. “If I’m not wrong, we’re on similar missions. I’m doing my best to get out ahead of every other god from every pantheon who’s been waiting for this moment.”
I looked at the empty bed to where Fauna had once snuggled me. I didn’t have to say her name.
“Norse mythology had Angrboda arriving at the end of times. Some realms have a true apocalypse. Some have a chaos era. Some overthrow the sun. We need them to work with you, not against you. Just because we have the same goal doesn’t mean we’re on the same side. Not unless I get to them first. For you. For us. Or everything we’re doing…everything we’re working toward…”
It was too sweet, too powerful, too beautiful for me to handle first thing in the morning. He’d had the luxury of thousands of years to perfect this moment. I only had deflection and sarcasm as I bought myself time.
I lifted a shoulder. “Earth was due for an upheaval.”
He stepped away from me. “I wonder if there’s anyone who would agree with you. A Norde, maybe.”
“Hey—” I scarcely had the time to interject.
He brushed a kiss against my cheek, and then he was gone. I was naked and alone atop my dresser.
“Coffee’s getting cold!” Silas called from the kitchen.
