A Cursed Heart, page 14
“Then you can make me breakfast,” she said magnanimously.
Honestly, the pair of them were too cute.
“Okay, if you’ve had breakfast, do you want me to help you get dressed? Auntie Lydia wants to take you out for the day!” I said.
Her face lit up. “Really?” She scrambled out of Mal’s arms to the end of the bed.
“Yeah, then you can have a sleepover.”
She froze. “No, Daddy. I want to stay here with you.”
“Don’t you want to go out with Auntie Lydia?”
I saw Mal eyeing me with a frown on his face. He was so in tune with Freya’s emotions after taking up more than his fair share of childcare duties. They’d bonded deeply.
“Yes. No. Not to sleep. I want to sleep in my bed, in my house, with Daddy and Mal.” When she turned to face us, her pout was epic.
With how much she had been through recently, it was kind of unfair for us to expect her to be away all day, then straight after for her to spend the night somewhere new. I didn’t think there was room for Freya at Lydia’s student housing, so where were they going to sleep? I felt a prickle of guilt for not thinking about her feelings first before agreeing to it.
“I’ll speak to Liddy for you, okay? You don’t have to sleep over. You can come home to us. We’ll be here waiting for you,” I promised.
I spared a glance as if to apologize to Mal. It must suck to be constantly stuck at home with me and my kid.
“Yes, we’ll be right here waiting. You better have lots of fun and tell us about your adventures when you get back,” Mal soothed. He flashed me a grin.
Mollified, Freya went off to her room.
“Mal—” I didn’t know what to say. I felt so damn guilty that we were under all this outside pressure. We barely got any time alone.
“What’s wrong?”
“Do you ever wish I didn’t have Fre—”
“No,” He cut me off sharply. “Never. That child is my second favorite human in the world and was made by my favorite. I love her.” His words were so firm, he almost sounded angry. There was no room for doubt.
“But we never get any time alone.”
“Ryan… this,” he waved a hand, “all this mess with Salvatore, will pass. Once things settle down and Freya has grieved more, there will be time for dates, for family adventures. Besides, I’m sure we can manage lunch somewhere, right? You don’t have to work on the files all day, do you?”
“No, you’re right there. I just… other relationships have failed because I had a kid.” Well, usually helped along by Jasmine, but it really didn’t help matters when I had Freya for half the week, usually over the weekend too just so my ex could work.
“Freya is the best parts of you, the man I have feelings for, condensed into this little fascinating person. I adore her. Now, let’s get her ready for a day out. You’ll have to break the news to Lydia.”
My sister was unimpressed. “What if something happens?”
“Liddy, Mal’s literally magic. He can vanish Freya out of any situation if something happens. She won’t go with you today if you try to make her sleep over. She just isn’t ready.”
She softened. “Was she upset?”
“Yeah. The only way we could get her to go out at all was to promise she could come home for bedtime stories with Mal.”
Freya wasn’t prone to tantrums. Honestly, she was a pretty easy-going kid. Slept well as a baby, the terrible twos weren’t so terrible compared to some. I thought we were going to get her first tantrum in a long while when I’d tried to suggest she sleep over with Lydia one more time. Mal had been the one to shoot me down, complaining that he would miss story time too much. They were ganging up on me. All I wanted was a night with my… boyfriend? Just one night!
After all this was over, we could take a trip. Maybe Lydia could come and be on kid duty, or my mom. Actually, Mom would be better. She would love that, and I knew Freya would love to see her. Mom had booked a cruise before Jasmine had died. She wasn’t going to go and instead planned to come to the funeral to support me, but I’d insisted she take the trip. Mom only offered to cancel it out of love for me and who Jasmine once was. Their relationship had broken down after Jasmine had stolen from her and never recovered. Still, I knew my mom grieved her former daughter-in-law. She had worked so hard to pay for the month-long trip, I hadn’t wanted her to miss out on it.
“So… how’s things with Mal?” Lydia sidled up to me to ask in an undertone. I could feel my face getting hot. “Something happened!”
“Shh…”
“It totally did!” Her voice got louder in her excitement. Luckily, Mal was with Freya in her room, packing a bag of things she might need that day. “You look so happy! Are you happy? You are, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, I am,” I relented. I took a sip of my coffee and sighed. “After yesterday, it felt natural to make the next move. I didn’t want to miss out on anything with him.”
Lydia nodded. “Smart, especially with the Salvatore shit going down. Are you sure you won’t let me take Freya for the night? Then Mal can go with you if you get called to his office again.”
While I knew she was thinking of both mine and Freya’s safety, I didn’t think she appreciated how clingy Freya could be to me, or rather, to Mal these days.
I looked her dead in the eye, giving her my most serious tone, wishing she would understand that we weren’t rejecting her or her help. My daughter just wasn’t able to go so long without me yet.
“She won’t go, Lydia. You didn’t see her. She just isn’t ready. I think we should do a practice run where Mal takes you to your place, though.”
“Ry, I’m scared something will happen to her. To any of you, really.”
“Even Mal?” I teased.
“Especially Mal, with how much you and Freya love him.” I nearly choked on the next sip of my coffee. “Get a grip, Ry, you are in love with that… man, demon, whatever. Just be careful, okay?”
My phone buzzed with a text. I glanced down at the screen to see it was Salvatore. Hurriedly, I picked up the device to read it properly.
SS
With the information you have finally given me, I find myself too busy to entertain you this weekend. I expect to see you in my office at our usual time on Monday.
The sense of relief was staggering. Our plan to distract him had bought me two days!
“Everything okay?” Mal asked, coming into the kitchen holding Freya’s hand. He’d given her two neat French braids rather than the Rumi singular style she’d been sporting recently. I guess since he had long hair as well, it was easier for him to do her hair. It had looked a lot better since he had come into our lives.
Mal, wearing his long hair in a high ponytail, which had no right to look so sexy, came to my side. He looked torn about whether signs of affection were appropriate. I kissed his cheek, earning myself a bashful smile.
“Daddy, are you boyfriends with Mal now?”
I glanced at the demon by my side, who looked like he wanted the answer just as much as Freya did.
“Ooh, I also want to know this,” my sister butted in.
“Yes, Mal is my boyfriend. Is that okay?”
Boyfriend
Malacoda
Freya looked like she was about to burst into tears at any moment. “But Daddy, I want Mal to be my boyfriend!”
Ryan struggled to hold in his laugh. Lydia’s shoulders were shaking with her silent chuckles. It appeared that my first official act as Ryan’s boyfriend was to head off this tantrum and smooth ruffled feathers before there was a full on breakdown.
I got down to Freya’s height. “As lovely as that sounds, I am too grown up for you, princess.” She met my eyes, hers were filled with tears. “You are so special to me. I hoped one day, if me and your daddy got married, you would call me Dad.” I heard Ryan’s sharp intake of breath. Lydia stopped laughing to listen to us. “What do you think? Does that sound better?”
The little girl, the tiny owner of a piece of my heart, thought about it, her expression cycling through a few emotions before she spoke. “Okay,” she said with a determined nod. I loved her fire. “But I want a pretty dress for the wedding.” Perhaps I had been extorted.
“Of course,” I vowed. “Only the prettiest of dresses for our princess, isn’t that right, Daddy?” I sent Ryan a sly grin. Here we were barely dating, and Freya had us married off! Marriage was something for our future selves to think on. It was likely it wasn’t something Ryan wanted to enter into again after his first attempt.
“That’s right. You can pick it out and everything when the time comes.” Ryan’s tone was firm enough to end the conversation but playful enough to not upset Freya.
“Alright,” his sister said, clearly picking up on the vibe. “We better get going, Frey. We’ve got a fun day ahead of us.”
“Can Daddy and Mal come?”
Lydia giggled. “Hon, we can’t have a girls’ day with Daddy and Mal, can we?” The little girl shook her head. “They’ll be waiting for you to come back.” To Ryan she said, “Around eight?” Ryan agreed.
There were rounds of hugs, promises that we would be at home waiting for her to return, then they left.
“Why don’t we take a shower together?” Ryan suggested in the silence once the door closed. He appeared nervous.
Sidling up close, I wrapped an arm around him. “Just what are you planning, Ryan?”
He rested his face on my shoulder with a sigh. Through the thin material of the t-shirt I was wearing, I could feel the heat on his cheeks. “I know there’s not a lot of room. It was… I liked sharing the shower with you yesterday.”
“With a little magic, I can make the stall bigger.”
Ryan twisted to face me. “You can do that?”
“After last night, I can do pretty much anything.” If I looked at my fingers, I wondered if I could see my magic sparking out. The former boundaries of my magic were gone, blasted apart by the energy I had shared with Ryan the night before. It was like our intimate connection had relaid the foundation of my magic, expanding it beyond anything I could comprehend.
True to my word, I had manipulated the space, making the stall incrementally larger, so it was more comfortable for two grown men to occupy at the same time. Not that Ryan had any desire to use the extra space. He crowded close, pressing me against the tiled wall, and took my mouth in a punishing kiss.
When he broke away, he murmured, “You’re driving me crazy. Is it normal to want you naked all the time? To want to be inside you right now?” He laid his head on my shoulder, taking heaving breaths and clasping my hips in a hold that would be bruising if I were human.
“Is that what you want?” I tipped up his chin so our eyes could meet. “That can be arranged. We have the day to ourselves, after all.” I smirked, then kissed the corner of his mouth. Rather than let me get away, Ryan grabbed my nape and took my lips once more. His tongue thrust into my mouth at the same time his hard cock brushed mine, making me moan.
Was it always like this when you cared deeply for someone? To want to give them everything of yourself, even if that meant there was nothing left for yourself.
“Do you have any of that lube here?”
“Fuck, no. It’s—” Ryan didn’t get the words finished before I vanished away and returned with the bottle in hand.
“I could stretch myself, but I’d prefer if you did it.” My voice was low, sultry. I burned with need.
Ryan took me in then snatched the lube and made quick work of preparing me for his cock. His fingers were sure when he traced down my crack to my hole. They traced over my entrance and eased inside confidently, as if we had been doing this forever.
I sank into the feeling of his lips on me, his fingers deep inside, while I stroked us together.
“Close,” Ryan murmured. He slicked his cock while I turned around, bracing myself on the wall.
In this cramped space, because I’d returned it to normal to get Ryan closer to me, there was no room for my tail. I was grateful for it in this position because it wasn’t in the way when Ryan thrust into me, his groin slapping my ass as he pumped in and out of me. Our groans and the sounds of our skin meeting were amplified in the stall, adding to my pleasure. I loved Ryan letting loose on me. He was pounding into my ass, one hand on my stomach, the other on my throat while he took what he needed.
He reached for my cock and stroked it in time with his thrusts until they stuttered and stopped as he filled me with his come. He ground against me, wringing out the last of his orgasm.
“Ry—I need...”
“I’ve got you.” Ryan must have been oversensitive, but he kept pumping his hips until I came over his hand with a shout. “Fuck,” he panted against my ear. “So good.”
The rest of our shower was short, since there was barely enough hot water left for us to clean ourselves before it got too cold to continue. It was tempting to use more magic to heat it, but Ryan wanted to check out the files and build something to delete old ones off Salvatore’s computer. He wanted me to replace all of Salvatore’s files.
Long ago I would have just gone to Salvatore and killed him, perhaps destroyed the building to hide evidence, yet I was more rational these days. Ryan had explained the need to erase all traces of his past in those files and how someone with tech experience could find them if he wasn’t smart about it.
Once Ryan was dressed, I caught up with some chores while he worked. The desire to linger around him was almost impossible to ignore. A few hours had passed with Ryan in his chair working diligently on his computer, when I was done for the day. I lay on the sofa to relax, my feet on the end facing him.
“Could you—?” he began, then paused, a conflicted expression on his handsome face.
“What do you need?”
Ryan hesitated. “You are so distracting right now.” He spun his chair around to face me. I sat up, giving him my full attention.
“What do you mean?” I tried to play innocent.
“Those shorts are criminally tight on you. I can see everything. Why can’t you wear a shirt? And… fuck! I never thought thighs were sexy before, but those markings and the cut of the shorts are really doing something for me.”
“Is that right?” I got off the sofa and sauntered over to him. His gaze was fixed on my body, his pupils blown. I could see the line of his cock in the loose pants he wore. His nipples were hard through the thin material of his shirt.
When I got to him, I went to my knees. Ryan smoothed my hair back before dipping down to kiss me. When he pulled back, I reached for the waistband of his pants. “May I?”
“Since you asked so nicely,” he teased.
I released him and leaned forward to lick a stripe up his cock. There was a bead of moisture at the tip. I sucked on it, moaning at his taste before I took the head into my mouth.
Ryan let out a curse and sank his fingers into my hair. He loved it when I left it loose, and I wanted to do anything to make him happy. His grip was tight as I sank deeper onto him, taking him into my throat. I swallowed around him while he tried desperately to restrain himself. His need to pump up into my mouth was written in every line of his body. He planted his feet wider, making space for me to take him to the root. I licked and sucked on his length, laved his balls and teased his taint while stroking him.
My cock was straining the fabric of the shorts I’d picked to tease him. I used one hand to push them down so I could stroke myself while the other massaged his balls.
“Ah, fuck!” Ryan’s hips jerked, forcing his cock down my throat. I choked and recovered quickly. “Let your horns out. Your tail too.”
The tail I was so proud of gleamed in the late morning light. It snaked between us and wrapped around his wrist, directing it towards my horns.
“They’re sensitive, but my tail is not, though if you wanted to suck the tip, I could just imagine your lips around—”
“Shit, yeah. Fuck!” Ryan cursed when I returned to sucking him in earnest. His fingers stroked my horns, sending shivers down my spine. When his lips met the tip of my tail, I knew I would not last long.
I got lost in the feeling of his hands on my most sensitive area after my dick, and how the heat of his mouth felt around my tail. I took Ryan deeper into my throat until I could barely breathe. With a tug on his balls and a few swallows around him, he came.
When I looked up at him, wrecked, flushed, with my tail between those plush lips, I was done for. I came over my hand and the floor, groaning out his name.
We both took a minute to recover, putting our clothes to rights, then I stood, ready to return to the sofa. Ryan grasped my wrist and pulled me to sit on his lap. His kiss was sweet and full of something I hoped was love, because I knew then I was hopelessly in love with him.
“Alright,” Ryan said a couple of hours later. He had let me return to the sofa after we had cuddled for a while. I had nearly fallen asleep in his lap, even though the chair was not designed for two grown men. The movie I had been watching had just finished.
When I looked up from the screen to my boyfriend, I frowned. “Why are you dressed like that?” Ryan was wearing a pair of dark pants and a smart button-down shirt.
He glanced at himself. “Don’t you like it?”
I studied him. “Of course. You look very sexy like that.”
Ryan grinned. “Good, because I want to take you on a date.”
“A date?” I echoed.
“Yeah. Just lunch because Freya will be back too early for a dinner date, but I thought we could spend time together outside…” he trailed off, and I sensed this was important to him.
This was also a sign that Ryan truly wanted a relationship with me. Though the city he lived in wasn’t small, there was still a chance we could run into people he knew. From stories on the internet, I’d read horror stories of men hiding their partners while coming to terms with their sexuality.
“I would like that. Are you not worried about people seeing us?”
