Page 122 of Autumn Queens & Shadows

I wiped his brow with the back of my hand. “Are you in a lot of pain?”

His nose touched mine. “Mhm. Kiss me again and make me better.”

“You really think you’re dying, don’t you?”

He chuckled. “Might be. Will you let me die then? Will you be so cruel to me even in death? Pity me,” he murmured over my lips, capturing them in his again. “Please pity me.”

My heart was so giddy I was about to lose my mind. “But you’ve been so cruel to me, too. Why should I spare you any grace?”

“You’re right. But letting me die is giving me grace. I want to live and feel every punishment you have for me.”

“Punish you? I’d be punishing myself, too.”

“You really shouldn’t be saying things like that, little bird.” A strangled moan vibrated against his chest.

Cupping his face, I kissed him again, raising him from the deathly slumber pain was sending him into. “Don’t hate me, but I need you to stay awake.”

“I’m a man capable of many things, but hating you is not something I can ever do.”

“Stay awake,” I whispered, brushing his hair back.

“Command me. Even if my mind doesn’t listen, my body always obeys to you.”

“If you tell me again to forget this in the morning, you’re going to regret it, Malik Castemont.”

“I might die.”

“You think it's beyond me to drag you from hell and back here?”

“A little. You’d spite me some other way. Another way that would hurt worse than hell.”

“What can hurt worse than hell?”

“You in another man’s arms. You wanting them. Them wanting you back and getting to have you.”

“I think you really might be dying.” I put a hand to my brow. “I might be, too.”

He chuckled, kissing his way down my cheek and burying his face in my neck, his scruff tickling me. “Cherries. Fucking cherries.”

“Cherries?”

“You smell like them.”

“I don’t. I use almond soap.”

I gasped when his mouth suddenly latched on my neck, his tongue licking a trail to my ear. “No, you taste like sweet cherries, too.”

“Malik.”

“Shhh,” he hummed in my ear, continuing to kiss his way around my neck. “If I am to die, I want this to be my taste of heaven. Hell is going to sting my gorgeous backside.”

“I’m sure someone is going to take pity on your gorgeous backside.”

“You think my backside is gorgeous?”

“What the hells was I thinking when I decided to crush on an idiot like you?”

“You had a crush on me?”