Page 116 of Grim Tidings

I nod and he buries his face in my neck, his hands around my rib cage, urging me up and down against him as he chases his pleasure. He uses me like a toy. Like his favorite one. Like I’m something that’s been made solely for his pleasure.

When he comes, it’s with a groan that shakes the windows. His wings spread wide and then curl around us, wrapping us in a cocoon of dark.

I drag my fingers through his hair and brush my mouth against his temple.

“I’ll stay,” I promise. “All my minutes. Every last one.”

He nods, silent. But his arms tighten around my middle, and I know he knows I’ve given him the only answer I’m capable of.

I won’t push him away again. I can’t. I’m not strong enough to deny either of us this last bit of selfishness.

But it doesn’t change the truth. I still owe Gideon a life.

And I refuse to drag Gabriel down with me.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Darcy

In the morning, I wake early. My body is sore, but my magic is soothed, Gabriel curled at my side, his nose pressed against my shoulder. He has both arms shoved under his pillow, a tumble of dark curls over his forehead. He looks so beautiful like this. So peaceful.

“You’re staring,” he mumbles. One dark blue eye blinks open in a squint. “Why are you awake?”

“Don’t need sleep,” I remind him.

“You should,” he argues. “After what I did to you last night.”

I grin at the way he slurs his words, wiggling closer until he can wrap himself around me. He digs his face into my thigh, brushing a kiss against my knee, and I scratch my fingers through his hair.

“Come back to bed,” he grumbles, probably as close to a whine as I’ll ever hear him.

“I am in bed.”

“Cuddle me.”

I laugh and push his hair off his face. “I am cuddling you.”

He sighs and wiggles further down in the bed. “But you’re thinking about getting up.”

“Yeah,” I confess. “I am. I thought I would go see Frank this morning.”

The guilt that’s been eating at me is gone now, replaced with a quiet reassurance. I don’t know if that’s Gabriel’s influence or my own, but I’m grateful for it all the same.

Seeing Frank is a loose end I need to tie off before my business with Gideon.

Gabriel sits up next to me, the sheets pooling around his bare waist. He looks delicious like this. Sleep rumpled and naked in my bed. Hair wild and scratch marks on his shoulders.

“You need to do that right now?” He tucks a wide yawn in the crook of his elbow. It’s so sweet my chest aches. I want a hundred more of these mornings. A thousand.

But I think this might be the last one I have.

I force a smile. Even if this is the only one I get, it’s been more than enough. Better than I ever could have dreamed.

“He’s been avoiding me,” I say, trying to keep my voice even. “I want to catch him during his soil shipment.”

I slip from the bed and start piecing myself together before Gabriel can set his mind to unraveling me. I’m not sure I’m strong enough to withstand it if he tried.

I feel his eyes on me as I tug on my tights. My skirt. My plain black T-shirt. I hesitate, then grab his flannel where it’s puddled on the floor. I slip it over my shoulders.