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“I understand that.” My words came out soft as I thought back to all the times I didn’t fit anywhere. I wasn’t an immortal, but I was different enough from the humans that I really didn’t belong there either.
Living between worlds, never knowing or understanding what I was. It wasn’t something I’d wish on anyone.
If someone walked up to me tomorrow and offered me a chance to fully be in either of the worlds, I couldn’t imagine passing that up.
He dug his thumbs into the muscles of my shoulders, a delectable loosening of the knots there. “The rest, the words and movements, are just for focus. We don’t learn spells—we learn how to harness the power and energies we already have, how to twist the world to our wills.”
“Do you miss it?”
“Miss what?”
“The guild. Having a place to belong. If I had that, I don’t think I’d ever give it up.”
His hands stilled for a heartbeat. “No. That place isn’t what people think.” When he went back to massaging, his hands tightened. “There’s a lot under the surface, a lot no one ever sees.”
I yelped when he cranked his hands down, and as soon as it happened, he yanked away. “Fuck. I’m sorry, Ava. I didn’t mean to.”
I twisted to face him, and the shadows in his eyes made him look far older than he was. He looked like some rebellious barely twenty-year-old kid most of the time, but right then? Yeah, he had a lot more years—and some very bad ones—that had aged him.
He met my gaze, a seriousness that was odd for him there. “I know you want to fit in, Ava, to understand where your place is, but sometimes fitting in isn’t worth it. Not all places are worth fitting into.”
The earnest way he spoke, that honesty in his eyes, they drew me. Before I could think better of it, I leaned forward and brushed my lips to his.
He tasted of lightening, as if electricity coursed through him, and I felt the full power of it when he kissed me back.
He tugged me into his lap, sliding a hand behind my neck to hold me close.
The roughness of his palm showed scars from how many times he’d had to spill blood, and it only made me want him more.
I parted my lips for him, let him inside me in whatever way he wanted, as I wrapped my arms around his shoulders. His cock pressed against his jeans and I was shameless in how I ground against it.
A throat clearing behind us made me break the kiss, panting and wild and…
Caught.
Hunter stood behind us, his eyebrow lifted.
I pulled off Grant’s lap, my cheeks heated and my mouth moving in stumbled, halted apologies. “I’m so sorry.”
Hunter caught my arm, staring down at me, his lip curled into a half smile. “Slow down. You don’t have to start doing the rosary for me.”
I frowned. “Was that a Catholic joke?”
“What? Hell-beasts can’t make Catholic jokes?”
I blew a strand of hair from my face. “I’m sorry,” I repeated. “This has to be sort of awkward.”
Hunter gazed between Grant—who still sat on the floor with the widest grin I’d ever seen—and myself. “Sometimes it can be awkward, but I’m sure we can figure out what goes where.”
“What?”
“Well, I mean, I’m not great tactician here, but one in front, one behind, you between.” Hunter let his half-smile grow into a full one. “Pretty sure we could make it work.”
I should have been scandalized by such a suggestion. I was a good—well, mediocre at least—person. I didnothave threesomes with mages and hellhounds.
I also didn’t get involved with four different men at the same time…or at least that was what I would have said a month ago.
But that felt like when I claimed loudly that I was a healthy person while chomping on a bag of chocolate that paired well with my wine—straight from the bottle.
