52. Remy
52
REMY
One moment the world is cold, silent, and the next it’s full of warmth and possession. I wake as if in a dream with my wife’s back pressing against my chest, and the demon we both love surging inside her like he’ll never have another chance.
They both come too soon, but I’m riding too high on victory to care. The witch and the demon are mine and have the marks to prove it.
The high feeling doesn’t last because once Stella catches her breath, she starts crying.
These aren’t silent tears or small hiccups. This is a torrential downpour.
“What did you do?” I hiss at Ben as he pulls out of her and slips himself back into his pants.
He shakes away his shock over just being bitten enough to answer. “She’s crying about you. You kind of died.”
“What?” I ask, but Stella turns in my arms and wraps her arms around my neck, pressing her face against my throat, her sobbing lowers in volume, but her shoulders still shake, and tears wet my skin.
Ben bends down and picks up a blanket that must have fallen to the ground, wrapping it around our witch who must be freezing. Why are we outside?
“A curse turned you to stone,” Ben says. “You’ve been trapped that way for a week.”
My brows raise, and I take in the roof of the Firefly. Memories drift back in. I remember the fear of Stella being taken. I tighten my arms around her, part to reassure her and part to comfort myself.
A whole week has passed since that moment. Time that I’ve missed, but the world has not. It’s disorienting but not as important as the woman in my arms.
“Stella,” I croon. “Please don’t be upset.”
“I’m so happy,” she gasps out.
My lips twitch in humor, but I don’t let that spill out.
Ben’s eyes are glassy. It would seem my demon was affected by my predicament as well.
“So you returned?” I ask.
His jaw tightens before he answers. “I would have. I didn’t know what happened until today. I came as soon as I finished foraging for a mushroom to cure you.”
If my brows could raise more, they would. “A mushroom?”
“It was unpleasant,” he says lightly.
I’ll have to ask more about that later. I feel as if I’m floating. Not quite in the real world because I have no idea what’s occurred. Only that I woke up during the best part of it.
Stella sniffs. “You were with the potion master?”
Ben nods. “She thought I knew what happened.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” she says against my skin, shame heavy in her words. Ah, my painfully independent wife has been suffering.
“I understand.” He runs a hand over her hair.
The demon has returned, and I won’t let him get away again, but now is not the time for tackling either of my mates.
I may be invigorated, but the exhaustion is clear on both of them.
Now is the time to take care of them.
I pull him into a group hug. It’s time to get off this blasted roof. It’s freezing. I tighten my hold on both of them and step off the roof.
Stella makes a rude sound, and Ben stiffens, but the glide to our bedroom balcony is a quick one.
“A little warning next time?” Stella growls, but it’s a weak complaint. I swallow once we’re inside. It’s one thing to hear about Stella being alone. It’s another to experience it. The scent of her sadness is so prevalent here that I leave the doors open to air it out.
Stella keeps her head resting against my chest. Her breaths start getting heavier. She’s obviously crashing after the rush of passion and emotion on the roof.
I place her under the blankets of the bed even when she shakes her head.
“Sleep, firefly. You need it,” I say and kiss her soft lips, my heart in my throat. She’s here, and she’s safe.
“I don’t want to wake up to find that this is all a dream.”
“Don’t mistake yourself for anything other than fearless,” I say with soft pride. The proof of her grief is all around us, but she did not fall to it. “I will be here.”
She sighs and within a moment is asleep.
Ben leans heavily against the bedframe to disguise his own weariness. Did neither of them sleep this week? I stand and gesture him to follow me to the bathroom.
He’s frowning when he walks in and closes the door behind him, and his flinch of alarm when I pull off his shirt is delayed.
“What?” he asks in confusion.
“You smell like a bog,” I say, not minding the smell, but there’s a tightness to the demon that needs to be addressed since Ben isn’t as dead on his feet as Stella.
And I want to see all of him. Touch him. Care for him. I’ll do the same with Stella once she gets some sleep.
It’s a pleasure as much as it is an honor to care for these two.
They both need it. Stella reeks of heartbreak, and Ben doesn’t look like he’s been much better. He’s lost weight since we were last together, and his movements lack his usual surety.
I turn the shower on hot, giving him a moment.
Ben swallows and pushes down the sweats. For all his weariness and tension, he’s still beautiful.
“I’m half expecting you to punish me for leaving her alone for so long,” he whispers, stepping forward as if inviting me to do such a thing.
I sigh as I remove my kilt. “I’m displeased she took on such a heavy burden with only my people to help her, but we both know Stella. She wouldn’t want to invite you to share her pain if she thought you wouldn’t stay.”
I hold out my hand in invitation.
“I don’t have much information on what’s happened the past week. I’ve been avoiding news about the territory.” He looks uncomfortable.
My lips curve. “I have Stella and Silas for that. All I want to do right now is hold you, and once the stink is gone, put you to bed with us where you belong.”
Something loosens in him, and Ben takes my hand, allowing me to pull him under the hot spray. I’m transfixed by the sight of water running down the muscles of his back and over the swell of his ass.
I take a measured breath. Sex can wait.
I have the rest of our lives for the two of them. Whether he knows it or not.
Once he wets his hair I start washing it, enjoying the muscles in his shoulders and back relaxing for me.
“I’m still wearing the charm. I don’t know how you can even smell that retched place still,” Ben mumbles as I rinse the shampoo from his hair.
I arch a brow. It’s not like I missed that he still wore the bracelet Stella gave him.
“It covers your scent and keeps other’s inherent scents off you. It does not perform miracles. I’m touched that you went somewhere so foul to find a cure for me,” I say.
Ben turns, his dark eyes full of promise. “It’s the least I’d do for you.”
His throat bobs. “When I heard you were cursed, I couldn’t stop thinking about how I never told you—” He swallows again. “How I felt about you.”
I’m sure my grin is wicked with how he shivers. “And how do you feel about me?”
If I were kinder, I wouldn’t make him confess anything. But I’m not kind. I’m greedy.
“I think you know,” he says with the jut of his chin.
“Of course I know, but I want to hear it. Just like you want to hear that I love you.”
He blinks in surprise. “You do?”
“I do,” I confirm becoming serious, my thumb stroking the broken skin of my bitemark on his neck. “I wouldn’t have claimed you if I didn’t.”
“I love you too—” he breaks off when I kiss him. He groans in relief, and I may not be able to scent his emotions, but I can feel some fuzzy sensation in my chest that is him. The way it eases as his worries melt under my touch.
I keep the kiss simple and rest my forehead against his afterward. His body is a temptation that I will not give into tonight.
“I’m sorry I left,” he says.
I shrug. “You were overwhelmed and upset with me. It’s understandable. You’re not leaving again.”
“I don’t know where I fit here.” The confession is raw.
“With us,” I say. The answer is too simple for this detail-oriented demon, so I elaborate. “We will carve you the place you wish to have.”
Ben pulls away and a pained expression passes over his face. “I hear you claimed the child as your heir.”
My lips twitch. So much for avoiding news about us. “You’re still also the father. Now that you’re a part of our clan, we are legally both the father. That’s how it works for gargoyles.”
“I’m a part of your clan?”
“As of sometime this week. Silas should have filed the paperwork while I was sleeping.” Sleeping sounds like too benign a term, but it’s one that doesn’t leave his eyes looking haunted.
Ben frowns. “How is that possible without me signing anything?”
Illegally of course. I shrug. “Are you complaining?”
My eyes threaten to narrow when he doesn’t answer immediately and my hand draws down his arm, talon playing with the clasp of the scent blocking charm.
I do not want him to fight this, but maybe that’s what he needs?
“No,” Ben finally answers. “I want a place in your clan.”
I sigh in relief and toy with the clasp more. “No more hiding.”
He swallows. “No more hiding.”
Satisfaction blooms in my chest and I flick the clasp open.
The bracelet drops to the shower floor, and Ben’s expression is mournful for a moment before I pick it up and place it on the vanity.
“We’ll see if Stella can remove the magic from it,” I say. I wouldn’t want to forfeit a gift from our firefly either.
“I’d like that,” he says.
I turn off the water and can’t hold back the kiss I give him before leading him out.
“Come to bed, songbird. You roost with us now.”