by Rose Wulf
So why, then, did she feel a little discomfort at the idea of Knox killing their enemy while she was vulnerable? It was stupid.
Knox stopped before Trix, hooked his bloodied, muddied boot under her shoulder and flipped her onto her back to force her to stare up at him. She released a disgraceful oomf!
Gwen pulled her lips between her teeth and found herself fighting not to look away as shadows swirled around Knox’s feet. It was coming and Trix absolutely deserved it. Countless lives would probably be spared with her gone.
“Go ahead,” Trix taunted, pain lacing her voice even as it carried to Gwen’s ears. “Kill me while you can. If you don’t, in a few minutes, I’ll eat that bitch’s heart for dinner and wear her skin for the next twenty years.”
Gwen shuddered at the prospect.
Knox’s hands curled into fists. “Sorry, bitch. I’m not giving you the satisfaction.” The words were barely past his lips before the shadows sprang up, enveloping her like restraints, and formed a cage around her now-kneeling body.
Trix shouted and struggled, clearly enraged, but still lacking the power to actually fight back. “Don’t you dare! You’ll live to regret this, you infernal traitor!”
Gwen’s eyes widened as Knox took a single step back. He wasn’t going to kill her. Somehow, Gwen felt relieved.
“You know,” Knox said, “most of the intel the angels use against the demons these days doesn’t come from me directly. It comes from demons like you.” He leaned forward and Gwen caught a glimpse of the mocking grin on his face. “Welcome to the club, traitor.”
“Damn you!” Trix screamed. “Achan will come for me!”
“I doubt that.” The declaration came from Jaelyn, who stepped up unexpectedly beside Gwen, startling the daylights out of her. The angel flashed her an apologetic smile before continuing toward the pair of demons. “You’ll be leaving with me immediately. Your boss won’t have time to mount a rescue.”
Knox turned his back on the cage as Trix continued to rage within and nodded to Jaelyn. He didn’t linger to speak to her before walking past her, striding toward Gwen. Whose hand was still marred with the demon-repelling symbol.
She pulled her hand to her chest and stepped back, opening her mouth to protest his approach, but bumped straight into her brother’s chest.
“Whoa, easy, sis,” Ben said with a teasing laugh. “What am I, invisible?”
Gwen turned her gaze to Ben, who looked completely fine, as though nothing weird or remotely dangerous had happened to him at all. She glanced back to Knox, who’d stopped a couple of feet away and was also smiling—a little. Tears sprang to her eyes.
Chapter Seventeen
Five Weeks Later
“Knox—ah! Wait, I wanted to—oh!” Damn, it was hard to form a coherent sentence once he got his tongue on her. Gwen writhed against her couch, curling her hands into the fabric, as Knox ran his wicked tongue along her folds. He swirled it around her clit, teasing before sweeping down and slipping it inside her. At the same time, he released her hips and covered her hands with his, freeing her to move.
Gwen moaned as he lapped at her. When she went to reach for him, needing to touch him, his grip of her hands tightened, holding them in place. Unable to take hold of him, her hips began to move, rocking to the rhythm of his plundering tongue. She gasped his name when he flattened his tongue over her clit, but still, he refused to send her over.
The vibration of his deep, throaty chuckle carried up her body, sending a new shot of pleasure through her core.
“Please,” she begged on a breathless gasp, her body pulsating.
Knox rumbled but obliged her, pressing his wet, hungry kisses more firmly against her. He licked and sucked, swirled and plunged his tongue around and inside her. Then, finally, he found her clit once more and sucked properly. Pleasure erupted in her veins and Gwen threw her head back as her body spasmed. She panted, breathless, as Knox finally eased back after casually licking up her juices.
He pulled a tissue from a pocket and wiped up what he’d missed before lifting his gaze and a broad smirk to her without rising from the floor. “What was it you were trying to say?”
Gwen did her best to frown at him, but it was a hard feat to manage with the pleasant way her body felt. “What kind of a greeting was that? You destroyed my underwear!” He had. He’d kissed her thoroughly, gotten her all riled up—or at least enough to keep her from talking before he could sneak his hand beneath her skirt—and then he’d ripped off her panties. Literally.
His smirk didn’t even budge. “Your underwear was in the way.” He stood, turned, and tucked himself between her body and the arm of the sofa. Looping his arm around her shoulders, he added, “Now, was there something on your mind? Or were you just flustered?”
Gwen did her best to ignore the flush on her cheeks. There certainly was something on her mind, but she was flustered now, thanks to him showing up and immediately going down on her like that. Honestly!
It had been over a month since they’d finally defeated Trix. She’d been captured and taken off to somewhere, apparently for deep interrogation. As Knox explained it, that was how the angels got a lot of the information they used against the demons. He also theorized—and Kai agreed—that since Trix was in their custody, it was likely Achan would be backing off. At least for a good, long while. That news went a long way in helping Gwen sleep better. That, and the fairly regular presence of the demon currently at her side.
Which brought Gwen right back around to what she’d determined she really needed to tell him. He was all healed up from the fight, the threat was over, and he hadn’t disappeared on her. Not only had he not disappeared, but in fact, he’d said he thought he’d stick around. Not the most romantic phrase, but a term she’d been willing to work with for a bit. That had been a few weeks ago. She didn’t know where he was, emotionally, or where he thought they might ever be, but after taking a month to re-evaluate her heat-of-the-moment revelation, Gwen had thoroughly realized one thing.
She really was in love with him. This demon named Knox.
Looks like I’m going to Hell, after all. Someday, she’d have to apologize to Belle.
Gwen swallowed back as many of the nerves as she could, self-consciously tugged on her still slightly disheveled skirt, and lifted her gaze to his. “There is something on my mind,” she said. Here goes. “But I don’t know how you’re going to handle it.”
Knox cocked an eyebrow. “Then I should warn you,” he said, “if there’s another man, I’m liable to kill him. Eat his soul. Something morbid and demonic like that.”
She didn’t bother fighting the grin. He was full of shit. “Shut up.”
“What makes you think I’m joking?” he asked.
Matching his raised brow with one of her own, Gwen replied, “You know there’s not another man.”
“But if there was.”
“I’m not that kind of woman.”
“I was just saying.”
Gwen rolled her eyes and shoved at his chest. “Anyway.” She narrowed her eyes at him to make him focus. She opened her mouth to tell him and froze. How the hell did people lead into this sort of thing? Was she supposed to have built some long, rambling, romantic speech? No, that’s proposals … or is it both?
“Gwen?” The note of concern in Knox’s voice prompted her to shut her mouth and swallow one more time.
Oh, hell. “I’m in love with you.”
He stared at her, his dark eyes wide, for several long, agonizing seconds.
Gwen fought the physical need to fidget—wring her hands, chew her lips, fix her skirt again, do something.
Then he was kissing her, one hand at the small of her back, the other buried in her hair. His mouth was hot and hungry on hers, the kiss demanding and powerful. Full of … everything. She melted against him, curling her hands in his shirt, returning his kiss for all she was worth. She was just about ready to reach down, undo his pants, and take advantage of her lack of underwear when he bro
ke the kiss.
“There are things,” Knox said, his voice a little ragged, “we need to discuss.”
That piqued her interest enough to keep her hands in place. “What things?”
“Namely, where do you see us in fifty years?”
The question threw her for a complete loop and Gwen eased back a bit. Reality was a horrible buzzkill. Love was great and all, but he made an excellent point. He was immortal. She was not. He might want to be with her right now, but in fifty years? She’d be eighty-one, almost. He probably wouldn’t look more than a few years older than he did right at that moment. If at all.
Frowning at him, Gwen asked, “Why’d you have to go and say that before I got to enjoy at least one day of the whole ‘being in love’ thing?”
He gave her an odd look and shook his head. “I’m not making an argument to break things off,” he said. “If I wanted to do that, I’d have walked away by now.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “For better or worse, Gwen, I’m committed. I don’t plan on going anywhere. That means I intend to be here in fifty years, at least theoretically.”
Gwen scoffed. “No way you’ll want anything to do with me when I’m a crotchety old woman.”
A teasing grin lifted his lips. “You’d be a ball of fire, I’m sure,” he replied. Before she could smack him, he added, “If you choose to grow into an old woman at all.” Her eyes widened, but he wasn’t done. “And if you do, I’ll be right there with you, so I won’t have any room to complain. Well, I mean, I won’t be a woman, but you get my point.”
She shook her head slowly. “No,” she said. “I’m not really sure I get your point. What do you mean … if I choose?” What was he saying?
Knox pulled her in and pressed a lingering kiss to her lips before replying, “There are a few spells with the power to permanently bind two souls together. Even souls of different types, like a demon’s and a human’s.” He paused, giving her a moment to absorb that piece of information. “There’s a version which binds the mortal soul to the immortal lifespan, making the human immortal—specifically to the immortal they’re bound to, at least. Or there’s a version which does the reverse, sacrificing the demon’s immortality and binding their life to the mortal life of the human.”
Gwen swallowed. “So, in the second version, the demon ages … and dies? Like the human?”
“Exactly like the human,” Knox replied. “In either spell, they die together. Within minutes.”
“That’s pretty heavy,” Gwen whispered.
“Heavier than living untold years without the person you love most in the world?” Knox countered.
She looked into his eyes. He was dead serious. “You… Are you serious about this? You want to do this?”
Knox lifted one hand to cup her cheek, stroking his thumb over her skin. “I’m sure. I’ve been thinking about it for a while.”
“What if I don’t really want to live forever?” Because, really, living for all eternity sounded exasperating.
His lips twitched. “I’d be surprised if you did.”
“But, that’s … that’s a big deal for you.” He was immortal. He’d lived—well, she didn’t even know how long—and he could live for countless centuries more in theory. If not for her.
“Gwen,” Knox whispered, “you’re a big deal for me. Immortality’s not all it’s cracked up to be.”
Tears stung the backs of her eyes and she smiled. “You’ll grow old with me? My personal ‘grumpy old demon’ husband?”
He grinned. “Are you asking me to marry you?”
She choked on a gasp. “Isn’t this the same thing?”
He offered her an exaggerated shrug and replied, “Not legally.”
“I hate you.”
“No, you don’t.”
Gwen reached up, framed his jaw in her hands, and pulled him in until their noses were touching. “Knox. I want to spend my life with you. And I know you can’t go into a church, but you can wear a ring, so I guess I’m asking you to marry me, too.”
He rumbled with a nearly-silent laugh, looped his arms around her, and said, “You took the words right out of my mouth.” He sealed his lips over hers a heartbeat later, pulling her flush against him.
Gwen giggled against his lips even as his hand dipped beneath the hem of her shirt. She’d found the happily ever after she didn’t know she’d been searching for. And she’d found it with a demon.
The End
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