Page 87 of Infernal Bindings

“An afterlife without you isn’t a gift. It’s a punishment, and I think we’ve both been punished enough. Don’t you?”

I do.

Daemon doesn’t need to say it for me to see it in his eyes. His voice cracks when he speaks again. “Thank you for saving me. I wasn’t sure you’d want to after I—”

“It’s okay,” I tell him, but he shakes his head.

“It’s not. I broke your trust and—”

“And you have the rest of our very long lives to make up for it. But right now, let’s just focus on getting you better.”

He smiles at me, and despite the injuries, tugs me toward him, settling my head against his chest. Daemon curls his arm protectively around my stomach, even though he’s the one who needs protecting, and it makes my heart do a little flip-flop. “I don’t deserve you,” he says, and I hate that he genuinely thinks that.

“You saved me from Hell. You’ve been there for me every day since I was eight years old. You deserve to be happy, Daemon. We both do.”

He doesn’t argue. Instead, he pets my hair and breathes into me. We lay like that for several minutes before Daemon’s bones shift, crunching and shortening until he’s his human self once more. With pale skin, the bruises become more prominent, as do the deep bags beneath his red eyes. But he doesn’t try to sleep. He just looks at me, and looks, and looks, like at any second I’ll disappear. It’s a relatable feeling.

I stroke his cheek over the matching diagonal cut we both share. “I’m sorry I thought you killed Martha. That was unfair of me.”

He waves away my apology. “Did you ever find out who did?”

“The angels.”

“Figures,” Daemon snorts, and for a moment, it’s like everything is normal again. Still staring into my eyes, he takes my hand and brings it to his mouth, his lips ghosting over the knuckles. “I love you, Annie.”

“Well, that’s good,” I tease. “Because you’re going to be stuck with me forever.”

“I think I can live with that.”

EPILOGUE

“The groom isn’t supposed to see the bride before the wedding,” Minerva shouts from the other side of the locked door. “And he certainly isn’t supposed to be railing her in the laundry room.”

Daemon flips her off, though she can’t see it. Then, he sets me on top of the washing machine. When he hikes up my thick black wedding dress, the tulle skirts rustle and almost slap me in the face. I can hardly see him through the mountain of fabric, but I can hear him just fine as he drops his dress pants and pulls himself out.

Biting my bottom lip, I glance at the door, then back at him—or more accurately, back at the glittering skirts. “This is inappropriate, Daemon.”

“Since when have I ever been appropriate?”

“Your mother is listening in on the other side,” I whine, my cheeks hot with embarrassment. Though he’s in his human form for the most part, Daemon’s thick red tail slinks up my thigh just as he grabs my dark panties and rips them free. Rips. I hear the seams separate and glower at him, even as my body heats up.

“Her listening in sounds like a her problem,” Daemon says, then raises his voice toward her. “We’ll be out before the ceremony starts.”

Yeah, because it literally can’t start without us.

I roll my eyes, then jump, my calves knocking against the machine’s icy metal door when Daemon’s tail finds my clit. The tip opens up, those teeth latching down on me so hard I bite back a shriek. But then that tongue is there too. Licking. Sucking. Despite Minerva standing on the other side, I cry out, tears of pleasure stinging my eyes. “Fuck, Daemon.”

“Fuck me,” Minerva groans. “You two are insufferable.”

Outside, footsteps shuffle away. But before she can get too far, Daemon shoves his cock inside me in a single thrust, and I throw my head back.

“God, warn a girl first.”

“We both know you like it better this way.” He fucks into me, his legs smacking against the machine—rocking both it and me as he hits that spot inside me that makes me see stars, then keeps hitting it. “Hurry up and come so you can marry me already,” Daemon says, as if orgasms are a necessary part of the marriage ceremony.

His tail keeps sucking, and his strokes quicken, and God, I’m already there.

“That’s it,” he purrs. “You know I love watching you come.”