Bonds of Cupidity (Heart Hassle Book 2)

Flinging his mask to the table, the Horned Hook keeps his eyes locked on me. I feel my mouth drop open in surprise.

“You,” I breathe.

My guys look from me to him and then back again. “What’s going on? You know each other?” Evert asks.

“How is that possible?” Sylred adds.

I wrack my brain, trying to remember his name. He looks so differently now that he’s put on some weight. He’s filled out, no longer looking gaunt and sickly. When I first saw him, he’d been on death’s doorstep. But I was right. He is handsome when he’s not covered in filth and looking like a skeleton.

His silver skin looks much healthier, his white hair is cleaner, and his silver eyes are brighter. But it’s the gray curved horns coming out of his head and curling below his ears that I remember the most.

“Belren?”

A smile spreads across his face and he nods. “I almost didn’t recognize you with the red wings and the pinker skin and hair,” he admits. “But even under all of that and the bruises, I can see that it’s you.”

“Okay, one of you needs to tell us how the fuck you know each other.”

“He was on Arachno’s island,” I explain. “He helped me escape.”

“Technically, we helped each other,” Belren interjects. “I used your dagger to cut myself out of the web.”

“Right.”

He tilts his head, assessing me. “You told me you were half high fae, but you aren’t, are you?”

I shake my head. “No.”

His expression becomes intense. “You weren’t trapped in the Veil. You belong there, don’t you? What are you?”

I open my mouth to answer but Ronak cuts in. “That’s enough of our secrets for one day.”

Belren’s face smoothes out, and he smirks. “Fair enough.”

“I’m glad you escaped,” I tell him.

“I always do,” he says with a wink. “Well, I’m off. Things to do, fae to extort, and all that. Enjoy your Veiled female,” he says as he heads for the door. He pushes his long silver wings out of his back through the perfectly sewn-in slits of his blue shirt. “I’ll be in touch, Emelle.”

Evert rolls his eyes at his departure.

“What?” I ask.

“Nothing. You. Stop making friends.”

I laugh. “What? Why?”

“Because. Now let’s go.” He grabs hold of my hand and starts tugging me out the door.

I twist around to wave at Plik and Plak, but Evert covers my eyes. “What are you doing?”

“They’re naked. Don’t look.”

I laugh again. “Umm, I was here the whole time. I saw everything already.”

“Stop picturing their penises, Scratch.”

“I’m not!”

“You’re doing it right now, aren’t you?”

Dammit.

I huff. “It’s not something you can just ignore.”

Evert snorts. “You mean like the naked chameleens?”

A frown settles on my face. “No. Definitely not. That was totally different,” I defend haughtily. “Wait, are you picturing them?”

He just laughs.

He tugs me outside, and I can hear Sylred and Okot saying thank you to the twins before we’re all back at the portal. “Should we take her through it?” Evert asks.

Ronak shakes his head. “Too dangerous. She and Okot can’t be seen. Flying will be safer.”

“Agreed,” Sylred says. “But they should wait until nightfall. Too many sentries in the sky at this time.”

“I’m not leaving her,” Evert insists.

“Fine,” Ronak relents. “Sylred and I will go now, and you and Okot can stay here with her. We’ll reopen the portal tonight for you, Evert, while Emelle and Okot fly back when it’s dark.”

“Sounds good.”

“Will you be okay until tonight?” Sylred asks me, his eyes running over my injuries.

“Mmmhmm. Yep. Of course. Totally fine.” I try not to grimace.

“I’ll heal what I can,” Evert offers.

“Okay. We’ll see you tonight,” Sylred says.

He and Ronak give me a nod before walking through the portal and disappearing.

Left alone with Evert and Okot, I look between them expectantly. “I wasn’t kidding about being hungry.”

Okot chuckles and then shares a look with Evert. They seem to have a silent conversation without me, which is weird because they just met, but whatever.

After a moment, Okot looks back at me and says, “You two catch up. There’s something I must do. I’ll come back as soon as I can, and I will bring food, my beloved.”

He kisses me on the top of my head and walks away before I can ask where he’s going.

Evert shrugs out of his jacket and puts it around me. I snuggle inside of it. “Mmm. Warm.”

He scoops me up in his arms. I yelp a little, partly from the pain and partly from surprise. I look around at all the snow and ice and shiver. “Where are we going to go?”

“Someplace where I can get you warm.”

“You don’t want to ask Plik and Plak if we can hang out in their house for a bit?”

He snorts. “No.”

Evert somehow finds a small rock shelf on the side of a mountain, with just enough space for us to sit beneath and be sheltered from the snow and ice. As soon as he sets me down, he starts running his hands over me with his healing touch. All of my scratches, cuts, and splits start stitching back together.

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me. If I was a proper healer, I could fix your broken wing and your internal injuries, too.”

Is that self-deprecation I sense? It’s so unlike Evert that it makes my heart squeeze. “You heal me in more ways than you can see, Stitch.”

His blue eyes settle on my face. “Come here,” he says huskily.

He picks me up and deposits me onto his lap so that I’m straddling him with our faces are only inches apart.

“Hi,” I say a little breathlessly.

He smirks at me, letting his dimples show. “Hi.”

“Did you miss me?” I whisper.

“You have no fucking idea.”

“I didn’t like being invisible again.”

I think he can see the anxiety in my expression, because his grip tightens around me. “Stop. The Veil doesn’t have you. I fucking do.”

Then he kisses me. Or I kiss him. I’m not really sure who initiated it, but our lips connect, and I’m falling so hard inside of him that he’s all I remember.

He doesn’t wait for me to open, and he doesn’t ask permission. His tongue just spears inside my mouth like a demand and takes control of my mouth.

His hands grip my ass, and I shamelessly grind against him, trying to appease the building pressure at my core. He groans against me. I can feel the vibration all the way from my head to my toes.

I want more. I want to be reminded that I really am here and that my body is my own. I want to feel everything.

“Please,” I beg.

“You’re hurt,” he reminds me.

“I don’t care,” I say earnestly. “Please, Evert.”

I don’t know what exactly I’m asking him to do, but he seems to. He moves one of his hands between us and drags it under my skirt. His hot palm trails up my bare leg.

Slowly. Brutally.

He roughly palms my thigh, making it prickle with exquisite pain.

“Please,” I beg again.

He chuckles darkly against my mouth. “You want my fingers on your pussy, Scratch?”

My breath hitches at his words. “Yeah.”

He moves his hand from my thigh, only to tease around the spot that’s panting for his attention. I bite his lip hard.

He hisses and then chuckles. “Rabid fucking cupid. You’re gonna pay for that.”

“No teasing,” I whine.

He scrapes his scratchy five o’clock shadow against my neck, making me shiver. “I’ll fucking tease you as much as I like. I’ll get you so worked up that you’ll be panting on your knees, begging me. But I’ll only give you what you want if you’re a good girl,” he says, his fingers still barely flitting over my clit. The almost contact is torture.

Reaching up, I thread my fingers through his black hair and yank forcefully. In response, he slaps my ass hard enough to make it sting. I groan.

“Naughty little thing,” he admonishes. He takes hold of my hands and forces them down. “But you like getting punished, don’t you? I can feel how wet you are. Now push your dress down. I want to see those pretty tits.”

I start to object, so he pulls his fingers away from my clit completely, making a half-sob, half-growl come out of me. “Evert!”

He quirks a brow and pinches my ass, making me jump. “I told you. Be good, and I’ll give you want you need. Don’t get shy on me now, love. Let me see them.”

Pissed that his fingers aren’t doing their job and way too worked up to do anything else, I hastily undo the ties at my bodice and then yank my dress down. When my breasts bounce out, Evert wastes no time grabbing them and running his thumbs over my nipples. They harden immediately and send a zing down my belly.

I close my eyes and let my head fall back, loving the jolts of pleasure that his touch brings. “Mmm. These perfect tits shouldn’t have hidden away from me for this long.”

I arch into his palms.

He reaches up with one hand and grips my chin, bringing my head back down. “Look at me. This is just me and you, Scratch. I want you to watch me touch you. I want you to see who’s fingering your cunt and making you so wet.”

I swallow, mesmerized by his dirty talk, and do as he says. With a satisfied smirk, he continues playing with my breasts with one hand, while the other starts its descent back to my clit.

Fucking yes.

Finally, his finger presses against my clit and ohmygods I’m going to combust.

The more he strokes me, the more I grind against him, relishing in the feel of his hard erection against my ass. “That’s right. Fuck yourself on my hand like a good little cupid,” he says against my ear.

“Evert,” I moan.

He nibbles my lip. “What? Tell me what you want. Beg me for it.”

He’s turned me into a hot, tangled mess of need, and he knows it. “More. I want more,” I pant.

“Say it,” he growls.

“Fucking asshole,” I snap, earning a painful pinch on my nipple this time. “Fine! I want your fingers inside me. Fuck me with them, please!”

“Good girl.” Just like that, his finger plunges inside of me, instantly slick. He growls in satisfaction. “So fucking wet for me.”

I moan as his finger thrusts in and out of me while his thumb continues to play with my clit.

“Oh my gods…”

“That’s it. So ready, aren’t you?”

All I can do is whimper and writhe.

“Your pussy is drenched and begging for more.” He adds another finger, curling and pumping them both inside of me, and I’m so, so close.

And it feels so fucking good.

He moves his other hand up to my hair and fists it. When I open my mouth to either curse him or moan, he starts pumping into me even faster.

“You love me fucking you with my fingers, don’t you?”

I grab his shoulders, my nails digging into his back. “Yes!”

“Good. Now come for me, Scratch. Let me feel you come all over my hand.”

And I do. Gods, I do.

Crying out his name, my body arches into his hand while I explode with pleasure. Toes curled, eyes shut, head thrown back, my whole body spasms with delicious delight.

For my whole stupid cupid life, I’ve waited for this. To feel this moment of intense bliss. All the years of pent-up loneliness and want barrels out of me, fleeing with Evert’s touch.

To be honest, I worried that it wouldn’t be everything I thought. I worried that I’d built it up too much in my head. But no. It’s everything I thought it would be and much, much more.

By the time I come back into my body, I’m curled against his chest and his hands are wrapped around me, careful to not hurt any of my injuries. His fingers are lazily rubbing my back, but it’s the sound coming from his chest that makes me shiver. I can feel the sound he’s emitting all the way into my bones.

I pop my eyes open in surprise. “Are you…purring?”

The sound only pauses for a second before picking back up again. I grin and lean back so I can look at his face. “Oh my gods, you are! You’re totally purring! That’s adorable.”

He pushes the back of my head down so that I’m forced to rest against his chest again. “It’s not adorable.”

I trace my fingers over his collarbone. “It kinda is.”

“No, it’s not. A genfin purr is badass. We only do it for our mate.”

“Adorable,” I giggle.

“If you call it that again, I’m going to stop.”

“No! Don’t stop. It makes me feel…I don’t know. Safe. Happy. I can feel it inside me. It’s the best sound ever. I don’t ever want you to stop,” I say, snuggling in closer to him.

I feel his smug grin. “Genfin mate perks.”

“I knew you’d be good for something.”

He chuckles. “You mean more than orgasms?”

I hum. “You are pretty good at that. Even if you are a domineering asshole about it.”

He grins cockily. “You like it. Besides, that was only the beginning. Once you’re healed, the real fun begins,” he wags his eyebrows.

I turn my face up to look at him. “You’re smug about giving me my first orgasm, aren’t you?”

“Are you kidding? Of course I am. I’m going to rub it in all those fuckers’ faces.”

I shake my head and laugh against his chest. “Well, your arrogance aside, I’m glad it was you,” I admit quietly.

And I am. Evert was the first one in my corner. I felt a connection with him as soon as I landed on his island and flirted with his dimpled face.

He kisses the crown of my head as his purr kicks up a notch. “Me too, Scratch. Me too.”