Anita’s arms are wrapped around me. She does not want to let go any more than I do. She looks up into my face, ignoring Bryn as the irrelevance he is.
“Just so you know, I’m not supposed to be here. I’ve skipped the queue. They’re going to be looking for me.”
“Well, they’d be stupid to try to get you at Direview. We’re demon hunters, and occasionally, we do slay a demon.”
“She’s a demon!” Bryn shouts.
“Yes, and so is Crichton, and Crocombe. Think about it. At least you know how to control demons. You have no idea how to handle people. This is actually a positive step,” Nina says.
I’m only barely listening to anything going on around us. All I can think of is how desperately fortunate I am to have her back with me.
“I am never going to let you go. And I am never, ever going to let you think you are anything other than wanted and adored, do you understand me, Anita?”
“Why do you still sound like you're lecturing me, even when you're happy?”
“I don't know. It’s just the way I’ve become accustomed to talking to you.”
"So are we still burying the body, or….” Steven asks the question, but it is lost to the wind.
I sweep Anita up off her feet and I carry her away, back to Direview, back to the place we will both call home.
17
Thor
“Are you sure you want me?”
The question hurts to hear, but I cannot pretend to be surprised she asks it. It was my apparent indifference that led her to the lake. I lectured her over and over about being safe and sane and sensible and in the end I acted like an emotional mute.
“I want you,” I tell her, holding her hands and looking deep into her eyes, where mischief still perpetually dances. “I always wanted you. I let too many things get in the way. I was confused. I was stupid. I was distracted by the death in the village… I let what I thought was right stand between what was right in front of me. I’ve never been able to resist you, Anita, and I am more sorry than I can say that I couldn’t express that before you…”
“Yes,” she says with a wicked little grin. “Let’s call it my journey of self-discovery, shall we?”
Euphemisms for death, separation, and suffering make them all easier to bear.
“Can you really be with me, now that you know what I am? Your kind is sworn to slay me. I don’t think I am going to get any easier to be around. I think I’m going to probably be worse. I’m a demon. And now I know that absolutely everything makes sense. Thor, it’s so liberating!”
“The only part of you I’ll be slaying is…”
“Oh no!” She laughs. “Don’t say that. It’s so crude. You’re better than that, Thor Larsen.”
I’m not better than that. I am not better than her. I crave her, and I have to be inside her.
“I should never have stopped making love to you,” I growl. “Every time I was inside you, everything was right. And every time we stopped I was distracted by all the things I thought I knew…”
She’s stripping her clothes off. She pauses as I pause, her sweater half off over her head, one eye exposed. “I’m sorry,” she says. “Did you want to keep talking, or…”
I do not want to keep talking.
“Mine,” I growl, sinking inside the hot, wet chalice of her sex. Yes, I am fucking a demon. Yes, she is writhing beneath me, spreading her legs and arching herself up to me, making incoherent sounds of needy delight. Yes, I have her pinned beneath me so she cannot go anywhere, so her submission must be as complete as my possession.
Her eyes are alight with pure desire. Her legs wrap themselves around my waist as she draws herself up to me, clinging to me with all four limbs. There is still a desperation between us. It is not enough for us to have been reunited. We are terrified that we will lose one another, that at any moment fate might intervene and snatch her away.
Life does not often give second chances of this kind. I drive deep inside her, stretching her wide, feeling her grip me with that molten inner strength that makes it almost impossible for me to hold back from spending myself inside her.
“I love you,” I say for what must be the hundredth time since I carried her off.
"I love you too,” she whimpers. She’s so close. I can see heat suffusing her face, turning her pale skin pink. I want to hear her say that for the rest of my life and whatever might come beyond it.
“Don't let go,” I tell her, pulling my cock out to the very entrance of her pussy. I need a break, and she needs to remember that I am in control.