Lucifer's Cage (After Dark Book 6) by Sarah Bailey (short story to read .txt) 📗

angel who was taking care of her. His little witch.

When he was satisfied she was clean, he bundled her up in a towel. His power brushed over her, drying her hair and skin.

He led her into her bedroom, pulling back the covers and tugging her down into the bed with him. She wrapped her arms around his back, pressing her face into his chest.

Why does he feel so much like home? Am I crazy for loving this man? This angel who punished me and fucked me and confessed secrets to me.

“Don’t you want to see how I marked you?” he asked.

She did. The curiosity burnt inside her, but what could she even say? He wouldn’t take it away if she hated it. She shook her head. It was a problem she could deal with tomorrow. Just like all her other problems. She’d promised to see Theodus and talk about their future. The one she didn’t want and had no real say in.

“You’re going to leave when I fall asleep, aren’t you?”

“Everything has been unsettled since the portals reopened.”

“Then we really broke whatever God did to prevent anyone from leaving? The three of us did?”

“Yes. I have had to stop all my dukes from disappearing. Chaos will reign if I do not keep them in line.”

She clutched him closer. Tension radiated from him. She ran a hand down his back, trying to soothe it away. Her fingers trailed, brushing over his skin. He murmured his approval.

“I’ve missed your touch,” he whispered.

“You have?”

“Mmm, your soft skin soothes me. Do you really dream of me and wake up in torment?”

“Why would I say it if I didn’t? I cried myself to sleep the night I left you. I argued with my father the next day and got horribly drunk on whisky with a friend. I felt like shit, but I woke up burning with need to feel you against me despite the hangover.”

His arms around her tightened.

“A friend? Not Jaxon?”

She flinched at her best friend’s name. There had been no time for her to talk things out with him or maybe she just didn’t want to make time. She wasn’t sure how she felt telling Lucifer about Alistair but lying to him had only led to punishment.

“Jax and I aren’t exactly talking because he wants to know what happened between us. So, no, it was another friend.”

Something Alistair said tickled at her memory.

“He told me about the Darkness. He was there.”

Lucifer went deadly still. She pulled away, staring up into his face, which was haunted.

“Will you tell me about it now?”

His expression shut down, his eyes blazing with something she didn’t understand.

“What is there to say? I tried to prevent it all, but Azrael was so obsessed with that girl. She was sent to destroy the world, you know. The vessel. I suppose it was resolved in the end. It was all part of His plan to punish Azrael because I apparently poisoned His children against Him. I did nothing but tell them they deserved the same freedom He granted humanity. Now Azrael lives happily up in Heaven with her and the rest of my brothers and sisters whilst I am consigned to spend eternity in servitude to Hell.”

Every word made her heart contract further.

All that pain inside him. All that resentment. I want to dig it out and lay bare his wounds so I can heal them all. And if he wants to take out his suffering on me, then so be it. I want to be his everything because he is mine.

Knowing what she wanted and knowing she could never have those things sliced into her like a knife. Tearing her insides to shreds. And she couldn’t prevent the tears from slipping down her face.

“What is it?” he asked, his face suddenly concerned.

“Do you know how much I want you? Not just the things you choose to show me, but all of you, even the tormented and damaged parts you keep hidden away? And how much it breaks me knowing none of it is mine?”

His eyes betrayed so much. Shock. Confusion. Affection. Longing. All of it flittering across his expression in quick succession.

“Am I everything to you?” he whispered.

“Yes. Everything and more.”

She was done with keeping the truth of her feelings from him.

“Then come home with me, my little witch. I’ll take you away from your fate.”

“I can’t.”

As much as she desperately wanted to, she didn’t belong with him in Hell. She didn’t deserve him nor his gentleness or his torment. Not when she was supposed to be marrying someone else. He shouldn’t be in her bed, but she didn’t care. If she could have these moments with Lucifer whilst everything else burnt around her, then she would.

He leant towards her, capturing her mouth in a soft kiss. Hands stroked circles along her back, fingers trailed along her sides. She felt him everywhere, caressing her. In that moment, she knew he was Lucifer, not the Devil. And he was going to make love to her rather than fuck her. Blood pounded in her ears. This was everything she needed. No more words were uttered.

She drowned in him.

And he ruined her with every heartfelt kiss he pressed to her skin.

§

Lucifer watched her sleeping for the longest time. He finally understood all the emotions coursing through him. Finally made sense of what she meant to him.

I love her.

It wasn’t something he thought he was capable of, but he loved Candace with every beat of his heart, every breath he took.

My little witch has stolen my heart and made it her own.

He knew he needed to return to Hell, but he couldn’t tear himself away from her. She’d accepted his darker side with no question despite her vocal