Page 70 of Fallen

“Like you’d want anything else.”

Talon smirked, reeling him in for a long, drugging kiss, full of tongue and teeth and tasting of sweet black blood.

“You’re perfect, little bird. I’m so glad you walked into In Extremis that night.”

Alex smiled. “Me, too.” He shifted onto the bed beside him, resting his head on Talon’s chest—the unbitten side. “Now, I need another twelve hours of sleep after all that. Don’t wake me.”

Talon sputtered out a laugh. “Twelve more hours? Fuck me, humans sleep a lot.”

“Mm. Guess it’s a good thing we have eternity, huh?”

Epilogue

TALON

The scentof cooking food greeted Talon as he entered the penthouse. Cheese, salt, chicken. He inhaled deeply, hanging his keys up and wandering over to the island. Alex was standing shirtless at the stove, and he cast Talon a fond smile over his shoulder.

“Where’ve you been?” he asked lightly as he stirred something in a skillet.

“I think the bigger question is what’s on your mind,” Talon replied, his gaze lingering on the dimpled muscles of Alex’s shoulder blades. He was such a beautiful man, Talon would never tire of looking at him.

A few days after Alex’s banishment, he’d plucked up the courage to ask Talon to go with him to his apartment for his things. When they arrived, they’d found his apartment broken into. His guild-issued laptop was gone, as well as his car keys and his car from the parking lot. Alex said he’d been expecting it but still likened it to a kick while he was already down. It only reinforced the need to move, though, so Talon counted it as another win for him. Together, they’d grabbed everything Alex wanted to keep—which was mostly clothes and toiletries—loaded it into the trunk of Talon’s car, and carted it to the penthouse.

In the weeks following the move, he’d gone through something of a listless period. He kept up with his old routine for a while, waking early to train and go for a run. Talon found this unacceptable, because he didn’t like waking up and not knowing where Alex was. A few lazy morning fucks broke him of that unnecessary routine easily enough, but then he’d floundered. He’d needed something to focus on, something to apply himself to. Talon tried nudging him in different directions, hobbies that might interest him. They could travel the world, Alex could enroll in a college, whatever he wanted. Alex was loath to spend Talon’s money, which Talon found laughable, but his human was so earnest about it, he stopped offering.

He’d turned to cooking. Before Talon, he lived alone and rarely interacted with anyone from the guild outside of work. He’d never had anyone to cook for, so Alex had applied himself in learning to cook all of the most flavorful and satisfying meals he could get his hands on. He’d become quite adept in the kitchen, and cooking became something of a pastime. Lately, Talon noticed, he cooked when there was something on his mind—when he needed to busy his hands, because his mind was preoccupied.

Alex shot him a scowl. “Maybe I just felt like cooking.”

“Mm-hm.” If he didn’t want to share yet, that was fine. Talon was nothing if not patient.

So he waited, watching the easy shift of muscle in Alex’s back as he worked. It was the best view in the penthouse—well, almost. Thebestview was when Alex was spread out on the bed for him, naked and helpless. There was just something about black rope around Alex’s golden thighs that really got him going.

“You’re staring at my ass,” Alex said without turning.

“You don’t know that.” It wasn’t his fault that the swell of Alex’s ass was delightfully accentuated by his gray sweatpants.

“I can feel it.”

Talon smirked. “It’s a nice ass.”

The back of his neck pinkened, and Talon considered it a win.

When the food was done, Alex emptied it straight into a container and tucked it into the fridge. Too antsy to sit through a meal, then.

Alex faced him at last, bracing his hands on the island, and said, “Okay, so.”

Talon straightened.Finally.

“You know how I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with myself, because I have zero applicable skills for holding down a real-world job?”

“Yes, I’m familiar, asI’vetoldyouthat you don’t have to worry about getting a job, because I have plenty of money and enjoy spending it on you.”

Alex nodded before he’d even finished speaking. “AndItoldyouthat I don’t like feeling like I’m notdoinganything with my life.”

“You’re doingme,” Talon said with a cheeky grin. They’d had this argument many times in the last few weeks.

Alex hung his head. “All right, come here.”

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