For her.
Her heart filled with love. “Hey, Cowboy, you’d better slow that heart rate down before it’s you lying here instead of me.”
He moved to her side. His sensuous mouth flashed a grin, and it was all she could do not to pull him down alongside her and make love to him for the rest of her life. She released a little of her own charm and watched as beads of perspiration broke out on his forehead.
“I didn’t realize you were awake.” His smile faded, replaced by sadness when his gaze collided with hers. After a moment of silence he said, “Sorry, Sunny. For everything.”
She closed a hand over his. “Sorry for what? For trying to save me? For caring enough about me to make a deal with the devil himself?”
“I meant it to be my debt, not yours. I didn’t think of that.”
He perched on the bed beside her while she digested that bit of information. “How does he expect me to repay the debt? What does he want from me?”
He rolled one shoulder and frowned, his dark eyes regretful. “Only time will tell.”
Her heart ached, loving that he was willing to barter his life for hers and hating that he now felt responsible for her fate. She was a big girl and accepted whatever cards were dealt her way. It was her burden to bear, not his.
When his sadness reached out to her, heat burnt her eyes as anger erupted in response. Something dark and dangerous stirred her blood, something she was determined to harness and use for good. Even though she was no longer quite the same physically, she was still the same Michelle in all the ways that mattered. And wasn’t that the same for Blake? He was human in all the ways that mattered, too. Even more.
Then she thought about Cass. Michelle had a fuzzy memory of a beautiful, tragic face, very much like her brother’s, and of enormous yellow eyes flashing briefly to a deep violet when Blake had drawn Michelle back to this world. She reached for his hand. “We’re going to get Cass back, Blake.”
Sadness and sense of loss apparent, he tore his gaze from hers, although his fingers tightened their grip. “Cass doesn’t want to come back. She feels like this one has nothing to offer her.”
Michelle felt the faint pull of the demon world too now, so she could understand a little better what he and Cass had lived with all their lives.
“What about you? Does this world have anything to offer you?” She drew a breath, waiting for his answer.
Sadness turned to love, when he twisted back to face her. “It has everything to offer me,” he admitted honestly. He touched the tip of one finger to her cheek, tracing a path to the curve of her lips. “At least, I’m hoping it does.”
Those were all the words she needed to hear. She ripped the electrodes from her body, flung her legs over the side of the bed and reached for her clothes.
Blake jumped back, startled. “What are you doing? You need to rest.”
“I’m done resting.” She parted her johnnyshirt to reveal her chest. “Besides, it looks like I’m all healed.” She could get used to this particular change. Fat chance they were all going to be as welcome.
“Sunny—”
“You do realize that’s not my name, right?”
A small smile kicked up the corner of his mouth. “I like it. It suits you.”
“Really?” That surprised her. She’d never pictured herself as particularly sunny. She dropped the johnnyshirt back in place, smoothing the fabric over her hips. “Cass may have to make her own choices, but there’s nothing to say we can’t help her make up her mind. And while we’re at it, I’m going to start repaying my debt to the bastard who changed me.”
“Something tells me your idea of repayment and his, differ drastically.”
She gave him a wicked grin and once again felt her eyes flash hot. She liked the feeling. “He has no idea what he got himself into when he brought me back. This is our world. Yours and mine, and Cass’. Not his. He thinks we’re something to help him get whatever it is that he wants from here. But really, we’re something to stand in his way.”
Blake didn’t seem convinced. “You sure about this?”
She loved it that he didn’t try to talk her out of it. That he didn’t say no. She’d been fighting demons her whole adult life. She wondered briefly if the holy water was going to be a problem for her now. If so, she and Blake would just have to find another weapon.
“It’s not like I can pretend nothing has happened to me,” she pointed out.
“True. But you don’t know what he can do to you.”
She grinned. “I’m not worried. Not when you’ve got my back.” She gave him a moment to absorb that, and then said, “I think we make quite a team. So, are we in this together or what?”
His voice softened as his eyes flashed to liquid gold. “On one condition.”
“What’s that?”
After a long, thoughtful moment he tapped her chest, right around the vicinity of her heart. “I’ve got your back, but I want the rest of you too. You can’t begin to imagine how I felt when I thought I’d lost you. Because believe me when I say, I never want to be without you again.”
She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him with all the love inside her. His hands slipped around her waist and held her to him. Inching back, before the two of them lost all control and ended up tangled in the sheets, and wanting desperately to get him alone in a place where no one from any world could interrupt them, she whispered into his mouth, “You’ve already got me, Blake, you’ve already got me.”
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