Chapter 48

It was while he was putting away the food that Edmund realized the fluttering in his gut was nerves. Now that he was on the cusp of getting what he’d wanted for the past year, all he could think about was how good he wanted it to be for her, how he would need to be careful and hold back so Darby didn’t get hurt. He’d had sex with plenty of humans in his lifetimes, but in all those years, he had only ever loved two—Darby and Mathias. It had been so long since he’d first fallen for Mathias that this might as well be a brand-new experience.

Thoughts of Mathias, however, slowed his movements. The sex in the alley had been unexpected. All Edmund had felt was fury that Mathias would dare to seduce Darby after all they’d talked about, but it hadn’t taken long to know that ire was a mere fraction of all the pain that had twisted inside him for so long. And then for Mathias to bend in supplication so readily, admitting his need, admitting there had been no one else, not really…