His hand lingers at my ribs, thumb brushing just beneath the swell of my breast.
Then he shifts, reaching toward the table. I hear the soft pull of leather, the click of a buckle. He lifts one of the dark straps from his belt.
“Seriously?” I whisper.
He nods once. “Fuck yeah.” His grin is wicked. “Let’s live a little, Skye.”
I should walk away. Should tell him that recklessness isn’t the only way to feel alive. But I’ve spent a lifetime resisting temptation. And where did that get me? Buried. I’d be a fool to make the same mistakes twice.
He tugs gently, binding my wrists and guiding them above my head.
“What about the wraith?” I still ask, because I can’t pretend she’s not out there, waiting to tear everything apart.
“We’ve set up wards,” he mutters. “I’m only on watch as a precaution. We should be safe.”
I want to lose myself in the fire.
“Little Grim,” Talon purrs, voice like smoke, “I can feel you thinking too damn much.”
He releases the strap from my wrists only to flip me over in one smooth, practiced motion. The world tilts. My breath snags. My cheek hits the cold wood of the table, hair falling in tangled waves across my face.
Before I can even process it, he hikes my scrubs up to my hips, exposing me to the air. To him. To everything.Should be safe. Mhm. Should is the key word. But somehow, it’s enough. Because gods… I need this. I need to be touched and actually feel it. Kissing Cassian, feeling Talon’s fingers inside me, it all felt good. But it also lit a fire in me I can’t put out anymore.
I want to know what it feels like to finally give in.
And Talon’s right. I did come to him for a reason.
“You’re awfully full of yourself,” I say, parting my lips when he does, watching the rise and fall of his chest.
“How so?” he asks.
“You think out of everyone who can now see and touch me, I’ll pick you to lose control with.”
“Well, why shouldn’t you?” he says. “I’m here. I was good to you from the start. I didn’t dig up your bones. I didn’t treat you like you were nothing. And every time you needed someone, I was there. So if anyone gets the honor of keeping you warm in your fragile, freshly resurrected state, it should be me.”
“As I said. Full of yourself.”
He grins, cocky and unrepentant. “Seems like you like that about me.”
I don’t answer. But I don’t pull away either.
My wrists are still bound, held loosely above my head. Just enough pressure to remind me where I am. Who has me. The leather bites a little when I shift, and that sensation alone sends a jolt straight to my core.
“I can make you see stars, Little Grim,” he murmurs. “What do you say?”
Oh, fuck.
I glance at Cassian and Nathaniel’s sleeping forms. Neither of them stirs. Their presence only adds to the wicked thrill coursing through me.
This is it. I’m done holding back.
“I say…” I whisper, brushing my mouth along his jaw, “show me.”
A growl rumbles low in his throat, something raw breaking loose inside him. He shifts, pushing my wrists harder against the edge of the table, making my arms ache in the best way.
“Oh, I’ll show you,” he mutters. “I’ve imagined fucking you a hundred times.”
“I’m counting on it.”
