Because she has the opposite effect on me. She makes me feel alive. Warm.
Hungry.
“Because now, you have us.” Our eyes lock, and a breath stutters from her lips. “Let them try and lie with the four of us standing beside you.”
A single shadow traces the skin beneath her lower lip. I lean in closer, my voice lower. “And if necessary, we have other ways of getting to the truth.”
“Like a truth serum?” she queries, but I remain silent and she moves a little closer. “That’s what you mean, right?” Her innocence is refreshing, strangely addictive.
I don’t respond with words, only tilting my head slightly to imply an alternative.
“You don’t mean…” She blinks, her mouth parts. “Please tell me you didn’t just casually suggest torture.”
I say nothing.
“Kane.” The way she says my name, a little scolding, a tiny bit amused, is ridiculously appealing.
“You said not to tell you.”
Her lips twitch. Once. Twice. Then she laughs, brief but unguarded as if she can’t stop it. “I guess, coming from you, that’s kind of sweet.” Her hand lifts, fingers brushing over mine.
Fire cascades through my body.
“Thank you,” she says, then scrunches her nose. “But no torture.”
I glance at her lips. “Sai will be disappointed.”
She laughs again and my heart pounds. I did that. Sai would be proud.
Then her smile fades into something softer as she takes a small step back, then another, but her eyes linger on mine.
There’s a silent challenge in that gaze, like she’s daring me to follow, or more accurately, already knowing I will.
When she turns away with a teasing smirk, trailing her fingertips along the railing as she goes, my shadows and I follow behind.
I will follow her anywhere.
Chapter 45: Kane
We walk side by side along the lake. We don’t speak, but there isn’t a need to. We’re both content to exist in this silence together.
The occasional brush of her hand against mine is our only physical connection. Yet the barest touch sends licks of heat raging through me. Igniting my darkness every time. Desperate to break through my cold exterior and melt into her.
Eventually, we come to a stretch of stone where the promenade slopes down towards the lake, and Jasmine heads towards it, perching on the wall and casting a brief look over her shoulder at me.
That one look is all that’s needed.
I follow her silent command, sitting beside her on the cold stone, close enough to greedily steal more of her warmth.
The lake glimmers faintly under the moonlight. It’s quiet. Peaceful.
Even though my darkness claws inside of me.
It wants to feel more of her, to feel more of this. Just having her breathing beside me—existing—is all it takes to ignite the craving.
Then my phone vibrates, again. It has since I flitted to the town, but I refuse to acknowledge it.
But now, in the peaceful calm, the sound is too harsh, causing Jasmine to glance at my jacket with one raised brow.
