Page 174 of Safe Word

No. No, no—

Time warped. My hand snapped towards his wrist before reason could catch it.

Cain’s entire body went rigid.

I turned his hands over. He let me.

But his breath stuttered. Just enough.

The muscle in his jaw ticked, the vein in his neck leapt.

Instant recognition detonated between us.

There it was – the compass on his inner forearm, every line and curve branded into my memory.

Every detail – etched into me by moans, by bruises, by the sound of a man who had once lost control.

Inside me. Upon me. Around me.

Air stuck into my throat until it burned, a soundless scream tangling somewhere between my chest and tongue as it begun to sink in.

His wrist slid from my palm.

The loss of it went off inside me like a bomb.

Cain’s shadowed eyes were fixed on my wrist at first. On the sparrow tattoo – the one Ghost had once worshipped with his lips.

His jaw dislodged, pure shock bleeding into his face, spreading, moulding into something darker.

Then those amber eyes met mine.

Not black. Not Ghost’s. Cain’s.

My employer. My friend.

My tormentor.

My Ghost.

Somewhere in my peripheral vision, I’d registered Vinnie taking the papers from him. I barely noticed anything else; the world had narrowed to the tremor between us.

The way he looked at me was no longer with pain, remorse and restraint.

He was now that demon that had carved his name into my skin, taught me the language of pain and turned my body into its script as he whipped it raw and kissed it better just before he vanished into nothing.

My ears rang. The room spun.

Vinnie’s voice distorted, the reporter’s too, the hum of aircon drowned in the roar of my pulse.

Our eyes stayed locked, the weight of memories crushing us. Desire swirling between us wasn’t an ember any more. It was eruption. Every nerve in my body was on high alert, every inch of me aware of the tremor in his jaw, the stiffness of his shoulders, the way his hand flexed as if he were fighting the urge to come at me.

The room pulsed. My heartbeat thundered in my ears.

‘What’s the matter with you two?’ Vinnie’s voice cleaved through like cold steel.

I blinked. The spell cracked, but didn’t break.

Cain didn’t look away.