Page 196 of Safe Word

Cain sighed, the sound barely audible over the engine. His gaze stayed on the road, but I saw the twitch in his jaw.

‘He didn’t love me enough to do all this,’ I added.

‘Some people don’t need love. Just fear.’ He shook his head slowly, as if exorcising a ghost. ‘And when you develop a taste for fear…’ His voice dragged, but his silence said more.

I glanced sideways, taking in his stern stance.

‘Are you talking about Ezio now?’ Or yourself? I didn’t say the latter, but it was there.

He didn’t wince. Maybe because he didn’t know the answer either.

Stretching my fingers beneath his, I interlaced them. His palm was warm, tense – alive with restraint.

‘Both of us, I think,’ he said eventually. Then softer: ‘But the difference is… I like to see it leave your eyes. I live for it – when you let me touch it. When I turn it into something else.’

His gaze shot to mine, and it was stripped of armour.

‘I hate it when it’s because of me. But I’m fucking addicted to undoing it.’

He looked away first, eyes narrowing on the road as we turned a sharp corner.

‘And knowing all this—’ He inhaled deeply through his nose, held it, then let the words spill with his breath. ‘—he’s not going to stop. Unless we do something.’

I shook my head, but not in rejection – in acquiescence. I already knew that.

It wasn’t just shock. It was a truth that pulsed under my skin. One I had always carried with me. Constant and undeniable.

I felt as if I were teetering between fire and water.

Burning. Drowning.

And never quite sure which would drag me down first.

‘Is that why you were there that night? In Obsidian?’ I asked, needing to anchor my thoughts to something else. Something unresolved.

He gave a small smirk, the colour returning to his face as he squeezed my hand.

‘Fear?’ he tried. ‘No. I don’t think so. I think it was… freedom. I needed a vent.’ He shifted in his seat. ‘You know how sometimes you feel like you’re suffocating? And no matter where you turn, there’s not enough air?’

‘Oh yeah,’ I conceded. I’ve felt this way for a long time. I actually didn’t even remember a time before that.

I let it settle for a beat. Two. Three. ‘And did you get it? Did it give you freedom?’

Did I? I needed to know. Desperately.

He didn’t respond. He released my hand, stopping at a pedestrian crossing and then he pulled me gently but firmly by the neck until he devoured my mouth.

‘I don’t want freedom any more,’ he rumbled against my lips. ‘I want your chains. The lace, the metal… Your fucking freedom. I want that. Because it’s mine, too.’

‘Fuck, Cain…’

I pulled his hand to my face, kissing it, my thighs clenching to contain the need rising in me. Even in this dangerous predicament, we’d met each other. Even with threat on my tail, I still needed him so badly.

The thought barely settled before the wail of sirens sliced through the air, startling us out of the haze of lust.

A fire engine thundered past, red lights flashing, reflecting off the glass around us. I looked past the windscreen, my stomach tightening as the glow pulsed against the darkened street just around the corner.

We both froze, locking eyes, something cold and soundless slamming between us.