Page 240 of Eight of Swords, Part Two

But it didn’t feel different.

What had Riley said about it before?

You Vox when you’re desperate or determined, or both.

Desperate.

He can do desperate.

‘Mmkay, maybe, like… move away from the edge?’

Lachlan shuffles back obediently, carefully setting aside his weapons.

‘Like this?’

‘Yeah, and take this off,’ Kade says of the rifle across his back. ‘You can keep it nearby, don’t worry.’

They move into the centre of the rooftop. Lachlan waits.

Kade straddles him, shoving down his nerves.

‘OK, you ready?’

‘I’m ready.’

‘Kiss me.’ He cups Lachlan’s face, brings their mouths close enough to share breath without touching. ‘Kiss me, please. I need it. I can’t stop thinking about you. Want you so bad, please. Kiss me, Bodyguard.’

Lachlan’s hands remain spread flat against the roof. His mouth stays a breath from Kade’s, lips parted, and he is a statue of a man then, entirely restrained in every way.

Kade wouldn’t even think he was affected were it not for the slightly rough way he asks, ‘That all you got?’ Heat rushes through Kade, brightly humiliating. The older man seems to smell it, dropping his head to run his nose up the column of Kade’s throat. ‘Blood smells warm.’

Kade tries his best not to think of what Riley said before about human blood and insatiable hunger, all that.

He needs to focus.

‘Kiss me. If you love me, kiss me.’

Still, he doesn’t touch, makes no move to do what Kade commanded. The restraint is obscenely irritating. Kade can feel every part of Lachlan that wants him. The tension beneath his thighs, the shallow pull of breath.

Yet he’s smiling in that indulgent way he does sometimes.

‘You’re enjoying this,’ Kade accuses.

‘Little bit.’

‘Asshole.’

‘Come on, baby. Focus. What do you taste when you’re focused?’

‘Salt.’

‘So call it to you.’

‘Call the salt?’ Kade echoes doubtfully. ‘Really?’

‘Just try it.’

Kade closes his eyes.