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Dark eyes dragged over my body. “I’d have to disagree.”

A fire lit me up. I might as well have been standing in the middle of the bonfire back at the compound.

Instead, I was squeezing my thighs together like it might be enough to quell the buzzy sensation that had been aching in me all day.

I took another sip of my champagne. Hoping he took it for sultry. “And what is it you like, Trevan Niles?”

The plastic squeaked beneath his weight as he leaned back farther into his chair. It only made his legs stretch out more, the heels of his big boots propped on the ground on either side of mine.

Bracketing me in.

It was almost amusement that tweaked the corner of his mouth, though with the way his muscles rippled and flexed over the designs on his arms, I knew he was holding himself in restraint.

His left hand with the same tattoo as the rest of the Crows and the words Love to Death clenched tight around the fragile cup.

“I think you know exactly what I like, Little Apple.”

“And yet you don’t allow yourself to indulge in it.” I tried to play it as a tease.

I figured he knew it was an offering.

“Indulgence means death in my world.” The words curled out of him.

Scars that had been scored.

I huffed an incredulous sound. “The Crows are nothing if not indulgent. I’ve seen what goes down at that clubhouse.”

And I’d never seen him with a woman. Not since Felicity.

I fought against the torrent of jealousy the thought of her provoked. That time in my life when I’d come to understand what it was that I felt for Trevan. The way seeing him with her had felt.

He never would tell me what happened between them. Had kept it locked down so tight. Had he been devastated when they broke up? Was that why he’d been alone since?

“I have duties.” Trevan said it like it was enough to answer all the questions that had spun through my mind.

“All the Crows do.”

“Mine are…more important.”

His thick throat bobbed as he swallowed, and he suddenly tipped back his glass and drained his champagne.

“I thought that was disgusting?” I forced myself to go back to light.

His laughter was gruff, and he swiped the back of his hand over his full lips as he shifted and sat forward.

My stomach somersaulted, my heart catapulting against my ribs at the change in his proximity.

Charred oak and butterscotch twined with the remnants of champagne on his breath.

Dark eyes toiled. Flames and light and grief. “Apparently, I’m partial to pain.”

His gaze roved over me. So fast I would have missed it if I wasn’t watching so close.

I squirmed in my seat.

The song changed in the main room. “As It Was” by Harry Styles started to play. I’d been driving him crazy with it playing on repeat over the last couple weeks.

Singing it at the top of my lungs while I stocked and organized.