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“We’re going to stop him once and for all,” I whispered, my voice conspiratorial as my lips grazed her wrist. She trembled, her breath catching.
“Together. I told you I’m going to spoil you.”
Her eyes lit up, as if I’d just handed her a million dollars—well, she already had the money. What she craved was the hunt. The thrill of killing.
“You can choose,” I continued, “whether we make him the centerpiece of your next story or feed him to the fire. Either way, his time is going to be very short.”
The tension eased from her shoulders, and her body went slack.
“But, Ryden, we have too much to lose if this goes wrong. We can’t… This would be a distraction.”
“You need the distraction, Little Killer,” I said, tapping the crease between her brows. “You’re restless. You’re wound so tight, I’m afraid you might snap. And I can’t have you snapping.”
She stiffened. “You don’t need this,” she said after a pause, her voice quieter, almost uncertain.
“Maybe not,” I admitted, running a hand down her arm, catching her fingers between mine. “My animal’s been quiet since you. Content even.”
That was the truth. With her right next to me, I felt contained.
“I am not—” She didn’t finish it.
“Yara, we don’t do this only because we need it,” I said, tracing her throat. She gulped, eyes greedy on mine. “We do it because it’s what we’re good at. Because someone like Mason Backer? He doesn’t get to just walk into some random woman’s life out of nowhere, end it like it doesn’t mean a damn, and then go away unscathed. Not when we’re here. Not when we can stop him.”
Her lips pulled up. Her smile was faint, but it was there.
“We do it because Louisa, the one he was going to kill tonight, needs our help.”
We couldn’t stop everyone, but we could at least stop a few, and that had to be enough!
“So this is how you’re going to spoil me? I would have settled for dinner, a quickie in the elevator, a not-so-quick-one in a hotel room, a warm bath and a book.”
“Oh, you’re getting all of that. Mason is just a bonus. Because I know you need the hunt, the chase. Because you come alive with every life you take, and I come alive watching you kill, watching you live.”
Her eyes widened, and she gave me a look that made me gasp.
“What?” I whispered.
She never took her eyes from me as she softly traced my jaw. “It’s impossible not to fall for you when you’re like this, Ryden.”
“Fall, then,” I said.
“I’ve already fallen.” She shrugged. “More than I should have.”
“Fall deeper,” I murmured, cupping her cheek with one hand, my thumb brushing against her satin skin. I found her mouth with mine. “Fall harder. Like I’ve done the moment I first laid eyes on you. And then again, when I saw K.Y. Wolff in you, and I’ve been falling since then. It’s like a bottomless pit and I…”
Her laughter was mad, her eyes burning with a fire that made my heart race.
“You’re calling me a bottomless pit?”
“I’m not. When did I—oh.”
Her fingers traced a slow path down my shoulder, her touch igniting every nerve as she took my lips, biting teasingly at first before she thrust her tongue between my lips.
Her nails cut into my skin as she bit and sucked.
When we broke apart, her lips were swollen and red, and I felt proud. She licked them as though tasting the memory of the kiss. With a groan, she grabbed my hand and pressed it against her throat. Her pulse thrummed against my palm, quick and wild, just like mine.
“When we’re done here, Ryden, I’m going to take you to hell and make you beg to stay there. Just so you’ll understand how much I want you, every second of every day.” Her voice was both a promise and a threat.
