Page 152 of Flames and Blood

“I’m staying.”

She lets out a long breath. “And everything else?”

“I closed the office. I gave my work away. There’s nothing down there with my name on it anymore.” I get a hand into her hair and tip her head back so she has to look at me while I finish. “I’m staying, Kalli. Forever.”

Whatever she’s been holding on to for seven days, she lets go of it.

She grips my collar and pulls me down, and I let her, because I’ll always let her.

I’ve had a week of not touching her, and it’s the longest week I’ve ever lived through.

She works my coat off my shoulders and drops it. My shirt goes next. Her hands aren’t steady on the buttons, and she doesn’t care. When the last one gives, she flattens both palms against my chest and holds them there a second, like she’s making sure of me.

“I’m going to warm you,” she says.

“I’ll always be ready for that.”

Her shirt comes off over her head. There’s a new scar coming in at her shoulder, still pink, still raised, and I put my mouth on that before anything else.

She makes a sound.

“Does that hurt?”

“In the best way. Don’t stop.”

I don’t. I take my mouth from one shoulder to the other, then up the side of her throat to her jaw, and get her pants open while I’m doing it. She shimmies out of them and kicks them away. Then she’s bare in front of me and doesn’t cover an inch of herself. I take my time looking, because I’ve earned it and because she likes being looked at more than she’ll ever say out loud.

“Say something,” she says.

“No.”

“That isn’t fair.”

“It isn’t.”

I sit down on the bed. She comes and stands between my knees, close enough that I don’t have to reach for anything. From here she’s above me, and the view is something I don’t plan to forget. Lush breasts sway inches from my eyes, and I lean forward and rest my face between them, just letting her scent surround me. She puts both hands in my hair and holds my head where it is.

“Look at you,” she says.

“I could say the same.”

“Then say it later.”

I put my mouth to her instead. Her stomach first, low, where the muscle jumps under my lips. Then higher. I take a nipple into my mouth, and she makes a sound above me and her hands close hard in my hair. I do it slowly, one and then the other, swirling my tongue around in wet circles, then grazing my teeth over the tip. She stops, standing straight, and has to hold on to my shoulders to stay upright.

“Gideon.”

“Hold on to me.”

“I am holding on to you.”

“Then hold on harder.”

I slide my palms up the insides of her thighs until they meet at her pussy, then watch as I slide my fingers through her slick lips. They come out gleaming. I suck one into my mouth and savor the sweet tang of her.

“You taste so fucking good,” I murmur. My voice has gone hoarse.

“You said that about my blood,” she husks out.