Page 91 of What We Burn

The car’s stopped at a light. She leans between the seats, takes Knox’s jaw in her hand, turns his face to hers.

“Hi.”

“Fury.” Warning and welcome in one word.

She kisses him. He keeps one hand on the wheel and threads the other into her hair and kisses her slow. Thorough. She melts into it, fists his shirt, and the sound she makes has Holden staring very hard out the window.

The light goes green. Somebody behind us leans on the horn. Knox pulls back, returns both hands to the wheel, and drives.

Sage sits back, flushed and breathing hard and lip-bitten, and looks from me to Knox to Holden, who is studying the windshield like it’s about to be on a test.

“Your turn later,” she tells him.

“Christ,” Holden says. His ears go red.

We pull into the driveway and Micah pulls in seconds behind us.

Sage climbs out first, takes Knox’s hand and Holden’s arm, and heads for the door. She looks back at me over her shoulder.

“Coming?”

In every conceivable sense, kitten.

She pauses on the step. Looks past us to Eli, easing himself out of Micah’s car like a man carrying something fragile, which he is, in more ways than one.

“Eli.”

He stops.

“Thank you.”

He nods. “Whatever you need.”

She hesitates, weighing something heavy behind her eyes. “I don’t want to sleep with you. Not yet.”

He nods again. He expected that.

“But you can watch. If you want.”

His breath goes out of him. “Yeah,” he says, rough. “I want.”

Our girl grins, turns, and walks into the house, and like rats after the Pied Piper, we follow her toward what I am sincerely hoping is a glorious and filthy death.

TWENTY-FIVE

KNOX

The house is dark when we come through the door. Fury doesn’t turn on a light. She takes my hand and pulls me toward the stairs, Holden and Milo behind us, Micah and Eli bringing up the rear.

She stops at the bottom step and turns around.

In the dark, with the streetlight coming through the window, she looks unforgettable. Flushed. Bright-eyed. Lips still swollen from the car.

“Boys. Upstairs,” she says.

It’s not a question.

Fury wants to play.