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“You ain’t got nothing to say about that, kitten?”
“Not really,” I tease, answering evasively on purpose.
He rises to it, teasing back, “So, I really do fuck you into submission, yeah?”
I slap his chest. “Hell, no.”
He laughs and grasps my offending hand, stroking my fingers.
“I just… I’m enjoying your possessive side when it comes to me.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. I feel secure enough in us that I don’t see it as a threat, as something negative. I enjoy it now.”
“Enjoy it? You mean, it turns you on?”
Of course he’s making me say it. “Yes, you ass. That’s what I mean.”
He grins at me. “Turns me on when you fake-fight with me and bring that feistiness out at me.”
He’s being sweet and chivalrous, sharing the awkwardness and vulnerability that admitting any of that brings me. “Good,” I murmur, relaxing into the comfort of him wrapped around me.
We stay that way for a while, basking in the afterglow and just relishing the alone time together, the peace away from it all.
All too soon, his heavy words spill into the air, shattering our reverie with a dose of reality, “So, you’re really stepping away from Kingmaker? You meant what you said earlier to Runner?”
“I meant it,” I confirm.
“How?”
“You don’t think I can give up the fight, the adrenaline rush of it all?”
“Nah, I honestly can’t see it, Char.”
“I wouldn’t be giving up that, just Kingmaker.”
“How’s that?”
I suck in a breath, then put it out there in a rush, “I was thinking of joining you.”
His arms tense around me and I study him intently for a few moments as an uncomfortable silence falls between us. He looks absolutely astounded.
“You’re not on board with that idea?”
“It ain’t that. Us working together would be incredible. We’ve always made a hell of a team any time we’ve collaborated. I just never thought it’d ever be an option for you. What I do is a major step down from your line of work. I ain’t making big moves against major players and changing the face of the criminal underworld and all that. It’s mostly low-level protection and putting assholes in their place, also safeguarding Thorns when things get dicey.”
“I wouldn’t call it a step down for me, but it will be a change of pace, yes. It’s something I’ve been considering for a while, whenever I’ve had a shred of downtime to actually think.”
“You’re tired?”
“More so, bored of the same old thing.” I grimace as I force myself to admit, “And… maybe a little bit lonely as well.”
“You’re living real similarly to the way I was when I went to ground. I get how it is.”
“With everything that’s happened with Priest and the Gatekeepers, we’re both burned anyway, really.”
“I gotta move out of my house. Probably get out of Brockford for a while actually, to be real safe about it. You’d have to lay low from Kingmaker for a long while too.”
