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The air between us stilled, became unbreathable. Working the bow with stiff fingers, I managed to pull the thing apart.
Inside sat a circular black metal collar, maybe half the width of my pinkie. The fixed front section flattened, leaving space for two names set alongside each other: mine and his.
Any oxygen that remained in my lungs evacuatedin an instant.
“I know yousaid you’d be mine, but I’d like to know…” He swallowed, slipping an arm behind my shoulder to crush me into him. “Say you’ll wear this for me?”
“I’ll wear it.” The words blurted from my lips without hesitation. Tears welled inmy eyes as I tipped my head back and found his lips. “I’ll wear it and never take it off.”
“Thank God.” Still clutching me to him, Killian banged his head backwardon the seat rest and let out a whooshing breath. “Fuck, that’s been killing me for a week or more.”
“One week? I shouldhave held out longer.”
“Hell no. I would have been a hot mess if you tortured me like that.”
The image of Killian crawling to me in thealley rose unbidden into my mind. He was the most incredible man I’d ever known, but as much as I adored his gesture, I never wanted to see him like that again. He had a job, and I had mine. It seemed to work for us, weird as we were.
“Will you put it onme? Please, Sir?”
A low growl brewed in his chest, rumbling against my back. His hands skated over the front of my dress, lifting my arousal in an instant. “Lift your hair.”
His breath kissed the back of my neck as I pulled the strands out of the way. Cool metal warmed on my skin as he traced around its form in an undeniably intimate gesture.
“Mine.” His fingers tangled in my hair, Killian pulled my head back and kissed me until my lips were tender, and then he kissed me more, his hands roaming over my body.
I clung to him, memorizing every feel, every taste. I might be his, but he was mine, too.
The sun dropped below the horizon before we managed to get across town to Fray.
Chapter Eleven
Killian
Local shifters and a few internationals filled Fray to the brim. Rafe had pulled strings in the wake of Lux’s attack with a local security firm who ran a detailed profile up on every single shifter to come through our doors, as well as any undesirables that made it onto the radar. It yielded the expected results with a few extras Rafe dealt with at a one-on-one level.
Lux walked the floor at my sidefor a long part of the night, providing an extra pair of eyes on where we could improve seating, give the players more space, or increase the voyeur’s area below the main stage. The amount of ideas that ran around her head blew me away, and I couldn’t be more proud of the emu shifter who had grown so much in the few years I’d loved her.
Being able to admit that small obsession to myself brought on a fresh wave ofemotion. Yet another change, not pushing that back to be the working machine I’d used to subsist while I could have been doing … other things with my spare time.
I nodded to our new security officer, Cade McKenna, the dingo who had stepped into the fightoutside Fray a few weeks ago. He’d saved Rafe’s ass while mine had lain unconscious on the ground. He’d agreed to be vetted, taking the invasive procedure in stride, but the ex-military man had nothing to tarnish his record, apart from a few nights drunk on parade at a fledgling point in his career that cost him rank.
The sort of bad mark I couldlive with.
“Doing all right?” I muttered as I passed him, my gaze already locked on Lux where she perched on the arm of Rafe’s chair.
“All fine here. Might want to watch the swan and the snake, though. There’ll be blood drawn if you’re not on top of them.”
It turned out I made acrappy judge of character and that Lux and James had been a total fluke. The new bartender, Zoe, had black-and-green hair, a snarky attitude, and a penchant to scare the shit out of James by threatening the swan with eating him while he power-napped in the back between shifts. The joys of hiring a python.
I wouldn’t make that mistake again.
“I mean, she wouldn’t, would she?” I eyed the girl who whirled around the bar and made it her personal dance floor, narrowly avoiding knocking James down. His face flushed but no one saw it, not with Zoe around. She drew every eye in that part of the club and thrived on it.
“God save us from baby dominatrixes.” Cade’s shoulders straightened. His gaze swept the floor with a professional eye, though he watched the bar more than anywhere else.
A smile tugged at the corner of my mouth. I slapped his shoulder, hard enough to sting, and worked my way through the VIP area to wrap my arms around Lux’s tight little body.
“I’m going to enjoy fucking you in my office later tonight. I had some straps installed to the desk.”
