Page 19 of Live Like Legends

She tucked pieces of her hair behind her ear. “Ugh, she said you might be an asset to my whole situation. The internal turmoil.”

I blinked, patiently waiting for her to continue.

“I told her that you had other things to deal with. You are working on a healthy mental state, you have your whole dad thing happening and I just didn’t want to be a burden, nor do I need you to be all macho hero man because I would rather throw myself out your fucking window than be a damsel in distress.” She started to chew on her thumbnail anxiously. “Shemighthave mentioned something along the lines of light calls to light and all that nonsense.”

One corner of my mouth tipped up, but I covered my lips with my hand, trying to seem nonchalant. “Hmm, so she thinks my help is needed?”

“Shesuggestedit, but that doesn’t mean I’m asking.”

I shrugged. “My light seems to be mingling with yours, which would mean that in some odd way I’m actually burning myself. The burning could be morphed into something constructive if you let it.”

“It’s not funny.”

“I’m not laughing. It’s just an observation.” I walked over to her, clasping my hands around her shoulders. “I am willing to provide you with any thread of light I have. I would love to be able to do that without having to get you naked and needy.”

She scrunched her nose up at me. “We both know you don’t mind.”

“I do not. You could burn me anytime you want, and I wouldn’t complain. I do want to give you the best advantage possible though, Dani. I am not asking you to give up this independence you have, but maybe your light would cooperate better if it knew you could trust it like you trust me.” I lifted her chin with my finger, forcing her to look directly at me. “You completely let go when you orgasm, so we’ll focus on that next time we see Natalia. Not the orgasm, but the letting go thing.”

I heard my father’s words echoing in my head.

One day your light will be just as big as that all on your own, but sometimes it’s okay to get a little help.He’d meant it for my younger self to be able to reflect on it for when I got to adulthood, but maybe, it could be of use right now. “It’s okay to get a little help, Dani. You took some of my darkness, remember, so how about you let me willingly give you some of my light.”

She rubbed her lips together as if she was mulling this over. “You’ll back off when I need you to?”

I groaned, but she stared at me with this look in her eyes that had me wanting to fold instantly. “Onlywhen you really need me to. Otherwise, I’m at your side, soaking up how much of a badass you are.”

“Compliments get you everywhere.” She pecked my lips, seeming to concede for now. She leaned back a bit before I could kiss her again. “Do one thing for me please?”

I let out a steady breath, assuming she would say something like please, talk to your dad. I would do it, I promised her that, but I wasn’t ready to face what that meant. The fact that I would have to discuss my mother was something that left a lump in my throat and a pained feeling in my chest. A feeling I didn’t know existed, especially when it was over someone I could hardly remember.

“Talk to Garrett. Let him talk to you about anything. Your necromancy, his kids, whatever. You of all people should know what a relief it is to just talk to someone about how you feel.”

She was my fiery hybrid with a heart as big as Heaven itself. I nodded, understanding every word she said. “Okay.”

She kissed my nose. “Good boy.”

I raised my eyebrows as she stuck her tongue between her teeth, giving me one of her various flirtatious expressions. “That is the first and last time you ever say that.” I tucked my hand into the front of her towel, loosening it.

She bit her bottom lip, examining me. “Nick, the whole burning light thing…orgasms…”

I pulled her towel completely off, bending at my knees so that I could tuck my hands behind her thighs and pick her up. She wrapped her legs around my lower back, pushing her breasts against my chest. “That hasn’t stopped me yet and it won’t stop me now. If you burn me then you burn me. I’ll heal.”

Ifelt his legs unravel themselves from my own as he — very unsuccessfully — tried to not jostle me awake. His hands tentatively touched my arm as he leaned over, placing a gentle kiss to my temple. Despite his way of distracting me with his body, I couldn’t help but attempt to focus on what he had told me earlier. The moment when I felt my stomach pull and my eyes tried to roll back in my head from the pleasure, I actually saw it. The light that evidently burned him exuded from my palm and singed his skin as I’d grabbed onto his bicep.

He had flinched but he seemed to be too engrossed in what we were doing to really feel the pain. The minute we flopped onto our backs, I’d rolled over to cuddle into his side and grazed my hand over where his skin was already beginning to redden and swell. I did feel closer to Nick while we were intimate, but there was something comforting about knowing I could be completely myself with someone. I could be wild and untamed for one minute, but all of a sudden, I could choose to be reserved and self-contained.

“Where are you going?” I asked, rolling over and catching a glimpse of his mildly stunned face. The dim moonlight that shone through his little window shaping his face.

“I told you I was meeting Reese.”

“That you did, but it seems kind of late, doesn’t it?”

He sat up, the covers falling off his stomach, giving me a very nice look at his abs. “His choice, not mine. I’m going to Natalia’s though.”

My eyebrows pulled together. “Won’t you portaling yourself away to Oculus in the middle of the night be just another reason for Ariel to bitch at you even more.”

He laughed that deep, throaty laugh of his. It was the kind of laugh that told me he thought what I said was actually funny and I prided myself on making him laugh like that at least once a day since we’d gotten back from Purgatory.

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