Page 90 of Veil of Death and Shadow

He smirked, his eyes snagging on the vibrator again.

I shoved it into a drawer.

“Well, you’re not sleeping in here,” I said, my words rushed and flustered as I tried to shove away the very small part of me that almost wanted him to stay. “Do the dead even sleep?”

“Not well,” he tilted his head, studying my pile of books now, as if he were trying to commit the titles to memory, “but yes.”

“Well, where do you usually sleep when you’re on assignment?”

He froze, then straightened his posture. “Like I said, this is an unusual case.”

I wasn’t sure what he meant by that, but I could tell from the narrowed line of his mouth that he wouldn’t offer any more details than he already had tonight. “We have a couch. You’re welcome to it, I guess.”

“If that’s what you’d prefer,” he said, the corner of his mouth curving into a small, soft hook again that had my stomach tightening. “Do try to exert some self-control though, yes? No crawling out in the middle of the night wearing nothing but bedroom eyes and lace, begging to cuddle. I won’t be tempted.” His stare dipped, lingering on my mouth for a beat, before scanning the rest of me as if envisioning the sight. He clicked his tongue and shrugged. “Like I said, I’m off limits. So you’ll have to make do with your fantasies.”

I shot him a glare.

He chuckled, the sound raspy and deep. “Goodnight, Agony. Sleep well.”

I did not, in fact, sleep well.

At least not at first.

I spent a solid hour replaying the absolute chaos of the day.

Then another hyper-fixating on the fact that the guy I slept with was not only dead, but sleeping on the other side of the wall. And that awareness, unfortunately, led to a never-ending loop of the night we’d spent together at Incendiary on repeat in my mind.

After doing everything I could to push the memory from my thoughts, my body refused to unclench the desire that had been slowly building all day—with every touch, every teasing smirk.

With a frustrated sigh, I opened my drawer and grabbed my vibrator.

I let that night replay in my mind, properly this time—uninterrupted and without shame.

And when I finally approached the release I’d been chasing all week, I pressed my face into my pillow and bit down, silencing his name on my lips.

15

MAREENA

Approximately Nine Years Ago, Three Years Before The Undoing

“Thumb goes on top, like this.” Levi tightened my fist, shifting my fingers until they were properly positioned. Given the violence of the activity, he was surprisingly gentle. The heat of his hand sank into my skin. “Whatever you do, make sure you don’t strike with it at the side. You risk breaking it like that.”

“Or just turning my fingers into giant sausages for a few weeks,” I said, fighting a grin. My fingers were back to their normal size now, all signs of damage erased entirely, save for a small white scar on one of my knuckles.

“Or that.” With a featherlight touch, his thumb traced the small mark. His eyes darted up to mine, the hues of gray darker than I remembered them, or maybe they were just more striking today against the vibrant oranges and reds of the changing leaves sprinkled over the ground.

The sun was still out, though it was setting earlier and earlier each day, and the parks weren’t as busy now that thetemperature was dropping. Still, there was a crispness to fall in Seattle that I loved almost as much as the summer. Everything looked sharper, more vibrant, the air less hazy now that the final intense weeks of the wildfire season were ebbing.

It’d been nearly a month since we’d last seen each other, his mystery work keeping him away longer than he thought it would. Part of me was convinced the long stretch of his silence was his way of backing out of his side of the deal, that I’d never see him again.

When my phone vibrated with a text yesterday, I found myself unexpectedly happy to find that he hadn’t.

“Is it . . .” He cleared his throat, his usual snarky confidence absent, as his hands hovered over me. “Is it okay if I position you?”

I nodded.

He brought my arm level with my shoulder, bending my elbow as he stood behind me.

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