Page 61 of The Fire We Crave

Wraith appears holding Raven’s hand and taps her ass as he sends her up the porch steps. “Brothers,” he says.

I tip my head, and Atom hands him a drink out of the cooler. Laughter filters through the open windows.

“Interesting to see you here, Smoke,” Wraith says, raising an eyebrow.

“Don’t you fucking start,” I say.

“He’s here for protection,” Atom says drolly.

“Ah.” Wraith sits in the chair next to me. “I can see all the things she needs protecting from.”

The women choose that point to laugh at something. Loudly.

“Maybe she needs protection from all that laughing,” Atom says, and Wraith nearly chokes on his beer.

“You two are assholes.”

But my lips curve around the neck of the bottle as I sip.

Raven and Ember appear with three bowls. “Took our chances that you’d all want some chili and corn bread.”

There’s also salad and grated cheese on the side. “Smells delicious, Em,” I say. “Thanks.”

We tuck into the food, and it gets quiet between us. Bones runs back onto the porch to see what the smell is about, and Atom gives him some corn bread.

“Oof, this book wasdark,” Dawn says inside. “Like, maybe outside my comfort zone.”

“I read that scene where he puts a hand over her mouth in the middle of the night,” Ember says. “Wondered if you highlighted it, Raven?”

Raven laughs. “In bright blue, with sticky tabs. Even put the book at the front of the bookshelf so he’ll see it first.”

Wraith low-fives Atom.

“I only stuck with it because of how he always seemed to take the right action,” Dawn says. “Like, how he was supposed to kill her, but when he realized someone else was going to, he saved her. It was romantic, in a bat-shit bonkers kind of way.”

“It’s the common theme in romance, isn’t it?” Quinn asks. “Just how much someone will do for the right person. I think dark romance takes its job seriously to elevate that.”

“I like it when the woman does the same for the man, though,” Ember says. “Like, she should be capable of the big gesture too.”

“Of course she does,” Atom says quietly.

“I feel like the heroine did it in her own way,” Raven says. “Hard to do the big gesture when he’s a stalker who breaks into your house and gets in bed with you. Like, how do you outdo that?”

“She ran,” Quinn says, from inside the house, and now I want to know more.

“Smart woman,” Wraith whispers. “The hero sounds like a douchebag.”

“What do you mean?” Dawn asks. “She didn’t run; she stayed with him.”

“No. The scene where he took her to the woods and told her to run,” Quinn says. “She knew she couldn’t outrun him, and she knew exactly what he was going to do to her when he caught her. Remember, before they even stepped outside, he told her how badly he wanted her pussy and what he was going to do to her when he caught her.”

Hearing Quinn talk about sex so freely does something to my cock. I adjust myself discretely.

“Ohhh,” Dawn says. “You mean she ranasher gesture.”

“Exactly. She knew what her fate was going to be. He’s a serial killer, after all. But she didn’t run fast enough to escape him, which was a slim possibility, at best. She ran to give him enough of a chase. She gave him what he needed. And when he caught her and fucked her outside, he realized she wasn’t his next victim, she was his everything.”

“That’s so romantic,” Raven says.

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