Page 34 of Playing with Fire

I watched his face as he analyzed the device, admiring the way his focus transformed him. This was the Leo I'd been drawn to from the beginning—brilliant, precise, seeing patterns others missed. The same Leo who'd come apart in my arms last night, who'd whispered my name like a prayer as I'd taught him exactly how to touch me.

"Can you get any data from it?" I asked, forcing my thoughts back to the investigation.

"Maybe." Leo took the device carefully, turning it over in his hands. "The memory chip looks intact. If I can hook it up to my recovery system back home, I might be able to extract something useful."

Home. The casual way he referred to my house now made something warm unfurl in my chest. It wasn't just my home anymore, it was ours. His anime figures lined up next to my gaming setup, his laptop next to mine, his toothbrush beside mine in the bathroom. The garage already transforming into his cosplay workshop, foam and fabric and tools gradually claiming the space.

"Good." I stood, brushing ash from my jeans. "Ash, can you finish documenting everything? I want to take Leo back to start working on this right away."

Ash nodded, understanding the urgency. "I'll send you my notes later. And Xavier?” He hesitated, eyes flicking between Leo and me. "Be careful. Whoever this is, they're not playing games."

"Neither am I." I placed my hand on Leo’s lower back, guiding him away from the ruins of his old home. "Let's go."

As we walked to my bike, Leo leaned closer, his voice low. "You really think we can trace them through this?"

"Yes." I helped him onto the bike, making sure he was secure against my back before answering. The feeling of his body pressed against mine, arms wrapped around my waist, sent a now-familiar warmth through me. "Between the device and the pattern we found in their code last night, we're getting closer. And when we find them—"

"We make them pay," Leo finished, his voice steady against my ear. His arms tightened around my waist. "For everything."

I kicked the kickstand up and the bike roared to life. Behind me, Leo pressed closer, his chest warm against my back. As we pulled away from the compound, leaving the others to continue their investigation, I felt Leo's lips press briefly against the back of my neck. A gentle reminder of what we now shared, of what Phoenix had tried and failed to destroy.

They'd wanted to take Leo from me, to burn away the one person who made me feel something beyond the cold satisfaction of my hunts. Instead, they'd pushed us closer together, accelerated something that might have taken months or years to develop otherwise.

Phoenix wanted to play with fire? Fine.

I'd show them what a real monster could do.

Iwatchedthecandleflame dance on Xavier's nightstand, mesmerized by how the fire cast moving shadows across the dark walls of his bedroom. The house was quiet around us, everyone else still at work or handling the investigation at the compound. For the past hour, Xavier had been pacing the small confines of his room, agitation rolling off him in waves as our search for Phoenix hit another dead end.

"They used my element against me." Xavier's voice was razor-sharp, cracking through the silent room like a whip. His hands raked through his blue-dyed hair, leaving chaotic spikes in their wake. The tightly coiled violence in his movements made my breath catch, my body responding to his fury in ways I was still learning to accept. "Fire is mine. It's always been mine. And they dared to use it to try to kill what belongs to me."

I made a soft sound, shifting in my seat at his desk as familiar heat pooled low in my belly. The possessiveness in his words, the way he claimed fire as his element and me as his possession, should have offended me. Instead, it made my cock twitch in my jeans. Two years of friendship had morphed into something darker, something hungrier in the week since the fire, and I was finally letting myself acknowledge how Xavier's intensity had always affected me.

"You know what really pisses me off?" His hands clenched into fists, knuckles white with barely contained rage. "How fucking elegant it was. Like they were showing off. Making sure we knew exactly how good they were at destroying everything."

"The code was pretty sophisticated," I agreed, absently dipping my finger in the pooled wax around the candle. The brief heat followed by cooling pressure helped ground me, gave me something to focus on besides how devastatingly attractive Xavier looked with fury sharpening his features. I'd done this since childhood, building layers of wax until they formed a little cap I could peel away. A nervous habit my abuela used to scold me for

"Pretty sophisticated?" His laugh held no warmth. "Leo, they hijacked your entire security system. Your system. The one even I can barely crack when we're testing it. And they made it look easy."

I nodded, watching another drop of wax cool on my skin and trying very hard not to think about how Xavier's anger roughened his voice. How his possessiveness over my security system sent shivers down my spine in ways my priest would definitely not approve of.

"And now they're out there." Xavier's voice dropped to something dangerous that coiled in my belly like smoke. "Watching. Planning. Probably laughing about how they got through your security." His fist slammed against the desk beside me, rattling our laptops. The sound jolted through me like electricity. "Fuck. I hate not knowing who to hunt."

He stopped suddenly, his gaze fixing on my hands. On the way I was absently playing with the candle wax, letting it drip and cool on my skin. Something shifted in his expression, the cold rage giving way to a different kind of heat.

"Are you doing this on purpose?" His voice held a mix of amusement and hunger. "Trying to be a tease, Leo?"

I looked up at him through my lashes, something bold and unfamiliar moving through me. Instead of answering, I deliberately tipped the candle, letting a small drop of wax fall onto my forearm.

"Fuck," I hissed, the burn sharper than I expected.

Xavier's eyes darkened instantly, his hand shooting out to grab my wrist. "Not like that," he growled, taking the candle from my other hand. "Like this."

He bent over my arm, his eyes never leaving mine as his tongue swept across my skin in a slow, deliberate lick that made my stomach drop. The wetness cooled my skin, and then he carefully tipped the candle, letting a drop of wax fall exactly where his tongue had been.

The sensation was entirely different, a pleasant sizzle rather than a sharp burn, the heat diffused by the wetness he'd left behind. The sound that escaped me wasn't pain, but something closer to pleasure.

"There," Xavier murmured, satisfaction heavy in his voice. "That's how you play with fire."

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