Page 37 of Light the Fire

My brows knitted together. “Is something wrong?”

Zane grunted—again—then stuffed more food in his mouth. Rix and Jorik each cleared their throats, shook their heads, then glanced up at the stars.

Weird.

“Hey, can I ask you a question?” I said after we were finished our meal and sat in peaceful quiet on the deck.

“Only if we can ask you one,” Rix replied with a cheeky smile.

“You can. Doesn’t mean I’ll answer it,” I said back.

His smile dropped. “What does that mean? You ask us questions all the time, and we answer them honestly.”

“And ninety-nine percent of the questions I ask you are about the world. They’re not personal. Whereas, almost all the questions you have asked and could ask me are personal because I was kept like a lab rat and am brutally ignorant of the real world. So if the question is personal and not something I want to answer, then I won’t.” I quirked one brow at him in challenge.

We seemed to have a stare-off for several seconds. I tuned in to his heartbeat, but it remained steady. His nostrils flared, though, and his pupils dilated slightly. “All right, Cat, what’s your question?”

“What goes into the seduction you guys have talked about? Like … whathappens?You’re obviously not torturing or killing your target, so how do you get what you want out of them? You said charm, and with your body, but … I don’t understand.”

Rix, Zane and Jorik exchanged looks. Jorik’s green eyes widened, and he blew out a breath after inflating his cheeks.

Rix took a deep breath and looked like he was about to say something, but Zane spoke first. “It’s using your cock, hands, mouth, tongue and whatever else you have—so in your case, your pussy, your ass, your mouth, your tits and your hands—to manipulate someone into giving you what you want. So we might kiss, fuck, finger or lick our target into giving us the intel we need. Consider it apleasurableform of torture.” At that last sentence, his lip lifted on one side into a half-hitched smile, and his gaze darkened to the color of slate.

I opened my mouth but then closed it again.

Rix and Jorik seemed frozen as they watched me process.

Zane picked up another fried slice of groundcone and took a bite, seemingly unaffected by what he’d just told me.

“Where do you put your cock?” I asked, trying to make sense of everything he’d just said.

“Wherever it fits and gets the most reaction,” Zane said hoarsely, which made my entire body tremble and heat pool between my legs, in mypussy.

“So like…”

“In a pussy, or an ass, or a mouth.” Zane’s gaze held mine, and even though he didn’t blink, his gaze grew dangerous, and a part of me wanted to inch away, but an even bigger part of me wanted to move closer. Why did I have this sudden urge to climb him like a tree and see what it felt like to have a cock—hiscock—in my pussy?

“And that feels good?” I asked, shocked by how breathless those words came out. My pulse was racing, and my heart felt like it was going to explode out of my chest. I shifted where I sat and discovered a slick dampness between my legs that I’d never felt before.

“Feels incredible,” he said.

“For both people?”

“If he knows what he’s doing.”

“I see.”

“Cat,” Rix said, clearing his throat and breaking the tension that seemed to be strung tight between Zane and me like a live wire, complete with sparks and that weird zapping noise. “Have you never put your hands between your legs and…”

“And?” I probed, breaking my gaze with Zane and focusing on Rix. I could still feel Zane’s eyes on me, though, like they were two heated laser beams.

“Only when I bathe,” I said. “Why?”

“So you don’t know …pleasure?”Jorik asked.

I didn’t know what they were getting at. But I was also feeling like a fool. I knew I was ignorant in the ways of the world, but there came a point where it just felt like my naivete was being shoved in my face like a handful of mud. It wasn’t my fault I didn’t know what certain aspects of anatomy were called or which mushrooms could kill you. I’d never been outside the compound walls before, never met a person who wasn’t a commander, a tutor or a scientist. Even though I was twenty-three years old and could kill a person in four seconds with one move, in many ways I was no more than a baby just learning to walk.

But a baby can only take so many stumbles and so much silent laughter at their follies before they retreat to their corner for a breather and to pout.

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