Page 77 of Light the Fire

It seemed like a suicide mission when he laid out all we had to do. Everyone in power needed to be killed in order for the rest of us to be free. I’d gladly lay down my life if I knew that the cause had any chance of succeeding, but at this moment, we had no clue.

Was there even going to be anybody waiting for us when we got down to the meeting point in Sector Six? Or were we a team of four preparing to go assassinate the president and end his family’s century-long dynastical dictatorship?

Jorik continued to talk. “People have houses. Eat dinner as a family. Kids have parents that love them. If you’re not rich, you scrape by. Everyone—no matter your service—gets a rationed amount of food and money per month. Doctors and farmers make the same. They get the same amount of chicken and rice each week. Only the upper echelon has unlimited funds and resources.”

“As much as it sounds like they don’t have a choice—and I know they don’t—I’d rather live that life and with people, with a family, than the life I was assigned.”

“Me, too, Angel.” He pressed a kiss to my shoulder and slowly, we slipped into silence. My eyes closed, and I focused on Jorik’s heartbeat, matched my own to it, and let the tandem thumping ease the tightness that seemed to have developed in my chest.

“Want me to wash your hair? Now that we have real shampoo?”

I made a noise of longing in my throat and nodded but then spun around to face him, straddling his waist. “I do, but first…”

“You want to get good and dirty before we get good and clean?” His brows waggled playfully on his forehead as he ran his hands up my spine, then around to my soapy, slippery breasts. I could feel his cock stiffening beneath my pussy, notching itself, finding my center like a homing beacon.

I nodded. “Is that a way to describe sex? Doingdirtythings?”

“Dirty, filthy, naughty, nasty … they all hold a double meaning when referencing sex.”

Smiling, I leaned forward and snagged his bottom lip between my teeth. “I like that. So yes, I’d like to getgood and dirtybefore we getgood and clean.”Then I sank down onto his cock, welcoming him into my heat.

“Fuck,” Jorik breathed. “You are a fast learner.”

I grinned, loving the compliment. But it was true. Because of my Sigma strain, I had an eidetic memory. I only had to be shown something or taught something once, and I knew it for life. Yes, training in guns, knives, and hand-to-hand combat had taken finessing and practice, but even with those things, I was a quick learner. It’d taken a little longer to learn how to compartmentalize my brain with all the new overwhelming sensations, but I’d mastered it and now didn’t have to think twice about walking into the woods and shutting out all the animal heartbeats and smells.

My hands came to rest on his broad shoulders while he continued to play with my breasts, tugging on my already tight nipples, pulling until he drew a gasp from deep in my lungs and I ground down on his cock even more.

“You are the most exquisitely dangerous thing I’ve ever met,” he said, looking at me with so much awe that my cheeks grew warm and I had to stop myself from glancing away. “The fact that you are so deadly and yet still so … human and soft just adds to your appeal.”

I paused my hips and looked into his beautiful fern-green eyes. Was this love?

Was there supposed to be a tingly, warm feeling in your chest and this overwhelming sense of connection and possessiveness about the person you cared about?

I swallowed, shocked to find that my eyes stung when I blinked.

And I must have shown my surprise because a small smile played at Jorik’s lips as he lifted one soapy hand from my breast and gently wiped my tear away. “Never been paid a compliment before, Angel?”

I shook my head. “Not many. Could probably count them on one hand. I’ve only ever really been told when I was wrong or needed improvement. Even when I split the arrow in the bull’s-eye down the center with another arrow and then another, I was never told that I was any good.”

Dammit. Another tear slid down my cheek.

But Jorik was there to wipe it away. “Oh, baby girl. You are good at so many things. So, so many things.” Tangling his fingers in the hair at the back of my head, he drew me down to brush his lips across mine. “And I’m going to make a better point of telling you just how amazing you are.”

I hiccupped a sob, and my body froze.

Jorik pulled away. “What’s wrong?” Concern creased the corners of his eyes.

I shook my head and relaxed. “I just … I can’t remember the last time I cried, let alonesobbed.I was beaten so much as a child for crying that I learned not to do it. And I think that sob just triggered something in me. Like the moment I heard it, Moord was going to come at me with his cane.”

Jorik ground his teeth, and a dangerous, murderous glint flashed in the deep green of his eyes. The grizzly was pacing back and forth just beneath the surface. A strong muscle ticked in his jaw, but all of that was gone nearly as fast as it came, and when he looked back at me, I saw nothing but affection and care. My teddy bear. “If he wasn’t already dead, I’d kill him for you myself.” He swept another tear off my cheek. “But these aren’t sad tears … I don’t think. I think they’re tears of joy, relief possibly?”

I nodded. He was probably right.

“And you’re welcome to cry all you need to. We won’t hurt you for it. We’ll just hold you.I’lljust hold you.” Abandoning my breast with his other hand, he wrapped both arms around me tight, hauling me against his chest until my breasts were smashed between us. His lips fell to my neck, but he just held them there, and for a moment I was still.

Then, because I’d finally been given permission—or something—the sobs began to wrack my body, and I shook violently in Jorik’s lap, his cock still nestled inside me. Tears streamed down my face, dripping onto his back. So many held-back tears poured out of me, the bathwater probably rose several inches.

I wasn’t sure how long we sat there or how long I cried, but the bubbles had disappeared and the water was bordering on cold by the time I lifted my head to look at him.

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