Page 124 of The Piece You Stole

“Is that what you want, Saige?” The steam from his hot shower billows around him, making it appear as if he were some Greek God coming to me in a vision. “For me to give you pleasure without sex?”

“You still haven’t told me what that is.” I recall Kade’s words back in the Cerberus. “Kade said…” I stop because my mouth is too dry, so I swallow as I root around for words which have chosen now to abandon me.

Aden waits with that same patient expression stamped across his face.

And then I realize what I’m doing. Or not doing.

Here I am, sitting cross-legged on Aden’s bed in Kade’s shirt, where I’ve been settling into a house that is not mine, and a life that can’t be mine.

One day soon, Rylan is going to burst through the front door. He’s going to bring his pack with him. They will tear into Kade, Aden, and Dariel, and he will take me back.

What are you doing, Saige? The danger isn’t over, so why are you acting as if it is?

Looking away, I move to the edge of the bed, unwind my legs, and plant one foot on the floor, preparing to rise. Before I can, Aden is there, one damp hand gripping my right forearm as he helps me to my feet.

He doesn’t release me. “What do you want, Saige?”

I want to close my eyes, my ears, and my mind to everything bad, and just be like everyone else for once. But what I want isn’t important. And especially not now I’ve brought all my trouble right to the hounds’ front door. “It isn’t safe for me to stay with you,” I whisper.

“I’m not asking you about staying or going, the past or the future.” His hazel gaze burns into me. “I want to know what you, Saige Leo, want right now.”

My lips part as I prepare to tell him my wants don’t matter. That I only came to find out how I can help them with their plan.

But those aren’t the words which spill from my lips. “I want to forget.”

Understanding fills his eyes as he steps toward me. Close but not touching. Not yet. “There are rules.”

I swallow a gulp.

He lifts his hand.

I hold still, as a tightness forms in my chest. A pause. And then his hand stretches toward me as his gaze dips to my mouth.

He speaks in a murmur. “No touching.”

My brow furrows in a frown. “Why—”

He dips his head, drags his thumb across my bottom lip, and presses a soft and surprisingly chaste kiss on my lips. “A safe word.”

Alarm spikes in my belly, and I edge back half an inch. “I don’t—”

He gazes down at me steadily. “I’ll be doing things to you, Saige, and I need to know when it’s too much and you want me to stop. So, a safe word.”

Maybe this wasn’t what I wanted at all.

“What kind of things?” I dare myself to ask in a soft breath, not doing the one thing I know I should: leave.

“Things.” He kisses my lips. “That will make you moan.” His next kiss lands on my jaw. “And scream.” My throat tingles with his next soft touch. “And gasp.”

Easing his head from mine, he studies me intently as I relearn how to breathe. “So I need to know if you want me to stop. Or if you just want to—”

“Moan?” I interrupt. “Scream, or gasp?”

His lips turn up at the edges in a tiny smile. “Or fight me.”

A muscle in my stomach clenches. “Why would I be fighting you?”

How can I be this breathless already?

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