The Flame Trilogy (Books I, II & III)

2.17

Her mouth is warm on mine, tongue tangling with talented passion, careless urgency and heated intent. It's a pussy tingling kiss, and it lights me up and reminds me of how long it's been since I've felt another's skin on mine. How much I want to be touched.

In the back of my mind, I can feel that uncomfortable niggling. A strange, light sensation, as if I'm doing something wrong. I want to ignore it. The desire to be craved, to touch warm flesh and to feel good is easier to hold on to.

Tongue and teeth clash, and I taste blood when she bites my lip. She tilts her head to the side, deepening the kiss, her tongue darting out with an erotic caress. For a moment I feel like I'm somewhere else, watching myself like a fly on the wall.

Her moan cuts through the quietness around us; perhaps a year ago it might have driven me insane, but now it only makes that unsettling feeling assail me once more like a punch to the gut. It leaves me empty and colder than ice, any enjoyment completely sucked out of my interaction with Windbreaker.

I want more than anything to be touched, to be fucked. Just not by her.

I pull away, though my face lingers close for any watching eyes to keep up a pretence of some sexual escapade in the making. I note the disappointment that flickers in her gaze for just a moment. However, in a place where emotions are as fleeting as dying embers, it's quick to be replaced by her usual stoic manner.

"I need to talk to you," I murmur. "Somewhere that there are no eyes or ears that might be lurking."

Her eyes lock with mine, narrowing slightly as she watches me, a flicker of understanding flashing across her features though it's gone faster than it arrives. She leans in, licking my neck in a hot trail to my ear, biting my lobe gently and sending a small shudder through me.

"Follow me."

She takes me down the dingy stairs into a dank basement. It's full of boxes, stored neatly on shelves though some are opened and strewn about messily. It smells of antiseptic, even down here, but the walls are a deceiving mould like colour.

"Down here is secure, the walls and door are lined with Theras." Windbreaker turns back to look at me, her gaze piercing and careful to scrutinise every inch of me. I know that she's let that small secret slip, as both a signal and a test. On one hand, I know that it's my turn to give her some information of equal value, and yet on the other, I know that if word gets out that Windbreaker has used an important resource like Theras to hybrid-proof her basement, then she'd be in for a purging herself.

"I'm putting together a specialised taskforce, I want you in on it." I stand straight, no longer bothering to pussyfoot around what I need to say. There is no point, it would probably just frustrate her and that wouldn't bode well if I want her on my side.

"What's it for?"

"Intelligence and tactical strategy."

"And you needed to tell me this in this dank basement after getting me horny for what reason exactly?" She cocked her hip, raising a brow in my direction as she took all of me in.

"Aleksandr expects it to be against all the other packs, but I didn't exactly specify which pack I'd be focusing on."

"You want to take down Shadow Fang from the inside?" Windbreaker whisper shouts, whether she's paranoid that even a Theras lined room isn't enough to hold in such a dangerous admission, or she's just so used to having to quiet her rebellion I can't tell. "Why the fuck are you involving me?!"

"You don't want to?"

"What you're asking is more than just a coup... did time outside fry your brain?!"