Page 23 of Bloom in Darkness

Caelan gestures around the room. “I bought your time. I didn’t buy your body. I’m not expecting a dance, a kiss, sex, or whatever else Sabine normally lets people imagine comes with this room.”

I stare at him, trying to process the sheer absurdity of the number. “You paid fifty thousand dollars.”

Caelan looks entirely unrepentant. “It was excessive. But Silas was annoying me.”

A laugh escapes before I can stop it, breaking the last of the tension in my chest. Caelan smiles too, some of the carefulness finally leaving his face. He moves toward the armchair opposite the couch, deliberately giving me space instead of crowding me on the sofa. “You can spend the rest of the booking sleeping if you want. I have emails to answer.”

I pull my knees up to my chest, wrapping my arms around them. “You paid fifty thousand dollars to answer emails in a private room?”

“I’ve paid more for worse meetings,” he replies, already pulling out his phone.

That gets another laugh out of me, and the last of the panic begins to loosen. We spend the next twenty minutes talking about nothing important. Caelan tells me about a fighter who hid an injured knee because he didn’t want to lose his purse, and I tell him about the Omega backstage already planning the mattress he’s buying with his auction bonus. Somewhere in the middle of it, my shoulders stop sitting near my ears and I realize I haven’t thought about Silas for several minutes.

A knock comes at the door, and I tense automatically. Caelan looks at me before moving. “Bryn.”

He waits until I nod before opening it. Bryn steps inside and looks at me before he looks anywhere else, his gaze moving over my face and down my body as if checking for damage. “You okay?”

“Better.” I’m already crossing the room by the time I answer, and he opens his arms without making me ask. I settle against him for a few seconds, breathing in his scent until the lingering tension in my chest eases. When I pull back, Caelan is watching us from the chair with a soft smile. Heat settles low in my stomach before I can decide what to do with it. Bryn notices too, and his mouth shifts.

Caelan points at him. “That. That’s the smile I was telling Astra about.”

I look up at Bryn, catching the faint, unguarded curve of his mouth. I let my shoulders drop, leaning my weight fully against Bryn’s side. He wraps a heavy arm around me, his thumb stroking my shoulder in a slow, grounding rhythm.

"So," I say, my voice raspy. I look at Caelan leaning against the mahogany table with a completely unbothered expression. "How do you do it?"

Caelan raises an eyebrow. "Do what?"

"Handle a Valla twice your size without getting flattened." I gesture between him and Bryn. "I know exactly how strong he is, and you just let him manhandle you like it's nothing."

Caelan’s mouth curves into a real smile as he pushes off the table and rolls his shoulders. "How would you know how strong Bryn is? You’ve never seen him fight, Astra. As for manhandling… you haven’t seen that either." His wicked grin has me trying to tamp down the sudden heat pooling low in my stomach.

"What I meant is that you both fight at the Forge. How do you… fuck.” I bite my lip to keep from saying something stupid but Caelan doesn’t seem to mind.

"It takes a lot of leverage and using what I have to work with. Most Valla fight with their weight and their designation." He walks over and stops in front of me, holding out his hand. "Give me your wrist."

I reach out, and his fingers close firmly around it. "Most people pull straight back," he says, adjusting my arm so I can see the angle. "That just makes you fight the whole grip. Turn toward the thumb and break through the weakest part."

I pull hard, yanking my arm back, but his grip doesn’t yield a fraction of an inch. The look Caelan gives me makes heat crawl into my face.

“Shut up.”

A low rumble comes from the armchair, and I turn to find Bryn watching us with entirely too much amusement. “Traitor.”

Caelan tightens his grip just enough to challenge me. “Try again.”

This time I don't pull straight back. I twist my wrist sharply toward his thumb, slipping through the gap in his fingers. My arm comes free, and I stare at my own hand, flexing my fingers in disbelief.

I look back up at Caelan, a massive, unguarded grin spreading across my face. My chest puffs out a little, my scent warming with pride.

"Good," Caelan says. He looks over at Bryn. "Show him what happens when he tries that against someone who isn't holding back."

Bryn stands and crosses the space between us. Bryn’s scent sharpens as he stops in front of Caelan.

Caelan shows me another break, then has Bryn grab him from behind so I can see how the angle changes. He twists free the first time and slips out of a wrist hold the second. On the third try, Bryn catches him around the waist before Caelan can turn and drives him forward against the edge of the mahogany table.

Caelan catches himself with both palms against the wood, laughing under his breath, his chest heaving. Bryn crowds in behind him, his massive frame completely caging Caelan in. Bryn’s large, tattooed hand slides up to close around the front of Caelan’s neck, his thumb pressing into the pulse point there. Caelan turns his head just enough, offering his throat, as Bryn kisses him hard over his shoulder.

The rough, breathless sound Caelan makes hits me right in the chest, making my knees go weak and my cock throb heavily against my zipper. When a small whine slips through my lips, both of them freeze and look at me.