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Soon I’ll get to hear him come when I tell him to.

His footsteps follow me down the corridor, stopping at last when I push open the bedroom door and let it swing shut behind him with a soft click.

He takes one look around the room before his attention comes back to me. “Why are we here?”

I smile. “Because this is the only room in the apartment I wasn’t willing to show you until we were alone. Now, let’s see... what exactly was my proposition?”

“You know what it was.” He glares at my king-size velvet bed.

“Ah, but I want you to tell me. Better yet, I want you to show me you understand. So why don’t you get on the bed?”

He turns, eyes wide and cheeks flushed. “No.”

Of course he says no. It’s always no at first with him. I’ve come to love the sound, the way you love a lock you already have the key to. And I intend to savor every single fucking second of it.

“On the bed, pet.”

“I’m not getting on your bed.” His jaw sets, but the color is already climbing his throat. “You don’t get to just say a word and have me lie down.”

Maybe crossing half the Reach for him was insane. Then he looks at me like that, and I remember exactly why I did it.

“Oh, I get to do exactly that.” I close the last inch between us. “Did you see your brother smile? Ryven did. They seem to be enjoying themselves. I’d hate to spoil that.”

He jerks away from me, pointing a finger at me. “I will not let my brother be a plaything of Ryven.”

“Easy. We’ve got him. Besides, in the penthouse, he has his own room. His oxygen. His medicine, the kind Calder can’t touch and you can’t afford. All of it runs through me now, Jade. Every bottle. Every dose.” I tip his chin up with one knuckle, his pulse racing beneath it. “It would be a shame for any of that to get complicated because you wanted to be difficult about a piece of furniture.”

His eyes widen as fury takes over. “You’re a monster.”

“I know what I am.” I hold his gaze. “Now, on the bed.”

He stands there with his hands fisted, breathing through whatever answer he wants to give me. I wait, enjoying every second of it.

Finally, he climbs onto my bed, shoulders squared, then sits back on his heels and glares at me.

It might be the single most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

Taking my time, I cross to him, put one knee on the mattress, and crawl over him until he has to tip back onto his elbows.

“Now,” I say against his mouth. “Let’s find out what nobody’s ever bothered to.”

He tastes like wine, and underneath it, fury.

Fucking intoxicating.

I trace the shape of his mouth before licking past his teeth. The silver bar in my tongue drags against his, making him shudder and mutter something filthy under his breath.

“Ah, you like that?” I murmur against his lips. “Like it when I kiss you like that?”

“Shut up.”

But it comes out ruined, and his hands find my shirt without his permission, fisting the fabric instead of shoving me away. My own body’s not in much better shape.

I drag my mouth along his jaw to his throat. He tips his head back before catching himself, baring his throat, and I reward him with teeth and tongue, drawing a dark mark over the hammering pulse beneath his skin. He gasps. I leave another beside it.

“Every mark I leave, you’re going to feel for days.” I lick over the first. “That’s the idea. I want you walking around Calder wearing everywhere I’ve been.”

“You’re insane—” It breaks into a moan as I bite down on the cord of his throat.