My body went as cold as the frozen window I crouched under. The djinn were afterme. I mean, I knew that already, but I thought it was because of the new siren laws, not for… I didn’t know why. They really were trying to kill us on that road. I missed the rest of the djinn’s confession as I tried to process the fact that someone wantedmedead.
What I didn’t miss was Ezra slicing the djinn’s throat with his last smiley face icicle and the violent spray of blood that arced from the force of that strike. I didn’t turn away from the view of my bond standing in front of a dying body, hands limp at his sides, with blood dripping from his fingertips.
Time passed; my toes were going numb and my calves screamed in betrayal from holding this position, but Ezra still hadn’t moved. A darkness remained on his side of the bond. It was hard to see through it, but I knewhewas in there. Somewhere. Any minute now, he’d shake off whatever this was and come back to me. Any minute.
It didn’t happen when he looked away from the body and headed to the side door on the opposite wall. Nor when the sound of water pouring from the outside shower broke the stillness of the night. My feet once again carried me past the point of reason and toward the unknown.
The small shower was straight ahead, attached to the side of the garage and open on three sides. Ezra stood like a tormented statue right in the middle, beneath the spray. The dim bulb in the corner gave just enough light to see that he hadn’t bothered to take his clothes off before stepping in, and darker swirls of blood mixed with the water that disappeared down the drain at his feet.
I tried again to reach him. That connection between us practically pulsed when I ran a mental hand over it. I sent waves of worry and concern at that cloud of darkness, and when that didn’t work, I pierced it with a bolt of rage. Whatever the fuck that was in there, it didn’t belong. Not inmybond.
Ezra jolted and turned around. Water rained onto his head and flowed forward over his face, but he didn’t blink it away. He didn’t take his eyes off me.
“You shouldn’t be here,” he rumbled, voice like gravel.
I felt his glare like a brand, but I didn’t flinch from it. I was exactly where I needed to be. His attempts at intimidation weren’t going to work, no matter how much my knees threatened to bend at the sheer will he pressed into those words. So I said the stupidest thing I could to counteract it.
“I saw what you did in there.”
He moved in a flash, too fast for me to track or anticipate. One second, he was against the back wall, and the next, he was out from under the spray and directly in front of me… with his hand around my throat.
“Did you now?” he purred, and something familiar moved in his gaze. “You have a habit of not doing what you’re told.”
Didn’t I know it. His hold on my neck was tight, but not restricting. In a weird way, it was grounding. The touch connected me to him and gave me a direct route past the shadows hiding him from me.
I lifted my chin, allowing him to get a firmer grip. “You don’t scare me.”
“I should.”
Maybe it was that admission—made with such anguish it nearly broke my heart—that shattered the spell. Or maybe what he told me before was true, that bonds couldn’t physically hurt one another and just the thought of doing so set him free. I wasn’t sure.
What Ididknow: his side of the bond was growing lighter, like rays of sun chasing away the thick fog.
“I’m so sorry,” he confessed, then slipped his hand from my neck finger by finger, as if he wanted to be sure he did it as gently as possible. “I tried to be better for you, but when I saw the djinn attack, when I realized it wasn’t a capture mission they were on, I couldn’t keep the monster at bay anymore.”
I took a small step forward, and he stumbled away. “Was that what that darkness was? A monster?”
His throat bobbed, but I kept coming, kept closing the distance. The shower was still on, and Ezra backed all the way under the spray once more in an attempt to keep distance between us. There was no need. He wasn’t capable of hurting me, and I had a plan to prove that to him.
“Rani, I’m not fully in control—”
I pushed him against the wall, cutting off his protest. I didn’t want him in control. I wanted some of that darkness to stay, to witness how free he could be with me even when it was present. My hands followed the flow of water down the firm planes of his abs until they reached his belt.
His entire body froze as I released the buckle and slowly pulled on the zipper. The waterlogged jeans clung to him, and I only got in one hard tug before he snapped out of it.
“What are you doing?” He asked, the entire question laced in warning.
I dropped to my knees and looked up at him, ignoring how quickly I got soaked in this new position. I brushed the wet strands of my hair to the side. “What does it look like I’m doing?”
It was definitely shock that made him freeze for the second time that night, and I hid a smile as I went back to work on his pants. I got them down low enough to reach in and wrap my hand around his already semi-hard cock. He was warm against my palm, a stark contrast to the cool water soaking us to thebone, and I was glad to say that first impressions told me he wasn’t lying every time he boasted about his size.
Or girth.
He hissed through his teeth when I pulled him free, and then it was my turn to freeze. The man wasn’t even at full mast and he was already larger than any dick I’d seen before, and I wasn’t some wilting wallflower who did it with the lights off. I started to second-guess my plan. I was good, but it would be hard to maneuver around something that big in my mouth.
“That’s not a normal-sized dick.” The confession slipped out; I couldn’t help it.
Ezra’s responding laugh was strained, but genuine. “You’re welcome.”
