Page 154 of Pulse Zero
Even though we’re surrounded by clouds of darkness, when it hits, it’s all brilliant, bright light. Cason’s tongue moves lazily against mine as he moans into my mouth. The shadows continue fucking his ass while they slide out of his cock just in time for our combined release to shoot out all over us. I hold him through it as the light gets brighter and brighter with wave after wave of pleasure before it finally fades out.
Cason’s entire body slumps, and the shadows bring his arms over my shoulders. I pick him up just as they release him, and he practically collapses in my hold.
I carry him over to the bed, my breathing still coming in short, erratic pants. I don’t give a fuck that we’re both sweaty and covered in cum. I lie down beside him, and just the thin sheet is draped over the lower halves of our bodies as I hold him close to me.
His eyes are closed, but the way he flexes his hand against my chest lets me know that he’s awake.
“Are you still mad at me?” I ask in a whisper against his hair.
He huffs. “You never play fair.”
“What do you mean?”
“You just gave me the best orgasm of my fucking life,” he mumbles, his voice already tired. “I refuse to answer that question right now. Ask me again when I wake up.”
I blow out a quiet laugh through my nose. “Okay.”
I kiss the top of his head, and he snuggles closer, burying his face in my chest. My hand drifts up and down his back in a slow, comforting rhythm, feeling the steady rise and fall of his breathing as it evens out along with mine.
A soft darkness falls around us, slow and instinctive, as though my shadows need the comfort as much as we do. They gather close, just there, quiet and protective like a blanket of ink.
Some people may fear the darkness, but it’s where I’ve always belonged.
And now, it’s where he does too.
With me.
It turns out that,yes, I’m still mad at Reese.
As soon as we woke up this morning, he asked the same question. “Are you still mad at me?”
Since I wasn’t cum drunk like I was the night before, the answer was easy.
“Yes.”
Now we’re standing out front of the safehouse beside my car that Sebastian had someone go get from the Institute. It’s not that I’mthatangry with Reese, but I have things to do.
“I downloaded a lot of data from the Bellrose servers,” I tell Reese as he leans against my car, annoyingly blocking the driver’s side door with his arms crossed. He’s really not happy that I want to leave. “I want to go through it, but if I try to unpack it all inside my head, it’s going to overwhelm me. If I can upload it to the hard drive I have at home, it’ll be easier to sift through bit by bit.”
“Sebastian has a computer here.”
I give him alook. “I spent years and a lot of fucking money on my setup. I’m using mine.”
He lets out a huff through his nose. “And I can’t come with you, why?”
I cross my arms too, mirroring him just enough to be annoying. “Because you lost that privilege when you promised to let me go somewhere else alone and then broke that promise.”
Reese pushes off the door like he’s about to physically block me again if I so much as breathe in the direction of the handle. “And you proved you can’t be trusted to stay alive for more than five minutes without supervision.”
“Well,” I deadpan, “and here I thought we had something special.”
“We do. That’s the fucking problem.”
I bite back a smile and sigh instead, taking a step closer. “Reese. He let us go.”
“That doesn’t mean anything.”
“It meanssomething. He had a gun to my head. He had both of us in a room full of his little soldiers, and he let us walk out. He’s not going to turn around less than twenty-four hours later and come after me. That’s not how he plays.”
