Chapter 20: Lock the Door

The side door locked with a click, and then he had me against the wall beside it.

He kissed me hard, with one hand flat on the plaster beside my head.

I got both hands under his shirt and dragged it up over his shoulders.

He let go of the wall long enough to pull it off.

Then he stood bare to the waist under the paper lanterns, and I stopped breathing.

He was broad and warm, with a long scar down one side of his ribs.

"Paramedic accident," he said. "A gurney."

"I'll ask about it later."

"Good."

"Right now I want to see the rest."

He laughed, low, and the sound went straight through me.

He walked me backward across the mat to the cot.

I fell onto it and pulled him down with me.

The frame groaned.

"It's a terrible bed," I said.

"It's the only one I've got."

"I don't care."

His mouth found my throat, then the place under my jaw, then the hollow above my collarbone.

I arched into him and said his name.

He stopped.

"Talia."

"What?"

"Tell me if you want me to slow down."

"I'll tell you if I want you to stop. I don't."

"I'm not doing this as a favor to you."

"No favors," I said, and I was grinning. "Those are the rules."

"This one doesn't count."

"Says who?"

"Says me. I'm the landlord."

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