Half Were Mine novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: Her Lead

The flat over the east office had one room, one bed and a kitchen table the steward had found in a storeroom.

I had not lit the lamp.

When the knock came, I was standing in the middle of the floor with my boots already off.

I let him wait a moment, because I wanted my hands to be steady.

They weren't.

I opened the door.

Torsten filled the frame. He had washed his face, and his hair was wet at the temples.

"Come in," I said.

He came in and shut the door behind him and stayed against it with his hands at his sides.

"I told you I wouldn't touch you until you asked," he said. "I meant it. I'll stand here as long as you want."

"I know."

"Then tell me what you want, Bronwyn."

I crossed the floor and put my palms flat on his chest.

His heart was pounding under my hands, hard and fast.

"A few nights ago I told you I wanted nothing from you that I'd have to be grateful for," I said.

"I remember."

"I take it back."

His eyes closed for a moment.

"I'm not grateful. I'm not thanking you for the ankle, or the fire, or the hall." I slid my hands up to his collar. "I want you because I want you. Nobody sent you. Nobody owes anybody."

"Say it once more," he said, rough.

"I'm asking."

His eyes opened, and they were gold.

I pulled him down by the shirt, and I kissed him.

There was nothing careful in it.

He made a low noise against my mouth, and his hands came up into my hair and undid the braid.

I bit his lower lip, and his whole body shuddered.

I backed him across the room to the table.

"You said a table," I said against his jaw. "In the Alpha's office, with the whole roster meeting two chairs away, you said it in my ear."

"I did."

"Then sit on it."

He sat. The table creaked and held.

He was big enough that even sitting he was nearly level with my eyes.

He looked up at me with his hands open on his knees, waiting.

I took my time with his buttons.

Each time I opened one, I put my mouth where the shirt fell back.

I kissed his collarbone, and then his chest, where the hair went dark.

I found a scar over his ribs that I had not known about.

He breathed through his teeth.

"Bronwyn."

"Hands on the table."

He put them flat on the wood. I could see the effort in his arms.

I pushed the shirt off his shoulders and ran my nails down his stomach, and his hips jerked toward me.

"You said you'd take your time," I said. "I'm taking it."

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