The Tideflats King Claimed the Surveyor Who Trusts No One, and My Signature Was His Brother's Alibi novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: Mine

I went up at dusk with the day's survey finished and my own key to the private elevator in my hand.

I had finished the stair before noon.

I had written it down in block letters in my notebook, with the date, and I had signed it.

He was standing at the far end of the glass room with his back to the bay when the doors opened.

He did not move.

He had told me he would not.

I walked across the floor with the freezer hum coming up through my boots.

I stopped an arm's length from him, with the solid wall behind me.

"Stand where I can see you," I said.

"I am," he said.

"Take your coat off."

He took it off and laid it over the steel desk, folded, and stood in the white shirt with his hands at his sides.

I looked at him for a long time.

He let me.

I had never looked at a man for as long as I wanted.

His shoulders were wide enough that the shirt pulled at the seams.

The collar was open, and I could see the pulse beating at the base of his throat.

"You said until I tell you," I said.

"Yes," Niko said.

"Then I'm telling you."

His breath went out of him, quiet and ragged.

"Where?" he said.

"Here."

I put my palm on his chest.

His heart hit it like a fist.

I undid the first button, and then the second.

I did them slowly, and he did not help.

I felt the heat coming off him through the cotton, and I saw his hands close once at his sides and open.

"Look at me," I said.

He looked.

His eyes had gone black.

I peeled the shirt open and put both hands on his skin.

It was hot and hard and covered in dark hair, with an old scar across the ribs and another under the collarbone.

I dragged my nails down the center of his chest, and he made a sound in his throat.

"Say it," I said.

"Say what?" he said.

"What you said on the boat."

He did not hesitate.

"Mine."

He said it low and rough, with his whole chest behind it.

"Price?" I said.

"Name it," Niko said.

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