I loved the way his teeth grazed my skin, the way he pushed my thighs apart and drove into me until I screamed. I loved hishand around my throat—not tight, just firm enough to tell me I was his.
I belonged to him.
God help me, I did.
“I want to hear you say it,” he’d growled. “Tell me you’re mine.”
And I had—over and over—until my voice cracked.
Love bites covered my skin by the end of the night.
We broke the damn headboard.
A lamp crashed to the floor.
At some point, we ended up there ourselves, and even after I’d come five times, he kept going like a man who couldn’t stop.
I passed out afterward. Completely spent.
And then he disappeared.
Just… gone.
Got up during the night, took his things, and left without so much as a note. When I woke up, it was like he’d never existed.
No calls.
No texts.
Nothing.
He walked out of my life like it meant nothing.
God, why does he have to reappear now?
Why here?
Why like this?
And why the hell does he have to be so unbearably hot?
Why can’t I ignore the way the silver in his hair suits him, or the way his dark eyes snare mine effortlessly? Why can’t I stop noticing that sadness he carries, the sadness that still makes me want to reach out and touch him even though he’s the one who hurt me most?
“That’s not what we do here,” Luke says, breaking the spell. I turn toward him. “We don’t tell people their problems are all about mindset.”
“Isn’t that basically what Reiki is?”
“No,” he says. “Not even close. Reiki is about energy flows. I could explain it, but it would be better if you experience it.”
I study him, then Reid adds, “Also, we don’t charge everyone the same. We have a pay-what-you-can structure to make sure sessions are affordable for people on lower incomes.”
“You don’t?”
“No. Their visits are subsidized by wealthier clients—celebrities and people who can afford the full rate.”
“Doesn’t sound like a great business model.”
“It probably isn’t,” Luke admits. “But that’s not why we got into this. We get by. It does mean we have to be selective about the clients we take—case by case, depending on what they’re dealing with and whether we think we can help. For now, there are maybe twenty people on the premises.”