Shutting the laptop screen, I put it on the chair. I can blurt out so many rehearsed lines.Security check. Distress monitoring. Protocol.Instead, I opt for the truth. “Yes.”
“Because it’s protocol after saving a principal from drowning in a tub?”
“Because the monitors aren’t enough. They don’t let me hear the sound of your breath. It’s the only thing that keeps me sane. Without it, everything inside me starts to unravel.” I lift my shoulder in resignation. “It’s crossing a line, so many lines, but I don’t care anymore.”
She sits upright. “Lucky for you somno is my favorite kink.”
Heat creeps up my neck and cheeks. Birdie has no filters. “Concha de la lora. What the…”
She chuckles. “You’re no stranger to my inappropriate word vomit. You cross the line, and I tease back. It’s our thing.”
“Our thing…” We have a thing. I like the sound of that.
“The way you blush, though, gets me every time.”
“Gets you how?”
A mischievous smirk plays on her mouth, plays with the strings of my heart. “In all the right spots.”
I imagine just that. All her right spots, raw and buzzing and wet. “Yeah?”
“You blush to my smutty words like a virgin, and that… Nothing beats a virgin man trope who has been saving himself for the woman he can’t have, not even a masked stalker who kills to have her.”
All my blood pumps into my cock. There are words, and there are Birdie’s words. They’re spells written precisely to enchant my soul…and cock. At this moment, the spell is a voice that says, “Take her. Take her now.” It’s a dark mantra that doesn’t stop until all I can think about is taking her right here in that bed right now, fucking all her right spots over and over again until she passes out.
I take a deep, loud breath, gathering every ounce of willpower I have to turn my brain back on. “You think I’m a virgin?”
“You blush like one but no. I don’t think a guy like you can stay abstinent for twenty-seven years, not even if he wants to.”
“A guy like me?”
“Tall, dark and handsome, tattooed,pierced, scarred with a tragic backstory, protective and successful, who rides a bike and smells like trouble. You’re a classic— Tristan, are you okay?”
My breath gets louder. I’m moving toward the bed.Yes, take her. She’s not yours, but take her anyway.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
Like what? An animal closing in on prey? A man with the hardest boner he’s ever had ready to fuck you senseless regardless of the consequences? I’m towering over her now.
Her smile vanishes, and fear jumps into her eyes. She leans back.“Tristan?”
Take her now. No one can stop you. Make her yours. Only yours.I don’t fight the voice. I don’t tune it out. I’m only moving closer, bending my head and—
My earpiece blares. I blink fast as if snapping out of a trance, swearing. Brandon is talking. “What?” I huff.
“Sir, we have a breach.”
I grab my laptop fast and open it. “Where?”
“Vineyard decoy cabin.”
“The one where you told the detective Birdie would be.” I cock a brow at her, and she blanches.
“Yes,” Brandon confirms. “Someone tried to break in. They used a jammer, disabled the perimeter cameras, but we got a shot before they did.”
CHAPTER 28
Birdie