Page 37 of Villains Never Die

I turned the letters around in my head. Most of them were too smudged to be legible. It had been raining for days.

do sso

no no gar

lat extra am

I took out my phone and snapped a photo.

“Can we please get out of here?” Charles begged from where he now curled up in the corner with his knees to his chest and refused to lift his head the whole way to look at us.

Rook and I exchanged glances, then nods. We had everything we were going to get from examining the body and the morgue’s report. Quickly, quietly, we returned the body to its compartment. Charles practically ran to the top of the stairs to get out of the morgue, and Rook and I stood side by side watching him climb into his junky little car and drive away.

“It’s going to rain again,” he said, tilting his head skyward. “We should get inside somewhere.”

“We?”

He turned to me and grinned. “Don’t tell me you’re tired of my company already.”

“Most of that was unhelpful,” I said. “I’d rather go home and try to sleep for two hours before I have to get up for work.”

He stepped toward me, invading my personal space, and slid one hand up my arm and back down my chest, stopping at the waistband of my pants. “Is that really what you want?”

Exhaustion ached in my spine, but his hand was warm, sitting on my stomach, just above where I needed him. I grasped his hand in mine and slid it down over the zipper, so his fingers cupped my growing cock.

“That’s what I thought,” he said, as if he always had to have the last word, and he kissed me roughly. His hand threaded through my hair, pulling me closer and disheveling it in a way that felt obscene.

His lips were addictive, and that citrus scent, with just a hint of salty sweat underneath, wasn’t helping matters. His lips tugged something in my chest like a magnet and held there, the pull between us snapping tight.

“Not here,” I said in a hoarse whisper. I glanced at the sky, which was still blackened with concealing darkness. “Meet me at the penthouse.”

Chapter Fourteen

I drove home with his headlights in the rearview mirror, my heart thundering like I was being chased. I was actually about to do this—let him in, fully welcome and invited. No drawn-out arguments. No scathing banter. I was too tired to fight this tonight.

I parked in my private underground garage, right next to an open space where Rook settled his black SUV and cut the engine. When he stepped out, the fluorescent overhead lights cut lines of light and shadow across the planes of his face. He watched me. Waited. Anticipated me taking the lead.

I owned this building, and no one who worked for me, save Gray, would dare to criticize the decision I was about to make, so why did I want to sneak him past the cameras like a dirty secret?

I didn’t though. I walked into the building, head held high, and Rook so close I could feel the heat of his body against my back.

He did not say a word to me as the lift climbed, floor by floor, to the top of the building. We could have been two associates standing at a respectful distance, rather than rivals sneaking into my home in the middle of the night.

The moment the doors opened, he grabbed me, his hands locking at my lower back and his mouth assaulting mine. This time there was tongue and teeth, and neither did anything to discourage me as I punched in the new code to the penthouse and unwound the spell he had suggested I place as extra security.

We nearly fell through the door, hands becoming bold enough to wander, and fell on the first soft place to land. The leather couch cushions dipped beneath our combined weight as Rook threaded our legs together, tangling our bodies for the first time.

He ground his hard cock against mine, our hips rubbing together violently despite the layers of wool and denim separating us.

I unlatched our mouths and Rook slapped his palm over mine.

“Shut up. Whatever excuse you’re about to make, whatever you’re going to say to talk yourself out of this, just shut up.”

He speared his tongue into my mouth and reached down to guide my hand toward his hard cock. I undid his jeans, shoved them down to his thighs, and gripped him in my hand blindly as we ravaged each other’s mouths.

My lips stumbled as I took in the weight and girth of him swollen in my hand.

“Feel something you like?” he teased, smiling against my lips.