Page 94 of Villains Never Die

A message just for me.

Get ready. It’s almost your turn.

“Get in the car,” Rook demanded. He climbed in the passenger seat and rolled down the window despite the chill, so that the message wouldn’t be visible to anyone as we drove past.

The drive was silent. Rook looked out the open window as the cool air ruffled his hair, lost in some thought of his own, while I stewed over clues that still didn’t fit together.

The moment the penthouse door closed behind us, he slammed me against the wall, his hands pressing against the painted stretch on either side of my head and his lips searing into mine like he was trying to brand me.

“Maybe you should leave town,” he said when he finally took a breath, the words a little airy as the oxygen filled his lungs.

“Why?” My eyes flitted between his, searching for the emotion behind the words. His face was drawn, almost furious in the weak light, but those eyes were wide and panicked.

“Because someone wants to kill you.”

A small laugh eased past my lips. “Everyone wants to kill me.”

Rook planted his hands on my shoulders and I don’t think he realized how he pushed me into the wall until they ached. “Yes, and this bastard is crazy enough to do it. He’s killing Council members—important people. He doesn’t have the same wariness as everyone else.”

“I’m not afraid of him.”

“You’re full of shit, and you can’t control everything. You can’t control someone who isn’t afraid of you!” He finally released me, spinning to pace the living room. “Austin, I want you to leave. Tonight before this gets worse. He knows where you live. He’s got one more person to off and then you’re an easy target. He already has everything he needs to know about you.”

I straightened my jacket where he’d rumpled it and frowned. “He’s left silly notes and graffiti. Why are you so upset about this?”

He stopped, gripped the back of the couch, and when I turned on the light, his face was flushed. “Because I care about you, and I don’t want you to die! You can’t—you can’t go anywhere. I don’t want to have nothing to care about.”

I stalked across the distance between us, and his eyes went wider as I gently lifted one of the tightly locked fists that was trying to strangle my cushions and raised his hand to my mouth, kissing his palm and fingertips.

“I’m not going anywhere.” His tension eased a fraction under my lips. I kissed his wrist, his forearm. He yanked his hand away and glared at me. I had never seen him so terrified, so enraged at the thought of losing me. “I promise, I am not going anywhere. If you’re worried about it, help me find out how to stop him, but I’ve got a primordial death creature to kill and a man I don’t want to abandon, so I’m staying right here.”

I realized then that I wouldn’t leave him; I didn't want to. Maybe I couldn’t have escaped the pull of us if I’d tried. Rook had worked his way under my skin so thoroughly I couldn’t separate myself from him even under threat of death, and now all I wanted was for him to stop looking at me like I was a ticking bomb.

“Rook, I can’t die, and whoever this cowardly little fucker who keeps leaving morbid doodles is, there is no way he will kill me nine more times. I will end him, and this won’t be an issue anymore. You are worrying for nothing.”

“It’s Emmett,” he said, his voice quieting with surrender.

I unlatched his other arm from the couch and hooked it around my waist. When my lips found his neck, he tilted his head to one side. Yes, perhaps it was Emmett, but somethingdidn’t sit right with the assumption. I agreed with him anyway, just to soothe fear’s grip on him.

“He came to see me at Avalon.” I scraped my teeth lightly over his throat. “He’s not a threat to me.”

“Except for the part where he threatened you,” he argued, still trying to sound angry under my touch, and failing miserably. Each word lost a little fury until the last one tapered off into a soft moan.

“He threatened my business.” I slid a hand between his hips and cupped his cock, rubbing it in the palm of my hand. “If you hadn’t noticed, my business is already fucked, at least until I fix the mess from the fire. There’s nothing he can do to me—can’t fuck with me, can’t kill me. You’re worrying aboutnothing.”

He forgot how to speak as I pressed harder against the length of him.

“Let me distract you,” I murmured. I fumbled once as I unbuttoned his jeans and my fingertips danced beneath the stretch of fabric that kept me from touching him skin-to-skin. His cock was fully hardened and leaking at the tip, aching for release. I swiped my thumb over the drop of precum glistening there, smearing it across the head of his cock, then meeting his eyes as I licked some of it from my skin.

He closed his eyes as he sucked in a shuddering breath.

“How would you like to be inside me tonight?”

He shrugged off his leather coat and gripped me by both hips. He forced his tongue into my mouth, licking against mine in hungry, consuming strokes, like he was trying to eat the very breath from my lungs. Then, in one loud rip that echoed in the dark, he tore my shirt in half and choked me with his tongue when the words rose to bitch about it.

“Say one word about the shirt, and I’ll gag you with what’s left of it,” he breathed against mouth.Undressedwas an unfit word for the way he tore my clothes from my body, as if theyhad personally offended him and he had declared war on their existence. He removed his slower, watching heat ignite my eyes. His cock bobbed between us, swollen and thick-veined, but when I reached for it, he stopped my hand with his.

“I want to taste you first,” he rasped, dropping to his knees. He cupped my balls and squeezed, just to the edge of the line of pain, then opened his mouth and took me deep inside it. Everything with him was eager, needy, hungry. There was never build up or savoring each moment. He sucked my cock like it might vanish if it wasn’t jammed down his throat. I wanted it deeper, wanted him to feel in his fucking bones that I wouldn’t disappear.