Free Blood Deep (Blackthorn Book 4) by Lindsay J Pryor

you. I’m very likely to overstep the mark. And I’m more than likely to get to the point where I don’t give a fuck. Your choice.’
    Her eyes flared, her pupils dilated. ‘You say that with such gravity.’ Almost closing her lips on his, she coiled her fingers in the hair at the nape of his neck and tugged slightly. ‘Just know I can have you out of this place in the next hour if I choose. The same as I can have your guts hung out on the washing line in the morning sun if you don’t please me by the end of the night.’ She gently licked his lips. ‘So enough of the small talk, con. My room’s right above this. I think we’ve wasted enough time, don’t you?’
    He took the cigarette from her hand, placed it between his lips to take an experienced and steady inhale before exhaling a slow mist of smoke around her. It had been a long time, years, since he’d given up. And right then he needed to remind himself why. ‘Callous little bitch, aren’t you?’
    Her eyes flared again. But then she leaned closer. ‘Like you wouldn’t believe,’ she said, sliding her hand down to his erection again, this time cupping his balls and squeezing slightly. ‘And I would love to damage you.’
    ‘You so much as make me wince and I’ll show you how callous I can be.’
    She exhaled off a terse laugh, but her eyes glimmered with curiosity. ‘Is that a request?’
    ‘It’s my way of telling you I get the feeling you’ve been getting your own way around here for far too long,’ he declared, stubbing out the cigarette. He reached for the open bottle of wine and knocked back a mouthful, the liquid as potent as he’d expected. He licked the remnants off his lips before he ran the lip of the bottle up her inner thigh, his gaze following its journey.
    He heard her hold her breath as he slid the bottle higher, finally meeting her sex.
    ‘You think you can put me in my place?’ she asked, her tone dripping with anticipation, her lips parted, her breaths shallow.
    In the toxic haze of smoke and alcohol, it was an enticement that was easy to bite hold of; the kind of game-play he’d had an addiction to for longer than he could remember.
    He pulled the bottle away and took another mouthful. ‘Only one way to find out.’ He indicated over his shoulder towards the door, his eyes locking back on hers. ‘Whenever you’re ready. Unless you’re having second thoughts?’

    J essie turned left up the stairs, disappearing into the shadows before Tatum noticed their stare-off.
    Passing Pummel’s room, she leaned back against the narrow wall by the window: the window she had caught a glimpse of Eden through only the night before. The same window she’d also seen the glimpse of the crates from – crates being delivered to the cellar Pummel rarely used except for his most secret dealings, dealings that even she was excluded from overhearing. Weapons, substances, trade-offs – Pummel had been involved in it all over the years. He was clearly up to something, though she had obviously missed it amidst her distraction with bigger concerns.
    And now there was Eden in the mix too.
    She held her palm over her heart, hating the unnatural pace he evoked.
    She ascended the narrow, dog-legged staircase to her attic room and locked the door behind her. Her stomach churned, her head felt light, an oppressive weight making her shoulders and neck ache. The unsettled feeling was worse though – even worse than it had been those past few days since it had all started again.
    She kicked off her ballet pumps and perched on the edge of her white, metal-framed bed that lay central to her room. Reaching under it, she pulled out her sketchbook. Sitting crossed-legged facing the door, the breeze from the open window flowed through the bars and the headboard behind her, reminding her of a world beyond as she flicked through the pages.
    There, drawn by her own hand, he lay asleep, his eyelashes thick with a slight upward kink. And there were more, many