Highlight · Ch. 2: “"If you mark me," I said, barely a whisper, "I will end you."”
Highlight · Ch. 2: “"Don't."”
Highlight · Ch. 2: “"I know your lease." He turned me around by the wrist, easy, like I weighed nothing, and backed me into the cold brick of the harbor wall. "Hart Clinic. Three months behind on the lot rent. You want to guess who's been buying up every note on this waterfront since March?"”
Highlight · Ch. 2: “I shoved his chest with both hands. He didn't move, not even a little, and that made it worse, the way my palms stayed flat against him, feeling his heart slam under my hands like he'd run a mile instead of walked one.”
Highlight · Ch. 2: “I shoved his chest with both hands. He didn't move, not even a little, and that made it worse, the way my palms stayed flat against him, feeling his heart slam under my hands like he'd run a mile instead of walked one.”
Highlight · Ch. 2: “"It's a takeover." His nose dragged along my jaw, down to the pulse under my ear, and the growl that came out of him wasn't human at all, wasn't even trying to be. "But it's got nothing to do with business right now."”
Highlight · Ch. 2: “"Why?"”
Highlight · Ch. 2: “"Because you say it like it's yours. Not his." He tipped his head toward the tent where Ethan's rejection was still ringing in my ears — *she's a medic, not my mate, she was never supposed to be more than that* — and my face went hot all over again.”
Highlight · Ch. 2: “I shoved his chest with both hands. He didn't move, not even a little, and that made it worse, the way my palms stayed flat against him, feeling his heart slam under my hands like he'd run a mile instead of walked one.”
Highlight · Ch. 3: “"Mine," he said, not loud. Just a fact against broken skin. I arched. The table complained. He didn't let my wrists go. Outside the pharmacy the harbor wind hit glass. Inside there was only pulse and the taste of iron between us. He rolled his hips once, a warning, throbbing, lined up, still not claiming the rest.”
Highlight · Ch. 3: “"Or I finish it anyway." My mouth opened. The word sat on my tongue. His canine sank that last impossible fraction into the gland — and the chapter ended on that half-second, bodies locked, nothing else in the room but want. The steel was cold under my spine. He was not. Every exhale he gave me was scorching. I could feel how soaked I was against him, how little it would take, how he refused to…”
Highlight · Ch. 2: “His teeth grazed my throat, right over the thumb print he'd left there, testing, not biting, and my whole body went tight and stupid and hungry in a way that scared me more than Ethan's rejection had. Rain ran down the back of my collar. Somewhere behind us the pack tent lights flickered, someone laughing too loud, the whole world still turning like my life hadn't just cracked open twice in one…”
Highlight · Ch. 2: “"Then keep it." His hand finally landed, not on my jaw, on the side of my throat, thumb resting right over the place a bite would go. Warm. Way too warm for a man who'd walked through rain for ten minutes to catch me. "I'll tear up the note."”
Highlight · Ch. 3: “"Don't you dare close your eyes." I didn't. I watched the ceiling tile blur. I felt the first bright sting as the skin broke and a drop of blood welled under his tooth. He held there — not in, not finished, the throbbing length still only pressed to the entrance, the mark only a puncture, the aching heat a live wire.”
Highlight · Ch. 3: “"Don't you dare close your eyes." I didn't. I watched the ceiling tile blur. I felt the first bright sting as the skin broke and a drop of blood welled under his tooth. He held there — not in, not finished, the throbbing length still only pressed to the entrance, the mark only a puncture, the aching heat a live wire.”
Highlight · Ch. 3: “"If they're buying me off this building, I'm at least closing your hand first." He didn't sit. He boxed me against the steel surgical table, both palms flat on the vinyl, my hips caught between his and the edge.”
Highlight · Ch. 3: “"Cassian." It came out wrecked.”
Highlight · Ch. 3: “"Cassian." It came out wrecked.”
Highlight · Ch. 2: “"Can't." He straightened, just enough to look at the screen, and whatever he read there made every line of him go rigid, made his hand drop off my throat like it burned. "It's my broker. About the harbor lot."”
Highlight · Ch. 3: “"Say it with my thigh between yours." I didn't say it. I bit his lower lip and he laughed, low, wrecked, and ground the throbbing length of him against the seam of me, not in, a threat with a heartbeat. The pharmacy lights buzzed. My skin felt too hot for the room. Every breath he dropped on my gland made my stomach pull tight. He kissed down, teeth scraping, until the point of a canine sat exa…”
Highlight · Ch. 3: “"Look at me while I decide." I looked. The almost-entry, the almost-mark, the soaked heat of me around nothing yet — that was the whole cliff. The room held still. Skin stayed too hot. Breath stayed scorching. Wrists stayed pinned. Aching heat did not cool. I was still soaked. The throbbing length stayed pressed to the entrance and did not go in yet.”
Highlight · Ch. 2: “He was right. My fingers were still curled in his soaked shirt, and I made myself notice that, made myself hate it, and I still didn't let go.”
Highlight · Ch. 32: “The kid on the floor made a sound — not pain, something sharper, a laugh that broke halfway through.”
Highlight · Ch. 33: “The parking lot is empty except for his car, idling black and patient at the curb, headlights off like he didn't want anyone clocking him there. Smart. Ethan's pack still runs patrols two blocks over.”
Highlight · Ch. 33: “"Then don't do anything." He steps in, close enough that I can feel the heat coming off him through his jacket, close enough that the rain starting up behind him doesn't even touch me. "Just stand there and let me look at you."”
Highlight · Ch. 33: “Ethan gets out before the car's fully stopped.”
Highlight · Ch. 2: “"Duly noted." His mouth pressed flush against my pulse, lips parting, and for one full second I felt the edge of his teeth against my skin, felt him decide, felt myself not stop him —”
