The Brightest Night (Origin #3) - Jennifer L. Armentrout Page 0,129

physical. I lost track of everything except Luc, the way he felt, the way he moved, and how there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for me. How there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do for him.

And when we both toppled over the edge, we went spinning, falling together, and I don’t know how long we stayed there, bodies fitted together, trembling and hearts racing.

Luc dropped his forehead to my shoulder, keeping his weight supported by his arm, the one I had, at some point, all but curled my upper body around. “I haven’t hurt you, have I?”

“No.” I kissed his hand, and I felt his shudder travel all the way down his arm. “Did you hurt yourself?”

Luc chuckled. “I might’ve pulled a muscle.”

I laughed at his dumb joke. “Good.”

“I probably should’ve controlled myself,” he said, his breath warm against my neck. “This was wildly inappropriate of me.”

“Yes, it was.”

He shifted behind me, and I felt his lips touch the achy area between my shoulder blades once more. “But I’m thinking you like it when I’m wildly inappropriate.”

I smiled. “Yes, I do.”

Another kiss against the place a bullet had ripped through hours before. “Which one of us is the bad influence? I’m going to say it’s you.”

“What?” I laughed again. “How do you figure?”

“I was a good, conscientious boy for years, Evie. Years.”

I snorted.

“You doubt me?”

“You were not entirely a good boy just because you hadn’t had…”

“Because I hadn’t had … what? You can say it. It’s just three pearl-clutching letters pieced together.”

I rolled my eyes. “Sex.”

“Are you blushing?”

“Are you?” I shot back.

“Yes. Because I am still a pure—”

“Ass?”

“Is that an invitation?”

“Oh my God.” I laughed even harder now. “Yeah, you sound like such a good boy.”

“Like I said, I was.” He moved again, this time stretching above so that his lips brushed my cheek when he spoke next. “But now? With you?” He moved his mouth to my ear. The words he whispered in my ear scorched my skin and sent a tingle down my spine. “That’s who I am now.”

Biting down on my lip, I closed my eyes as my toes curled into the messy blankets.

“What do you think?” he asked, his teeth catching the skin there.

I opened my eyes. I love who you are.

A dark rumble of approval skated over my skin. Evie?

Somehow I knew what he was asking. Maybe it was in the way he said my name. It could’ve just been the ever-present bond there, forged over years I couldn’t remember and strengthened from the moment we came back into each other’s lives.

I lifted my head, turning it toward him. His mouth found mine, and it was the kind of kiss that made me believe spontaneous combustion was possible. The kiss was a match striking, and I was on fire. We both were.

26

It was sometime later when Luc shifted onto his side, facing me with one foot tucked between my calves.

He toyed with the strands of my hair while I lay there, eyes closed and enjoying the gentle tug and release of his fingers. “It’s time,” he said with a sigh. “For us to be mature and responsible. We need to talk.”

We did. “I wish we could stay like this, like right now, forever.”

“You have no idea how much I agree with that statement,” he said, and I was thinking I kind of did, but I opened my eyes. “How much do you remember?”

“Everything,” I answered. “Well, everything up until you were healing me. Things got fuzzy then.”

“How convenient,” he murmured.

“I remember attaching myself to you—”

“Like we were made of Velcro?”

“Shut up.”

“Focus,” he teased. “Tell me what you remember.”

“I remember everything from the moment the Source slid into the driver’s seat.” I told him about the Cassio Wave and what Sarah had claimed, what I’d felt during the whole time. “It was different. I didn’t have control, but I wasn’t psychotic.”

“You think you didn’t have control?” He arched a brow.

“I had no idea how I did what I did. The Source did it. Not me.”

“You didn’t hurt a single person. Not when you forced us out of the house—which, by the way, you ever do that again, I will straight up lose my mind.”

I opened my mouth.

“I get why you did it. You recognized what she was, what she was capable of, and you wanted to protect us. That’s admirable. Hell, more than that.” He let go of my hair. “But I don’t need you to protect me. I don’t need you to worry about protecting me.