Kyan, placing his whiskey down on the desk.
He caught my hand before I could pull away, kissing the inside of my wrist and leaving charcoal fingerprints on my skin then starting to draw once more, making my heart beat harder.
I moved to the bed, lying down on my back and swallowing the measure of whiskey in my glass, the burn of it rolling all the way to my gut.
“Fuck,” he hissed before draining his own glass. “Just gimme the bottle.”
I swiped it off of the nightstand, bringing it to my lips and taking a swig. “You’ll have to come and get it.”
Kyan looked over and his eyes widened as he found me lying there naked with his favourite drink in my hand. I smiled seductively as my heart stammered from his penetrative gaze and he rose from his seat, striding toward me at a slow pace. He drank me in like I was the whiskey he wanted, and goosebumps prickled across my flesh.
He leaned down as he reached the bed, taking the bottle from my hand and drinking a long measure. His chest heaved and fell as his eyes raked over me and he reached out to touch me.
I knocked his hand away, snatching the Jack Daniels from him. “Uh, uh. You can’t touch me until you’re ready to brand that tattoo on me.”
His eyes flared and he wet his lips. “Well talk about fucking motivation, baby.” He shoved a hand down his pants, rearranging his hard dick before dragging his eyes away from me and moving to sit back at his desk.
He started working on the image again, his brow pinched in concentration and the tension ran entirely out of his body as he fell into the art. I rolled onto my side to watch him, propping my head up on my hand as I studied his handsome face and every hard line of his features. His eyes held a sea of dark and light in them, twisting together in an endless tunnel as he poured his whole soul into the work.
I’d forgotten all about the deal I’d made with him by the time he looked up, tilting his head to one side as he regarded his work.
“This is the one,” he said gruffly, turning to look at me. “It should go on the back of your neck, like ours.”
I nodded, my throat tightening as he got up, walking to the bed and placing the sketch down beside me. His eyes fed on me as he headed away to the closet and I picked up the paper, my breath hitching at the incredible, intricate image on it. The four arrows of the Night Keepers crossed each other and the fifth stood at the heart of them, pointing upwards, the feathers on the end of it softer than those on the boys and decorated with little flowers.
Kyan knelt on the bed as he returned and I looked up at him with my heart in my throat. “I love it,” I said seriously and his face softened with pride.
“I’ve wanted to mark you with ink from the moment I first saw your body, baby. All that pure, golden flesh has been begging for my tattoo gun for the longest time. I’ve ached to brand you as mine. And all jokes a-fucking-side, I’m happy I can brand you for the other Night Keepers too. It just feels…right.”
I reached for his hand and drew him toward me. “It feels right to me too.”
He took hold of my waist and flipped me over, his hand clapping hard against the back of my thigh. “Now stay down or I’ll end up fucking you before I even start,” he growled and I laughed into the pillow.
He set up the tattoo gun then straddled my back and pushed my hair away from my neck, his calloused fingers dragging over my skin in the most enticing way. He ran a cold alcohol swab over the flesh he was about to mark and a shiver ran through me, making him curse as his hard cock pressed firmly into my spine.
“Stop being so fucking tempting, will you?” He pulled the pillow out from beneath my head and I rested my cheek on the mattress as he turned the tattoo gun on and a buzzing filled the air. “It’s gonna hurt a bit.”
“I want it to,” I breathed and he released a deep noise in his throat that said he liked that response.
When the needle pressed to my skin, the sting