Page 65 of Bones

Centuriesaway

I wasn’t sure how I knew that, but I did. I thought maybe he’d brought me somewhere, but I was alone and overlooking a Deke who didn’t know I was there.

That’s not my—er, not the modern Deke.

It was just a vision. The warmth remained as I watched from my hazy space above, there but not—as that Deke fed small children, all of them frail and shivering in their thin scraps of fabric. The distorted backdrop of a sprawling castle shimmered with transparency, allowing me to see inside. To where it was packed with people in their pomp and finery who willfully ignored the suffering around them.

The heat and haze intensified before dwindling, leaving me further back in time. Deke stood with a small group of men and women. I couldn’t hear his words, but I could feel his anger. His regret. Hislongingfor people to do what was right so he wasn’t forced to take action. More than any of that, I felt his protectiveness.

And his loneliness.

Warmth and mist pushed in again to wipe away the scene just as he moved to defend whoever was out of view. When it cleared, a series of images flitted in front of me like a flipbook. I only saw each for a millisecond, yet I was able to take in every detail. Every scent. Every emotion.

Different places. Different times. Different appearances, but all of them still somehowDeke. The same man he’d shown himself to be over the previous week. A man who was patient and kind, doing so much good in the world without ever expecting anything in return.

Another surge of heat and smoke—green that time—but it didn’t dissipate. It grew and grew, swirling around me like a tender caress. Nerve endings lit along its path until I could feel everything.

Pleasure, lust,need.

Companionship, fulfillment,belonging.

I gasped sharply, and the smoke flowed in, invading my body. My taste buds sang at the fire of the hottest pepper and the sweetness of the stickiest candy coating my tongue as the green smoke traveled down to fill my chest. I would suffocate without oxygen, but I still gulped in more. More of that contentment. That joy.

That fullness I’d never experienced before Deke.

Despite my greedy desperation to stay in whatever that place was, the smoke cleared. The burn on my chest faded back toa memory. And the visions disappeared. Even with my eyes closed, I could tell I was back on Deke’s couch.

Because I’d never left.

That didn’t stop a hint of fiery heat and sweet smoke from lingering in my mouth.

Needing to savor the scant traces of it before it disappeared, I ran my tongue across my lips.

I might not have moved during my vision, but Deke had.

Still speaking from his spot on the edge of the coffee table, he’d reached out to cup my cheek with his thumb resting near my bottom lip. When my tongue swept out, it ran across his skin.

My lids shot open at the taste of him. It wasn’t fiery or sweet like the green smoke. It was something far better.

It was Deke.

It wasmine.

His previous possessive declarations suddenly echoed in my head with my own. They grew so loud, I nearly missed his groan. His gaze locked onto my mouth as he dragged his thumb across my bottom lip, his touch rough and branding.

More tentative than before, my tongue darted out for another taste.

I barely grazed his skin when Deke moved.

Not to hustle from the room.

Not to storm out the door to chop wood to add to the already towering piles.

But to close the nominal distance between us. His hand slid from my cheek to palm the back of my head while his other went to the back of the couch next to my head.

I had the briefest thought of how safe I felt—howrightit was—with the gigantic lumberjack of a man looming over me. And then I lost the ability to think at all when his mouth covered mine.

My already heightened emotions grew loftier still until I was hyperaware of every sensation. Every scent. Every jolt of desire building in me from just a kiss. I tried to force my brain to jump-start because I wanted to focus on it all. Memorize it all.

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