Page 21 of The Light Within

“Of course!” It was true. Well, after he’d looked over it himself, alone, first. In case there were any nasty surprises.

“Why is it so important, anyway?”

“To see what she has on him. And to see if Eleanor has any information about his mother in there. Cinn said he was sad he’d lost contact with her.”

Did he say that? Sort of?

“I was going to hire a PI, check her out a bit. Decide if Cinn seeing her again would be good for him. But this”—he wiggled the file in the air—“could make it far quicker and easier.”

Elliot groaned. “You’re not listening to me. Dude, he’s barely forgiven you for the last ridiculous thing you did.”

“What? How is this ridiculous?” Whatwouldbe ridiculous was allowing Cinn to get hurt by his mother again.

With a single shake of his head, Elliot tugged on his helmet and sped away from Julien before he had a chance to defend himself, leaving him alone with a cloud of exhaust fumes and a bitter taste in his mouth.

Julien slipped into Maz’s interior, wondering how quiet he’d have to be when he snuck back inside Cinn’s house. A cool chill seeped through him that had nothing to do with the frigid air. Was Elliot right? Was he one step away from fucking it up again? Had he just tumbled the house of cards down? Well, it was too late now. He’d have to beg forgiveness. He was getting far too practised at that.

five

Cinn

“Good morning,mon amour.”

The lack of bright light creeping through his paisley curtains told Cinn it was nowhere near enough morning for his liking. Making a noise of clear dissent, he pulled the covers up over his face, only to have them ripped away from him.

An onslaught of wet, squelchy kisses assaulted Cinn’s face.

This was it. The final straw of their incompatibility. Because Cinn wouldn’t compromise when it came to sleep. He groaned loudly, squeezing his eyes shut as if it would magic Julien back to sleep at this ungodly hour.

More peppering of kisses followed, with Julien undoubtedly making deliberately ridiculous lip-smacking noises to accompany them. Shoving Julien off him with all his might only prompted him to cackle.

“You’ve got awful morning breath.”

“Liar. I just brushed my teeth.”

Cinn peeled his eyes open. Julien lay sprawled across the bed, smirking, one hand resting on his jeans, the dark denim ones that did great things for his ass. But why was he fully dressed so early? In fact, why was heupso early? Cinn squinted at him. Julien rarely looked anything but infuriatingly perfect, but today a purple tinge coloured faint bags under his eyes. Was it Cinn’s imagination, or was his hair slightly damp, the tips clumped together in tiny spikes?

“Wh—”

His question was knocked out of him by Julien climbing on top of him while simultaneously throwing the duvet off the bed in a rather melodramatic way. Cinn wore only his pyjamas, a pair of ancient tracksuit bottoms featuring several stylish holes, and the chill of the air caused a cascade of goosebumps to prickle his skin.

Cinn brought out his best scowl. “I’m cold.”

“Don’t worry.” Julien pressed gentle lips to just shy of Cinn’s Adam’s apple, sending his pulse skyrocketing in anticipation. He trailed soft butterfly kisses up the column of his neck to finally meet his mouth. “I’ll keep you warm.”

Julien ground himself into Cinn as their mouths connected in another long, languid kiss.

Cinn broke away to smirk at Julien, saying, “I’m too tired.” Then he gave an exaggerated yawn.

Julien pouted. “What if I spoke French to you?”

“Won’t make the blindest bit of difference.”

A slow grin arranged itself on Julien’s face, dimples deepening threateningly. “Oh, really?” Julien dropped his low tone down to a seductive purr. “Have I told you how muchj’aime la courbe de ton cou?” Julien’s lips brushed against his neck, and the electrifying tingles he elicited had Cinn closing his eyes. The next press of Julien’s mouth came against the tattoo on his rib. “Tes tatouages si séduisants?”

Cinn had to bite back a moan.For fuck’s sake.How was he succumbing to Julien so damned easily?

“Ton menton?” Julien kissed the very tip of his chin, drawing a small laugh out of Cinn against his will. “Comme j’aime tes joues?” Julien drew the flesh of his cheek into his mouth with his teeth. For a tantalising second, Cinn prepared for him to bite down hard. But Julien only scraped along the skin before releasing him, to place his mouth over the silver bar through Cinn’s eyebrow. “Ton piercing de mec rebelle?”

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