Page 49 of Fool Me Twice

Blood bloomed between their mouths, and it soothed the wounded animal in Cane’s chest. Grounded him. He gripped Hart tighter, driving his hands into his hair and holding him captive while they devoured each other.

“You owe me another mirror!” Hart growled, tonguing the cut on Cane’s lip to make it sting. The insolent little shit.

“Shut up,” Cane said, biting at his chin with teeth stained crimson.

“Don’t tell me what to do,” Hart countered, and Cane dove back in, biting at his lip in return, matching the cut Hart had left on him. He ran his tongue over it, tasting Hart in the most primal way before sucking the skin behind his ear and trailing bites down his neck. Hart tipped his chin up with a gasp and Cane pushed him into the desk, the rest of his supplies scattering all around them. Hart didn’t react to it, and Cane felt a surge of satisfaction knowing he’d rendered Hart incapable of being fully present.

He groaned as he brought their lips together again, his eyes rolling in forgotten pleasure when Hart’s tongue found its way around Cane’s old piercings. All thoughts of the mayhem outside his office door left his mind.

There was only this infuriating cursebreaker and the hold he’d had on Cane since the moment they’d first met. He’d give him anything.

He pulled Hart closer, lifting him up and sitting him on top of his desk, pushing his way between his thighs and trapping him between his arms.

He was going insane, he was pretty sure of it. But what a fucking way to go.

The sudden hammering on the door was reality knocking, and Hart froze up.

“What the hell is going on in there?” Cyrus shouted through the metal. “Open up right now or I’ll bust through your meat shield here and the door.”

“Ignore him, sweetheart,” Cane growled between their mouths, but he caught Hart’s eye and the mask was already firmly back in place.

His hair was mussed, his shirt wrinkled, and the cut on his lip held a drop of blood, but Hart was back to his icy prince mode and Cane wanted to scream in frustration.

He needed HIS Hart back. He leaned in for another kiss, an attempt to get them back to where they had been, but Hart turned his head away and scrambled to push Cane off of him before he could make contact.

He got back to his feet and, without a single look, scurried out of the office, ignoring Cyrus calling after him as he fled the scene, leaving Cane standing alone in the rubble.

Chapter 11

Hart

His tongue snuck out without him noticing. The tip of it poked at the small cut on his bottom lip, the spit making it sting. He hissed slightly, closing his eyes at the sensation. He tipped his head against the back of his chair and suppressed the moan that pushed at the back of his teeth, imagining it wasn’t his tongue touching the cut. Imagining it was someone else’s spit brushing along his lip and making it tingle.

Imagining so many things he had at the tips of his fingers.

If he’d just reach out and take them.

Deep down inside of him, underneath the pristine suits and the cage of propriety, there was a tacit understanding, an unspoken truth as they crashed into each other’s orbits.

Hart had searched for the same understanding in others countless times. He’d been unable to replicate it, even with detailed instructions, because the moment he had to start giving them, it all fell apart. He wanted to be seen, and known in a way that didn’t need words. The way only Cane could. But Cane was an outlier. A deviance. One that was handmade for Hart, to reduce him to his basest self. The self that needed and wanted selfishly.

And now they’d broken the barrier between them once more. The wall that had stood firmly since they’d last seen each other was now dust under their feet.

Hart couldn’t hide anymore.

He wasn’t sure he ever could.

Not from Cane. Not when he got that close and really looked at him. Not when he just knew everything there was to know. Because Hart had given him that access repeatedly before snatching it away so he could try to pretend it had never been given at all.

Hart knew the power was in his own hands. It always had been. He just had to ask.

That was all Cane ever wanted. The iron stipulation that was written into every interaction. Hart had to ask, and he’d get it.

He wanted to scream with frustration.

He was tired of it. Wound up tight with it. This push and pull. Hart felt like he’d explode at any moment, and there was only one person who could contain the blast.

“You okay?” Fix’s voice startled him out of his thoughts, making him straighten up in his chair and smooth down his tie. He swallowed hard and shook his head to get the filthy images out of his mind.