Page 77 of Fool Me Twice

Cane bit his lip and dug his fingers into a bruise Ash had left on his upper arm. He needed to feel something real. Needed something to keep him grounded because the storm inside him wouldn’t relent.

He wanted to rage and destroy everything and anyone who came his way.

Like they’d destroyed him.

He got up to pace. He ran a hand over his cropped hair, tugging at the gauges in his ears, wishing they still hurt the way they had when he first got them. Wishing there was something to take away the flood of emotions he didn’t know how to channel.

A knock sounded on his door.

“Fuck off,” he growled. He didn’t want to see anyone.

“Cane.” Hart’s voice, muffled and distant.

It was the only thing that could have reached him.

Cane surged toward the door, throwing it open so hard it slammed against the wall. He gripped the doorframe, nails digging into the wood, the cigarette still held between his fingers.

The storm inside him ebbed a little. It rushed toward Hart. Like it wanted to pull him in.

“Fuck off,” he growled, needing Hart to be far away from whatever the fuck he’d end up doing to get himself out of the darkness. Because he knew it wouldn’t be pretty, and Hart, in his pristine navy suit and that offensively colorful tie, didn’t belong there.

“No,” Hart said simply, pushing past him and forcing his way into Cane’s space.

Cane snarled in anger at the move, slamming the door shut, gripping Hart’s forearm, and pushing him against the wall. The plastic bag Hart had brought with him fell to the floor with a thud, and Cane smacked his open palm into the wall next to Hart’s head.

He got his face right up into Hart’s, teeth bared like a wild animal.

“What do you want?” Cane asked, voice shaking with anger. “Do you have a pretty quote for me? A motivational poster?”

Hart held his gaze, defiant as always. Contrary. Infuriating. Completely silent in the face of Cane’s fury.

Cane lifted his hand off the wall and slammed it back down, closer to Hart’s ear, closer to his face. So close the air he pushed out from beneath his hand ruffled the hair on the side of Hart’s head.

“WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT?!” he screamed into Hart’s face, something ugly twisting inside of him at the action because it wasn’t how he was with Hart.

That wasn’t how they worked, and he didn’t want them to be like that, but Hart had to go. He had to leave before it got out of hand. Before Cane lost control and did something Hart wouldn’t approve of.

Hart blinked against the noise, unbothered in the face of it as he raised a hand and plucked the cigarette out of Cane’s with shaking fingers—the only sign that Cane was getting to him.

He brought the cigarette to his lips and took a long drag, then he flipped it around, and without a single moment of hesitation, pressed the glowing tip to the center of Cane’s chest.

It hissed and stung for a second before being snuffed out, and Cane moaned at the sensation, wishing it didn’t feel as good as it did. Hart let the cigarette fall to the ground between them, stepping on it with the tip of his boot, and Cane closed his eyes, trying to keep the burning feeling with him for as long as he could.

“You shouldn’t be here, sweetheart,” Cane whispered, and felt Hart’s hands on his face.

“You don’t tell me what to do unless I ask you to,” Hart said, and Cane’s eyes snapped back open.

Hart had that defiant look on his face that promised rage if he didn’t get his way.

“I can’t give you what you need right now.” Cane knew his own limits. Knew how far he could stretch himself before he snapped.

“You didn’t even ask me what I need,” Hart said, hands slipping down and over Cane’s chest. He ran a finger over the new burn, re-igniting it for a second, before traveling farther down, until his fingers were on the buttons of Cane’s jeans.

“Ask me,” Hart said, popping the buttons open and pushing Cane’s jeans down.

“What do you need?” Cane asked, and Hart sank to his knees in front of him, completely dressed still, his perfectly pressed suit against the grimy floor of Cane’s hallway.

“I need you to share the rage with me,” Hart said, closing his hands around Cane’s hips and wrapping his lips around his half-hard cock.