Her hands fluttered again, one pushing at his head, the other threading through his hair and holding him there.
"It feels too good..." she whimpered, voice cracking. "Iâve been wet thinking about you for days... every night... imagining you doing exactly this..."
Phei hummed in approval against her breast, the vibration sending sparks straight between her legs.
He switched to the other nipple, giving it the same slow, worshipful attention â sucking harder now, grazing it lightly with his teeth before soothing it with his tongue. Her knees kept trying to buckle even though he held her weight entirely.
When her breathing turned into desperate little sobs, he finally pulled back just enough to look at her.
Her breasts glistened with his saliva, nipples swollen and glistening, chest heaving.
He kissed away the fresh tears from her cheeks, one by one, slow and tender. His free hand stroked through her long dark hair, pushing damp strands away from her face.
"You fell apart so beautifully for me," he murmured, voice velvet-soft. "Such a good girl."
Amberâs body was still shaking in his arms, legs weak, tears shining like tiny diamonds on her lashes.
The soaked white
panties
still
clung
to her, dark and obscene, but he wasnât done yet.
Still holding her effortlessly against him with one arm, he carried her the few steps to the bed and laid her down gently on her back. The sun-baked linen sheets felt warm beneath her fever-hot skin.
He knelt between her spread thighs, eyes roaming over her now-bare breasts again before drifting lower.
"Thatâs it for today, love."
She stared up at him, chest rising and falling rapidly.
Got get dressed, love.
****
She emerged from the closet like a fever dream stitched together from sin and silk.
The deep teal bikini top clung to her like a second, wetter skin, the red halter strap digging just enough into her shoulders to leave faint, delicious indentations. Beneath it, the sheer blue cropped cardigan was little more than mistâtied in a cruel little knot right beneath the swell of her breasts, so transparent it didnât hide the way her nipples had already tightened against the cool air and the thrill of being seen.
The matching teal mini skirt was a crime against breathing itself: ruched at the sides with drawstrings that screamed
pull me
, riding so high on her thighs that the hem flirted with the curve where leg became ass.
Sheer fabric layered over something darker, wetter, making every shift of her hips look like an invitation to ruin.
Her
midriff
was bareâsmooth, sun-kissed, toned enough that the faint lines of muscle showed when she breathed. Long dark hair spilled down her back like spilled ink, catching the low light and turning it into liquid night.
And the way she looked at himâhalf-shy, half-daring him to lose control right there on the carpet.
Pheiâs throat worked. A low, predatory whistle slid between his teeth.
"Youâre not trying to kill me," he said, voice rough. "Youâre trying to make me drag you back into that closet and finish what we started."
Amberâs cheeks flooded with heat. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, but the smile tugging at her glossy lips was pure devil. "Compliments later. Right now, we need to figure out how the hell weâre getting out of here without my parentsâ"
Phei moved with no warning.
In three strides he crossed the room like gravity owed him favors, scooped her up into a princess carry as if she weighed less than a sigh, and sprinted straight for the open window.
"Phei what the
fuâ!"
They went through.
Amberâs scream tore out of her, raw and beautiful, as the world dropped away.
Three floors of empty night rushed up to greet them. Golden evening light stretched and warped around their falling bodies like melted honey.
Her long hair whipped upward in a dark halo, the sheer cardigan fluttering like broken wings that had never learned how to fly. Her arms snapped around his neck so tight the pulse in his throat hammered against her forearm.
The mini skirt rode even higher, cool air kissing bare skin, the drawstrings whipping wildly.
Pheiâs face was calm.
Almost bored.
Like
plunging
three stories while cradling a screaming, half-dressed girl was the most ordinary Tuesday heâd ever had.
The ground surged upwardâgrass, stone, certain death.
Amberâs scream pitched into something animal through the whole estate.
Thenâ
Impact.
One knee slammed down. One fist braced against the earth. The shockwave exploded outward in a perfect circle, flattening every blade of grass and sending a ripple through the soil like a stone dropped into still water.
"AMBER?!"
Her motherâs voice sliced down from above, sharp with rising panic.
"WHAT WAS THAT?!"
Her father now, deeper, already furious.
"Brett, check the
gardenâNOW!"
Phei was already moving again.
He shifted her effortlesslyâstill cradled against his chest but now tucked tight to his side like a precious weapon, one powerful arm hooked beneath her thighs, her barely-covered ass pressed flush to his torso.
She weighed nothing to him. Less than nothing. He ran.
The garden blurred into streaks of green and shadow.
He
leapedâcaught
yet another thick oak branch with his free hand, using momentum to swing them both forward in a wide, impossible arc. Amber yelped as the world spun violently. Then he released, twisted mid-air like a cat made of sin, and his feet slammed against the inner garden wall.
He
ran up it
.
Two long, impossible steps on vertical stone before launching himself at the iron spikes crowning the barrier. His body cleared them in a perfect, predatory arcâAmberâs fresh scream harmonizing with the rush of windâand they were over.
Outside.
Free.
He landed on the far side in another perfect three-point crouch, barely breathing harder, while Amber clung to him like a terrified, laughing koala who had just survived the fall of heaven.
Inside the walls, chaos eruptedâshouts, pounding footsteps, someone barking about security cameras and
"the girlâs room."
Phei grinned, sharp and wicked. "Did you
have
to get us
caught?"
Amberâs fist thumped weakly against his chestâcompletely useless, completely adorable.
"Why did you
DO
that?!" she half-shrieked, half-laughed, voice cracking with hysteria. "What if you dropped me? What ifâ what ifâ!"
"What if what?"
He kept running, casual, inhumanly fast, her body bouncing gently against his side with every stride.
"What if you
dropped
me?!"
"I canât harm you." He said it like gravity, like sunrise, like an absolute law of the universe. "And I wouldnât have jumped if I wasnât certain I could make you fly instead."
She stared at him, chest heaving, hair a wild dark storm around her flushed face, mascara streaking from wind and involuntary tears. The cardigan had slipped off one shoulder. The bikini top had shifted just enough to make breathing difficult for entirely new reasons.
"Alsoâ"
He adjusted her weight with one arm like she was a bag of feathers. "I wanted to brag.
Show off.
Let you feel what itâs like to be carried by something that doesnât answer to physics... or
parents."
She should be furious.
She really,
really
had to be.
But the laugh tore out of her anywayâbright, breathless, borderline unhinged. She buried her face in the crook of his neck and laughed until her stomach cramped, until fresh tears spilled for reasons that had nothing to do with fear and everything to do with the impossible, ridiculous, perfect rush of being alive and wanted this much.
"Where did my scolding spirit go?" she wheezed against his skin. "I was supposed to yell at you for risking my life..."
"You can yell later. After weâre gone."
"You should have
warned
me!"
"Would you have said yes?"
She opened her mouth. Closed it. Actually thought about it.
"...Fair."
Because he was right. She would have argued. She would have demanded sneaking on the stairs, a plan, a rope,
anything
safer. And she would have
missed
thisâ the stomach-dropping thrill, the wind in her hair, the feeling of being held by a boy who treated three-story drops like foreplay.
"Footsteps,"
Phei murmured, head tilting slightly toward sounds she couldnât hear. "Securityâs heading for the gate.
Time
to vanish."
No more stealth was needed.
He simply continued the
ran
.
Raw, terrifying speed. The world smeared into streaks of night and streetlight.
Amber bounced against him, still laughing, still half-crying, skirt riding higher with every stride, the drawstrings whipping like they were begging to be untied later.
The car waited exactly where heâd left itâ
He deposited her in the passenger seat with ridiculous gentleness, rounded ahead of the hood in a blur, and slid behind the wheel. The engine woke with a low, satisfied growl.
Behind them, the estate gate was grinding open. Voices shouted orders, names, threats.
Phei pulled away from the curb smooth as silk.
Casual. Unhurried. Like he hadnât just stolen their daughter through a third-story window while wearing her like a trophy.
Amber looked at him.
Looked back at the opening gates of the prison she used to call home.
Looked at him again.
And burst into laughter so hard she had to clutch her stomach, tears streaming, chest heaving, the sheer cardigan slipping further off her shoulders.
Pheiâs laugh joined hers, rich and dark, filling the car until it spilled out the cracked windows and vanished into the warm Paradise night.
By the time the gate finished opening, the street was empty.
The car was already gone.
Only the echo of their laughter remainedâwild, free, and just a little bit damned.