She stood in one of the clearings on the property, shielded and ready. Vincent stood in front of her, holding a short sword, also shielded. The rest of the team waited to the side, and the silence over them was expectant and on the edge, as if it was ready for action to begin.

Two days after the firearms training with Vincent, she’d qualified for a sidearm as an IMPO agent. That was in the morning. Now she needed to show them that she could handle herself with other weapons.

“Remember, this is more of a technicality. We know you can use them, we just need to verify the skills you have. Since we were also fighting in that hangar bay, we didn’t get a clear view of what you can do,” Elijah called out. “Don’t kill Vincent.”

“I’ll try not to,” she muttered with a smirk. Vincent narrowed his eyes on her, and her smirk turned into a real grin.

“I’ve got him shielded. She won’t be able to break it. And you removed the enchantments from her daggers, so they won’t be helping her.” Zander laughed. “Let’s get this shit started so we can get out of the heat.”

“I’ll call time,” Jasper sighed. “Ten minutes. Go!”

Sawyer and Vincent didn’t move. Sawyer swung the daggers in her fingers and threw one up and caught it. Vincent stepped closer to her.

“How do you want to play this, Sawyer?” he asked carefully. “Magic or no?” She eyed him and shrugged. They should have worked this out before the time was called.

“Sublimation only, since we both can?” She chuckled as he nodded.

“Our shields will drop off, though,” he reminded her.

“That’s fine,” she said with another shrug.

“Now wait a minute!” Zander called out, but it was too late.

He came at her and the fight began. A quick-as-hell approach, since he sublimated and flew at her. He reformed right in front of her, but low, swinging upwards to try and gut her. She sublimated and moved around him to go at his back while he was solid.

Gasps could be heard from the sidelines. Sawyer was only solid for a moment as Vincent dodged her attack with his own magic. It was a dance as they moved around the clearing, going solid only to attempt a swing as the other did. Blades clashed.

He was right. Since they’d sublimated back and forth, there was no way for Zander to keep them shielded. She knew the others were probably pretty pissed at Vincent and her for doing it.

As the sparring continued, Sawyer noticed an odd sensation in her mind and wondered if Vincent was doing it. She stayed in smoke form longer than she normally would have and felt his smoke bleed into hers. She jerked back at the sensation it created. She reformed, then blinked away.

Vincent became solid again with a grin.

“I thought we said only sublimation,” he commented.

“What the hell?” she growled. “What the fuck was that?”

“That feeling is what happens when two Magi meet in smoke form. It’s harmless, just…” Vincent shrugged.

Intimate. Almost a violation, but not quite. Their minds had been directly next to each other. Her Source has been touching his in a way she’d never experienced. It did weird things to her and seriously distracted her.

“You’ve never had it happen before?” Vincent asked, still smiling at her.

“No,” she answered softly. “Back to the fight. All abilities.” She was suddenly pretty pissed. He’d known it would freak her out, and he had intended to use it against her.

“Fine.” Vincent chuckled and approached her. Their blades clashed again, but neither of them sublimated. This time, Sawyer blinked behind him and sent a slash up his back. She’d barely nicked him, but it was a good warning shot.

“If you two are going to draw blood, you keep that shit non-fatal!” Elijah roared from his spot. “You get three. Whoever takes three hits, loses! Follow the Old Ways, you two mother fuckers!”

Vincent got a slice on her thigh, and she stumbled, but only for a millisecond.

“Fuck. They might actually kill each other,” Jasper groaned.

Sawyer got in a cut over his forearm as he did the same to her bicep.

“Zander, get fucking shields back on them,” Elijah snapped.

Sawyer and Vincent continued to fight, using every advantage they could. He was physically stronger than her, but she always had speed on her opponents. Shields reformed around them, but Sawyer didn’t care.

Vincent’s smile had pissed her off. She hit him hard enough to shatter the shield on him and make him stagger back and fall. She blinked over, straddling him, and poked his chest gently with the blade, causing a single drop of blood to show.

“I win, asshole,” she hissed. She got off him and brushed off, looking to the other members of the team. “That good enough?”

“Yup! Never letting you spar again,” Elijah huffed, walking over to her. “I’ll take those. I’ll put new enchantments on them, so you can use them during missions.” She handed him the daggers and looked back down at Vincent.

“Here,” she sighed, holding a hand out. He took it and got up as Zander put a hand on her. His touch was hot, and she felt the small cuts get healed. He did the same to Vincent after she was done. Then he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her into him before she realized what was happening. Her back was to Zander’s chest, and he chuckled.

“That was the hottest thing I’ve seen in years,” he purred into her ear. Vincent was glaring at the hand on her abdomen, and she looked down at it. She grabbed Zander’s hand and twisted his wrist until he yelped. He had turned up the playboy act recently, and she was starting to lose patience with him because she was losing the willpower to say no; but she wasn’t some chick that was going to be an easy conquest for Zander’s smile and his playboy act.

“Don’t do that,” she growled at him. “I’m not a plaything, Zander.”

“I’m sorry, Sawyer,” Zander grunted after she released him. She glared at him and then glared at Vincent. She wasn’t going to deal with that jealous shit from him, and he knew it. She didn’t belong to anyone, definitely not to him.

“I could have told you not to do that,” Jasper groaned, crutching over to them. “Sorry, Sawyer. Any sort of manners I’ve ever tried to teach him…”

“Yeah, I know.” Sawyer snorted, smiling at Jasper. “This is Zander we’re talking about. He just needs to realize that I’m not the easy lay he’s used to.”

“Baby, that’s the best part,” Zander chuckled.

“Gluttons for punishment, all of you,” she mumbled quietly and began to walk away. She caught up with Quinn and Elijah. She slid her arm through Quinn’s and he chuckled. “Save me from them, Quinn. You’re big and scary.”

“No,” Quinn chuckled. “You’re scary enough without my help.”

“I’ll protect you, little lady,” Elijah drawled playfully, and she pushed him away from her other side.

“No, you are a member of the other team,” she reminded him. He was on the ‘get Sawyer horny all the time’ team.

“I can play both sides,” he retorted with a wink. “I already do. Call me Double Agent Elijah.”

Sawyer laughed, throwing her head back. Damn him, he was right.

“Elijah, you might be able to answer this, but why are they all so pushy now?” She pointed a thumb over her shoulder and he chuckled.

“Are you saying Zander wasn’t to begin with?” Elijah grinned. “I’m a flirt but I don’t expect anything. He expects something from you, and now he knows you’ll be around for a long time. He can up his game. Jasper follows him… and you have real history with them. That doesn’t just disappear because you don’t want to deal with it. You don’t lose your v-card to your best friend and expect everyone to just move on from that. Or kiss the other one on accident and think it’s normal.”

“Ah, now everyone knows,” Sawyer realized. “Fantastic.”

“What’s a v-card?” Quinn asked softly.

Sawyer and Elijah quickly explained the concept to him, but he just shrugged as if it didn’t matter.

“Humans make all of this so complicated,” he finally muttered.

“So yeah,” Elijah continued on. “Then there’s Vincent. I’m not sure what his problem is. He’s got issues. You seem to make all of those more complicated than he can handle.”

“At least you two are nice.” Sawyer sighed. “Everything is simpler with you two.”

“Isn’t it?” Elijah laughed. “How is chess with Vincent, by the way? That seems much more complicated than anything we ever throw at you.”

She groaned and shook her head. They had played the night before, and it was tense and awkward. She was able to play black side at least, but that didn’t stop Vincent from beating her. The game on the board was casual, the game between them was not. It had been strangled conversation about growing up. Neither of them had really wanted to talk about anything, but they had tried. They both had also promised to continue to try after the game was over, when they admitted that it was difficult. The only thing they needed to talk about was the one thing they hadn’t.

“It’s a thing. We’re going to try and find some common ground that isn’t…” She took a deep breath and shook her head. They needed to find common ground that wasn’t Axel or Henry. Common ground that didn’t involve graves and pools of blood.

“I understand, and in the end, it will help the team work cohesively,” Elijah said to her softly. “Thank you for working with him on it. We all need to be able to trust each other out in the field and here at home. As for the romantic stuff… that’s more complicated, but don’t let it bother you. Remember, I can get Vincent to listen to me. I can also knock some sense into Zander.”

“Wrong.” Sawyer sighed. “No one can knock sense into Zander. You can only knock him around and hope it sticks.”

That made Elijah laugh, and she smiled. Quinn just nodded wisely as they got to the weapons building.

“Need me to order you a box of batteries? AA or AAA? Those are the ones vibrators normally use, right?” Elijah teased, and she grinned.

“DD,” she answered, and he lost his mind in a fit of laughter. When he finally looked back up to her, his grin had turned naughty.

“Well, if you double D…”

“I meant the bigger batteries,” Sawyer groaned but she couldn’t stop the laugh. “Fuck, you are so immature.”

“Yes,” Elijah confirmed, smiling.

Quinn just continued to nod. She didn’t know if he was following the conversation or not, but she found it a bit funny that he kept a straight face and just nodded the entire time.

“Quinn, do you know what a vibrator is?” Elijah asked, trying to hold back a snicker. “Have I told you yet?”

Sawyer groaned. Did they really need to have this conversation?

“Is it the purple thing in Sawyer’s bedside table? It had a button and vibrates at different speeds? I would assume that’s what one might call a vibrator.” Quinn asked her, turning to look at her with a curious expression. Sawyer’s jaw dropped open. “I opened it and saw batteries. I put it back together before I put it away.”

“Quinn,” Elijah was still laughing. “I told you not to go through her things. And if you did, not to let her know.”

“That’s right…” Quinn frowned. “But is it?”

“Yeah,” Elijah mumbled, trying to control himself. Sawyer was still opening and closing her mouth, trying to figure out what absolute fuck her life had turned into.

“What’s it for?” Quinn asked softly, looking at her. She saw the light for new information dance in those ice eyes. He was genuinely curious. This was new and exciting territory to him.

“It stimulates women to please them sexually,” Elijah answered him diplomatically. He looked insanely pleased with himself, even if there was a touch of guilt in his eyes. “Then there are dildos, which are replicates of a penis, to do the same thing.” Elijah looked at her and shrugged. “There’s never been a reason for him to know before or to introduce the information to him…”

“I’m leaving,” Sawyer said under her breath. She did just that. She turned on her heel and walked away before the conversation went any further. It had already gone too far.

“Why would…. Oh, because she doesn’t want to have sex with anyone here.” Quinn sighed.

She left before she could hear any more. Well, she ran before she heard any more. She hustled all the way back to house and made it to her bedroom. She would have locked the door, but she still didn’t have a damn lock on it.

She went to her bedside table, found the purple vibrator and glared at it. She picked it up and inspected it. She tested the button and the batteries. Nothing seemed off with it. She wondered when Quinn might have gone snooping and found it.

Probably when he stole the picture that he used to track her in Atlanta. So, early in her stay with them. Probably in the first week of her being here, since at the time, she was a criminal in protective custody who might make a break for it.

She put it away and sighed.

She fiddled on her computer, bored. She sent a couple texts to Liam, hoping he would answer her. Charlie had made zero progress in lessening his anger at her.

She read a chapter of the IMPO handbook.

She checked the time and groaned. Only fifteen minutes had passed.

She took the purple vibrator back out and used it. Then she took a nap.

A knock on her door later woke her up, and she groaned. She sat up, nude, as the doorknob turned.

“Sawyer?” Elijah called. He didn’t sound as happy as he had been earlier in the day, and she noted that immediately.

“Hold on,” she called out and slid off her bed. She grabbed her sweats and a tank, throwing them on quickly in order to answer the door. She walked over to the door and pulled it open.

“What’s going on?” she asked, yawning. He seemed a bit forlorn.

“Me, Jasper, and Zander are heading to Atlanta for the night. You can come with or stay here, your choice,” Elijah informed her, playing with his shirt. He seemed a little upset.

“What are you guys doing in Atlanta?” She looked him over and saw that he was wearing some of the nicest clothes she’d ever seen on him. Something like what he had worn when they had first met. A button-up shirt that was a bit too tight on his muscles with a white undershirt. He had on clean, nice, blue jeans and his midnight black cowboy boots, looking they had been cleaned recently. He held his hat in one hand, and his hair was even combed.

“Just going to hit up a few clubs, have some drinks. We normally get a few hotel rooms and stay out all night,” Elijah answered with a sigh. “It’s a tradition. If you don’t want to come, you’ll be here with Vincent and Quinn for the evening.”

“You all go and pick up chicks,” Sawyer guessed, with a smile. She kept that smile plastered on her face, but she felt a curl of jealousy. “Even Jasper?”

“Eh, some girl will get him to third base, and he’ll chicken out of finishing the deal. Happens every time.” Elijah chuckled. “Zander and I have a bit more fun.”

“Yeah, I think it’s going to be a no from me,” Sawyer said laughing. “I’m not sure I want to witness that. Even if I tried to get a man, he’d have to compete with all of you… Yeah, no thanks.”

“You know, I have feeling if you went, things would go down much differently. I think you said that I was irresistible when you were drinking,” Elijah purred at her, and she pushed him back gently.

“Go have fun,” she chuckled. “Keep those two out of trouble. How’s Jasper going to handle it?”

“He’s going on a simple leg until I finish the prototype I’m planning. He can walk well enough, and I think it might help him, not hinder him.” He threw a wink at her, and Sawyer only nodded.

“Women love a man with battle scars,” she confirmed with smirk. “Anything I need to know about what’s going on here?”

“Quinn will be unreachable in the woods for the entire evening. Don’t mess with him. Vincent… if he’s not in the office, then he’ll be down in the entertainment room,” Elijah sighed. “Check in with him sometime tonight so he knows you haven’t run.”

“Can do,” Sawyer said with a nod. “Go on. Have fun. Tell those two the same.”

“Will do, little lady.” Elijah chuckled and swooped down to kiss her forehead. She jerked her head back and frowned at the retreating cowboy. She didn’t say anything, though. She had a feeling that Elijah was just being Elijah with that kiss, nothing more. She hoped. She knew what those lips could do to a person.

She closed her door and checked the time. It wasn’t too late, only seven.

She scrounged up some dinner for herself, then read for several hours. It was nearly eleven when she decided she should check in with Vincent. She made sure to get dressed more appropriately before heading down to find him, which meant she put on a bra and thong to go with the sweats and tank top.

She checked his office first, knocking before she walked through the door to see if he was there. She frowned at his desk, noticing it was in complete disarray, something that was not normal for Vincent. She walked closer and gasped at what she found.

Pictures of boys with dark curly hair. Playing together, standing stiffly for professional pictures. There were about five, along with hundreds of scattered papers. News clippings, documents.

“Vincent,” she muttered to herself, looking through it more. This must have been everything he had on Axel. “Oh, Vincent…”

She left the office, taking the photos with her, and headed down into the basement. She held the pictures to her chest and wondered what she would find in the entertainment room. She had an idea.

She didn’t knock, just walked in through the door. She was being overly lazy with her powers, she knew it, but it was still nice to use them again...

She immediately noticed the smell of scotch and looked at the large TV. She gasped, dropping the photos she’d taken from Vincent’s desk. Her idea flew out of her head.

It looked like Henry, running and playing in the bright sun. But a woman’s voice called for Vincent. Then a second young boy was on the screen, though he was a bit older, and the woman asked Axel not to tease his brother. They scuffled and laughed.

Sawyer’s heart broke as she heard a soft cry. She picked up the photos and thought for a moment. She stepped around the large recliners and saw Vincent, a little bit drunk, watching the video with a few obvious tears on his face.

“Why did the guys go to Atlanta?” she asked suddenly, making him look over at her.

“It’s tradition to go out to Atlanta and party when our cases are officially closed and sentenced. The WMC has finished their official sentencing of Antonio ‘Axel’ Castello. He’ll be put to death once they feel he’s given them all the information he has about his and other criminals’ activities,” Vincent said hoarsely. “No date… just… whenever they fucking want to.”

Sawyer felt another small, tiny piece of her heart break. Some piece of her heart that must have been holding on to the precious few good moments and that naïve childish love she’d had for the man that had ruined her, that had broken her into a thousand pieces. A tear rolled down her cheek.

“They’ll torture him,” Vincent continued, clearing his throat, “within an inch of his life, if he doesn’t give them everything they want.”

Sawyer went to the bar and poured a hard drink. She didn’t know what she grabbed, and she swallowed what must have been three shots at once. They had all known when they left for Atlanta that this had happened. She had known this was going to come.

Nothing had prepared her for it.

“Why does it hurt so much?” Vincent asked roughly. “Why?”

“Because we once loved him,” Sawyer mumbled, pouring another drink. She hated the words as they came out of her mouth, but it was the truth. A bitter, hard truth, but the truth nonetheless.

“I never—”

“Don’t lie to me or yourself, Vincent Castello,” Sawyer growled. And she wouldn’t lie to herself. After everything she had gone through, something about it still fucking hurt, and she knew Vincent was feeling exactly what she was: shame that they pitied a monster his fate, a mix of sadness and joy that it was finally over, and relief underneath it all that someone they once cared for was going to die in an awful way. Add in a touch of guilt for feeling the relief. “He’s your brother.”

It made the entire thing so fucking complicated.

“I thought you would be excited to hear the news,” he growled back to her, and she recognized the painful lashing out of a confused and heartbroken human being.

She also thought she would be excited. And some part of her was. She was happy Axel was in a cell somewhere and not hunting her, not ruining the lives of people all over the world.

Nothing stopped the hurt.

She hated the hurt.

“Tell me about Axel the boy,” Sawyer said as she sat next to Vincent. It was Elijah’s normal spot. “Tell me about Axel the brother.”

“Why?” he snarled.

“Because he seems like a better man than the one I knew,” Sawyer whispered. “He can be someone we feel alright being sad over his death.”

“You…” Vincent looked frustrated. “You are handling this all too well. You know that, right?”

“I have years of fucking experience handling it,” Sawyer bit out. She was as good at the mask as he was. Her grief would be private because she was experienced. Vincent was new to this. He needed someone to tell him the truth and divert his attention. “Tell me about Axel the boy.”

“He was cool. A big brother, intelligent. He taught me to play chess because he was good at it,” Vincent mumbled. “He was good with numbers. He helped me with my math homework.” She waited for something she knew was coming. “He was a momma’s boy.” There it was. Vincent switched over to Italian and his voice broke all in the same sentence.

“What happened to your mother?” Sawyer asked softly.

“She was murdered… by a lover she had taken. She didn’t want to leave my father for him, and he took it out on her.” Vincent sighed. “She had been so perfect to us as children. We had no idea. Axel was thirteen and I was twelve.”

“I’m sorry,” she murmured.

“You don’t know your parents,” Vincent said suddenly, “at all.”

“Nope. I wasn’t even named by them. My mother died giving birth to me. A nurse in the hospital named me,” Sawyer huffed, finishing her drink. She grabbed the bottle Vincent had left on the floor and poured herself another one. “What’s this video from?”

“I was seven, he was eight. We were playing at our summer home outside of the city,” Vincent whispered.

“You both…” She trailed off, thinking about the initial reaction she’d had to the video playing. Laughter was the soundtrack to the heavy sadness layered on them both.

“Say it,” Vincent growled.

“You both look like Henry,” she said, feeling a bit depressed that she knew men who looked like what Henry would have. That young boy would have grown up to be a wonderful man.

“It’s the Castello stamp,” Vincent grumbled. “We got it from our father. He got it from his.”

“He was nicer than you both,” Sawyer added.

There was another heavy silence.

“Will you tell me about him?” Vincent asked finally, and she heard the broken man hidden deep inside the words. The man whose world had been completely altered by her own winding, dark history.

“You and Axel are two sides of the same coin,” she sighed. “Dark in different ways. Both a little mad. Both capable of great and awful things. Henry… Henry was the sun.”

“I hate being compared to him,” Vincent snarled.

“Doesn’t change reality. You became a counterpart to him to catch him, didn’t you?” Sawyer glared at him and, once again, focused on all the differences. How truly different he was from Axel. Axel was beautiful, at the top of his game from the moment he woke up to the moment he closed his eyes… Vincent wasn’t. He was rugged and worn, tired in ways Axel had never been. His eyes were darker, his hair messier. He was leaner than Axel, almost a little starved-looking, maybe underweight.

Axel was beautiful, but Vincent was handsome, she realized. Axel was crisp and controlled and Vincent wasn’t. Vincent strived for control but fell apart. His appearance was constantly a little disheveled. His eyes showed the strain, she realized now, even when he put on that cold mask of control to get things done.

“Tell me more,” Vincent whispered, looking over to her.

“He loved Midnight, for the short time they could be together. He loved everything.” Sawyer sighed. Her heart ached. “He was smiles and cuddles and love. He wanted his Papa to play games with him and, instead, got me. He wanted his mother back on some nights, and instead, I would hold him.”

“Did he ever know…” Vincent frowned at her and she saw the tears on his cheeks again.

“No. He didn’t know his mother was dead. He didn’t know his father was a monster. He didn’t know about the world he was being raised in or the horrors of it,” Sawyer told him quietly. “Henry had no idea anything was wrong until the night…”

He died.

“Oh God,” Vincent mumbled, looking a little sick. “I need another drink.”

“Me too,” Sawyer groaned.

“Will you tell me stories?” Vincent asked as he poured for them.

“I will,” Sawyer agreed, “if you tell me some.”

They watched videos and drank together. They exchanged stories of better moments. She tried to give him as much of his nephew as she could. She couldn’t bring him back. Nothing could. And he gave her an innocent boy named Antonio. A boy who changed after his mother died and he failed to live up to his father’s expectations. A boy who was so crushed by the weight of his failures that, when he came into his powers, he decided he would rule over everything he could get his hands on. He’d been raised to play the game because he hadn’t had power. Then he had both, and he’d become nearly unstoppable…. Until he went a little mad trying to clean up the one mess that escaped him. The only mess. Her.

They finished the bottle and pulled out another one, and Sawyer felt something shift in her heart, a piece of her soul. Vincent helped her as they stumbled to the bar once, and something raced through her. When they made it back to their seats, she watched him continue to talk, and she gave him more about Henry. He loved coloring books. He loved watching TV cuddled on the couch.

“He sounds amazing,” Vincent chuckled. “I’m fucking… destroyed that I never got to meet him.”

“I know,” Sawyer groaned. “He was. I wish I had done better.”

“You did the best you could,” Vincent whispered. Their eyes met, and Sawyer swallowed a lump in her throat. Had she? She didn’t know, and it was too late to go back. She could only keep moving forward. Something in his eyes was offering her… something. “Sawyer…”

“Say it,” she whispered.

“None of it was your fault,” he said with a conviction that made her heart skip. “Thank you for being with him while you were. He wasn’t your fault.”

They were silent for a long time, letting the same home videos play over and over again. Sawyer just watched him. He was so handsome, Vincent Castello. He made her frustrated because she wanted to hate him. But here, when she finally saw how truly vulnerable he was, her heart ached. She’d been wrong. He wasn’t Axel at all, in any way, except superficial ones.

Vincent cared. He had the great capacity to be cold and detached, but damn him, he was a haunted, broken man. And in Sawyer’s mind, the only thing that mattered was that he cared.

About Henry and Midnight. Her.

That changed something in her while she looked at him.

“What time is it?” Vincent asked gruffly, and she looked around, snapped out her thoughts. She snatched his phone off the floor and swayed.

“Three in the morning,” she concluded. “Bed time.”

“Yes,” he groaned. They both tried to stand up at once and stumbled into each other.

Sawyer looked up at him and saw all the differences.

All the things that made this Castello a man named Vincent and not Axel.

His hands slowly took her waist and her hands traveled up his chest as they found their steadiness together. Heat hit her belly as their chests were close enough to brush against each other.

She wrapped a hand around the back of his head, the lust, the grief, and the alcohol all leading to an inevitable conclusion.

The kiss was a penance. It was sorrow.

He pulled her closer, until there wasn’t a single spot they weren’t touching. She opened her mouth just a fraction for him, and his tongue dove in and explored her. One of his hands ended up on her back and another wrapped itself in her hair, holding her to the kiss.

That was fine. She was holding his face to hers, continuing the kiss. Their cheeks were both damp from tears. There had been no laughter for them tonight.

When the kiss finally broke, she met his dark, olive-green eyes.

“My room,” he whispered huskily. “Just tonight. Just…”

“Just tonight,” she whispered back, then kissed him again. Just tonight, she thought to herself. For some comfort, to chase away memories, to find some warmth instead of her frigid cold and nightmares. They could steal a single night.

He picked her up, and she gasped into his lips.

“Wrap those fucking legs around me,” he growled softly. “Please.”

She did, and he carried her carefully all the way to his door. Up the stairs and through doors. They stopped twice for him to shove her back against a wall and kiss her. He would grind his hips against her and make her moan as his erection rubbed her through the sweats.

He put her down when they got into his room. She didn’t pay attention to how it looked or smelled. She didn’t know where any of the furniture was. Her body was on fire, she was wet, and she wanted him. She wanted him and what he offered more than she could breathe.

Just tonight.

He kissed her again as she pulled his shirt open, popping the buttons. She ran a finger over the scar on his chest.

She let him pull her tank top off. Then he broke her bra open. He growled as he took one of her nipples into his mouth, and she gasped as he gently bit down on it after giving it a long suck. She ran her nails over his abs and reached around to dig them into his back as he grew rougher.

Just tonight.

He pushed down her sweats, and she kicked them off once they were around her ankles. He used her hips to lift her, and they fell onto the bed together. His mouth never left the breast he was tasting the entire time. Her nails never left his back.

He finally released her nipple and kissed down her abdomen, taking care to show attention to her scars. She ran her hands through his curly hair as he pulled down her thong and threw it somewhere else.

She screamed out as he wasted no time pushing his tongue into her. She bucked underneath him, and he growled, using a finger to gently rub her clit. She couldn’t take it. She needed more than this.

“Get up here,” she gasped. “Now.”

He obliged, and she kissed him the moment his face was level with hers.

“Get in the middle,” he ordered in a guttural voice. “I want to see you in my sheets.”

That made her pulse spike with heat and want. She hadn’t thought her drunk ass could get hornier, but there it was. She slid up to his pillows and realized his sheets were black silk. She watched him pull off his pants and boxer briefs. Her mouth went a little dry at the sight of him, hard and ready. She wanted this. Just for tonight, she would give in and have it.

He crawled across the bed to her and pressed himself against her opening but didn’t enter her.

“Protection?” he asked.

She looked at her right hand and slowly nodded. He only nodded once back before he pushed into her, forcing her to sink into the pillows and up against his headboard.

“Vincent!” She gasped. Then she moaned as he pulled back out and shoved in again, harder than before.

“Oh fuck, Sawyer,” he groaned, continuing the agonizingly slow pace. She moved with him, accepting every strong thrust, every slow withdraw. He made sure he hit the right spot with every thrust. He pushed her slowly up to a peak.

Just tonight.

Then he shoved her over it, and she could only hold on as her climax hit her like a wave. It crashed over her and sent her mind somewhere else. He just continued, kissing her as she moaned. Their eyes stayed locked together and she was overcome with a sudden possessive wave of emotion. She wanted to own him, the haunted, broken man inside her.

She rolled them over once the sweet end of her climax stopped. She straddled him, and he looked up at her with lust, the heat in his eyes as he took in her body made her warmer than before. She wanted something a bit faster now, and she was going to take it.

“Sawyer,” he moaned, almost reverently, as she rubbed her slit on his cock.

“Vincent,” she murmured and sank down on him. Their sounds of pleasure filled the room as she rode him, faster than he had been going. She took him roughly as his hands roamed her body. He sat up a bit and took her nipple back into his mouth. One of his hands squeezed her ass as she worked him, taking the pleasure she wanted from him. His other hand massaged her other breast. She gasped when he pinched the nipple softly and rolled it gently in his fingers.

She took every inch of him and drove herself back up to that peak. That spot where nothing could bother her. He began to rock and help her, holding himself upright with her body. She held onto his shoulders as she rode him, each thrust down onto him sending her higher. The sounds that came out of her echoed off the walls. His name, said a thousand times. Hers said back.

The second climax was much like the first—groundbreaking, earth shattering, and sending her into something that resembled bliss.

Just tonight.

Once she was done, Vincent rolled them back over and began to thrust harder than either of them had before. She screamed. She dug her nails into his shoulders. The second orgasm spiraled downward, and then shot back up into a third for her.

“Sawyer,” he snarled, thrusting once more into her. She moaned and bit his shoulder as his cock pulsed and she felt him cum in her.

They didn’t move for a long time as he continued to cum and she waited for the aftershocks of her climax to fade away.

“Just tonight,” he whispered.

She wondered if they were just trying to convince themselves.

She knew she didn’t believe it.

“Just tonight,” she whispered back, trying to turn the words into a promise. Not to him, but to herself.

They fell asleep, a tangle of limbs, two warm bodies holding each other, hoping the sun never came up, hoping the moment of respite from the rest of the world didn’t end. Hoping, when they woke up, that things wouldn’t just go back to the death, darkness, and pain of the lives they had.

“You are the best fuck I’ve ever had, love,” he snarled at her.

Sawyer’s eyes flew open, and she tried to remember where she was. She didn’t know. She had no idea where she was. She was nude. She was sore. Her head hurt like a son-of-a-bitch. That wasn’t good. She felt the arm slung over her abdomen and looked to see who was attached to it.

Dark curly hair, olive skinned, and male. She bared her teeth. She was in bed with him. She jumped out of the bed and scrambled away, still confused as to where she was. She didn’t recognize the room. She needed a weapon. She needed to kill him while he was asleep. She had promised herself she would never get into bed with that murderer again. Not after what he did to Henry. Nothing was ever going to give him the use of her body again.

“Sawyer?” A male voice called out. She turned and looked at Axel, glaring at him.

“I can’t fucking believe you,” she snarled. “I’m going to kill you for what you did.”

“What?” he looked genuinely baffled and very pale.

That’s right mother fucker, she thought, be afraid.

“Sawyer,” he mumbled. “Oh, no. It’s me, Sawyer. Vincent.” He sounded concerned, but she needed to find a knife or something. She was going to finish this. She jumped him, deciding she would just kill him with her bare hands, and he sublimated out of her reach.

Axel couldn’t sublimate.

She froze after she landed back on the bed.

He reformed behind her and gently touched her.

“Vincent,” she gasped, realizing what just happened. After she remember the night before. “Oh god…”

“It’s okay,” he told her gently. “It’s okay.”

It wasn’t. She had just tried to kill him. Tears filled her eyes. She began to shake as the fear wore off, but the adrenaline was still there.

She whimpered. She hated the sound of it, and she hated herself even more in that moment because of it.

“It’s okay,” he whispered again, pulling her into his lap. “I’m sorry. It’s okay. I’m sorry I frightened you.”

She cried softly as the flashback wore off and the fear died. She couldn’t even sleep with someone anymore without it going horribly wrong. If he hadn’t woken up on his own, she would have murdered him while he slept.

He rocked her in his lap slowly, running a hand through her hair.

“I’m so fucking sorry for all he’s done to you,” he mumbled into the top of her head. “I’m so sorry. I’ll do anything to make it right, Sawyer. I’ll give you anything to fix it.”

“It’s not your fault,” she finally choked out. God, they didn’t need to be dropping blame on themselves at every turn.

“Yes, it is,” he whispered, broken and sad. “Because I was supposed to be his assassin. I was supposed to do the work he molded you for.”

She didn’t say anything.

“I should have been there when he found out about Henry. I should have been there to protect the boy. You should have lived a normal life. I should never have run off and convinced the WMC to let me join the IMPO. I should have stayed with Axel and destroyed him from the inside. I should have just killed him there.” Vincent continued, and she just listened.

“He came into his powers and went a bit mad with them,” he whispered in Italian now. “And I idolized him. He never looked at me and saw my magic; just his brother. Or so I thought. He didn’t think I was some rising star in the family. Then he played with words the way he was so good at doing… and he convinced me to kill our father. He took advantage of that and began amassing his own power. He wanted me to go with him, but I had never wanted to be a criminal like the rest of my family… so I ran.”

“It’s not your fault,” she finally whispered again. She meant it. If there was one thing she learned, fault and blame solved nothing.

“Yes, it is,” he said again in response. “Do you want to go?”

“I think I should,” she mumbled. She didn’t move, though. She stayed wrapped up in his arms. They were two broken creatures left by Axel’s destructive path towards power.

“We shouldn’t have done this,” he groaned softly, burying his face in her hair.

“We should tell everyone… no secrets in the team and such,” she sighed, leaning into him. She didn’t know which would be worse, the act or trying to keep it a secret. Telling the other guys was the best idea. She didn’t want secrets anymore, even if it meant admitting they had screwed up by screwing. It was going to be embarrassing and painful, but she wasn’t willing to carry the weight around.

“We will,” Vincent sighed with her. “I’ll take Elijah and Quinn… you deal with your friends.”

“Thanks,” she huffed weakly. “They’re your friends, too.”

“They are. You’re still shaking,” he noted, pulling back slightly.

“I will be for a moment until the adrenaline runs its course,” she informed him, then finally broke out of his lap. She was a bit wobbly, and he reached out to steady her. His hands were warm on her hips, and, for just a second, she considered crawling back into his bed and accepting more of that warmth. Instead, she pulled out of his reach. She collected her clothing and gave him a sad smile. “Good night, Vincent.”

“Good night, Sawyer,” he called after her as she left the room.

Her heart hurt. She wished she could stay, but it was so… not safe for him. He might not wake up the next time, and she didn’t want to risk another flashback.

She crept silently up to her room, unsure why she was trying to be so quiet. None of the other guys were around, or even in the same part of the state. Habit?

As she lay in her bed, she hoped they were having a good time away from all of this.

And she wished she could go back into Vincent’s arms and pretend nothing else existed. Not the issues with the other guys, her attraction to all of them, or the complicated feelings. Not her past. Not her legacy of pain. Just for another moment, she wished she could pretend none of it had happened.

Just tonight.

She had only wanted a single night.

A sad impossibility.