Love in the Land of Fire Read Online Free PDF Page B

desperation in his own voice and it hits him all over again just how much Rafe has affected him in such a short amount of time. Just how tied up in knots this wounded submissive has him without even trying.
    “You do what we’ve always done, Josiah. You gather information, you control the situation, and then you conquer your objective. And this time you’ll have something on your side that Frisch and Zweil’s Head of House will never see coming.”
    “What?”
    Marcel’s gaze is cold and sharp and Josiah sees the steel and ice that made her a fourth tier in the almost cruel smirk that graces her deceptively delicate features.
    “Me.”
     
    1 Chapter Six
     
    It’s another two days before anything changes with Rafe but Josiah’s been busy so the time is almost appreciated even though he wants nothing more than for Rafe to open his eyes and look at him again. He’s actually left Rafe’s bedside for once, making a quick journey home for a few hours of decent sleep, a shave and a shower, and some truly edible food. He’s left Marcel and Isaac with Rafe, trusting the other dominant to keep anyone who wasn’t supposed to be there out of the submissive’s room while he was out handling his business.
    Still the urge to return, the need to be the one overseeing Rafe’s care bites at Josiah and only the knowledge that he was no good to the other man if he was exhausted and starving had kept him from refusing to leave at all.
    He can’t bite down the savage curse that rips itself out of his throat when his oricula chimes an alert on the channel that he’s left open but muted between himself and Marcel and her voice informs him sweetly that Rafe is waking up. He’d wanted to be there, had wanted to be the first face the submissive saw when he woke up in some misguided sense of possessiveness. Scowling he throws on his clothes and rushes out of his apartment and down to his transport. He’s on the way to the facility after only a few minutes.
    When he arrives he doesn’t bother to check in, doesn’t even pause his long strides when the nurses try to waylay him. He has one set destination and he refuses to be distracted or knocked off course. He practically tears the door to Rafe’s private room out of its track when it doesn’t open fast enough for his taste.
    “Really, Josiah, you’d think you’d have learned some manners and decorum after all these years.”
    Josiah ignores her, knows that she doesn’t actually expect a response or acknowledgement. She knows better, knows that all of his attention will be focused where it should be, on the submissive he intends to claim as his own one way or another. Josiah’s practically devouring Rafe with his eyes the second his gaze lands on the other man even as he makes his way swiftly across the space that separates them until he’s standing at his bedside.
    Rafe looks back at him silently, eyes impossibly wide in a face still too pale for Josiah’s liking. Josiah raises a hand to touch him and feels his heart crack down the center when Rafe flinches back, arms rising in an attempt to protect his face from the expected blow. It’s a telling sign, one more black mark in a case that already has its fair share. Josiah drops his hand slowly and when he speaks he’s careful to keep his voice low and even, keeping an iron grip on his temper in an effort to keep it from leaking through.
    “I want you to know that when this is over. Frisch will never touch you again. No one will ever touch you again unless you want them to. I give you my word.”
    He’s telling the truth because as much as he wants Rafe, as much as he wants to spread him out and work him over with his teeth and his tongue he won’t if the submissive doesn’t want it as well. No matter how much he aches to dominate, conquer and own the younger male he won’t lay a single finger on him in that manner unless Rafe’s willing and eager. He’ll make him beg for it first. Josiah’s never been the type to