Chapter 13

Jesse never said a word. His vivid gaze stayed fixed on Emma, stretched out on her stomach on Rae’s table. Gideon smelled the heat coming off him, and the perfume of desire that emanated from Jesse’s flesh was the rawest it had been since the Brooker incident. It had both of them hard.

When Jesse’s turn came, he stripped out of his shirt and took the chair next to Emma’s table. His design was more intricate than hers, two dragons swirling around each other in a yin/yang pattern. When they were colored, one would be red, the other black, but it was the fact that Jesse chose to have it imprinted on his inner arm, below his elbow where anybody might see it, that made Gideon’s heart clench.

He should have done this months ago. Maybe they wouldn’t have reached this point of no return, where their only option was to rely on Michelle’s dimension hopping. Maybe he would never have had to see the look on Jesse’s face when he suggested the hospital. Maybe a lot of things could be different.