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Shiva wakes up in a barn with her wrists bound together.
One minute she's in a hideout, waiting for orders. The next she's here, laid down in some hay in an unfamiliar rural location, and from the faint light that comes through broken slats in the roof, she's barely past dawn. The birdsong outside would be relaxing, but now it's chilling, the knowledge that she's possibly hundreds, thousands of miles from where she was creeping upon her.
Her eyes search the building, looking for any signs of life, any indication that she isn't alone in here. When she finds nothing, Shiva isn't sure if that's more or less of a comfort.
After a minute passes, then another, she realises she's being sweated. Whoever brought her here has to know she's already awake.
"Operative Shiva, requesting full disclosure of mission and location," she calls out after a second. "Come out, we can talk this over."
The door creaks open, and in steps a living nightmare.
Shiva has heard whispers of The Ghost, the most famed operative from SpecGru. Immediately she knows why she's here. KorTac has hit a number of locations SpecGru had missions in recently, stealing contracts and payments before their rivals could reach them. If she's lucky, he'll want information before he lets her go.
If she's not…
"Ghost," she manages to say. "I'm just doing my job, yeah? Just doing what I'm told."
The man is carrying a box, she notes. He sets it down on the ground, then walks across the barn to a rig she hadn't noticed before. His hand grips a wheel, then spins it.
Izna is wrenched up onto her tiptoes, the rope holding her up by her wrists.
"So am I," he shoots back, and opens the box.
"Then what do you want?" Shiva demands. "Money? Intel?"
"KorTac has got a bit ahead of themselves, yeah?" His voice is a low growl. "Like to think they're having fun humiliating us."
"It's just business," she tells him.
The corners of his dark eyes crinkle, and Shiva realises that Ghost is smiling under the mask.
"It is," he agrees.
He steps around behind her, and Shiva tries to follow his movements. He's doing something, but she can barely get the leverage to stand straight, let alone turn around. She grunts as she hangs there instead, puffing frustrated breaths.
"If you're going to kill me-"
"Sends the wrong message," he interrupts. "Don't want you dead, Shiva. That'll defeat the point."
"Then how about you stop cocking around, dickhead," she hisses. "How about you tell me what this business is."
He comes to stand back in front of her, and he's twisting a length of cloth around his left hand. Izna wonders if he's going to punch her, but he doesn't. Instead he steps forward and grips a handful of her hair, forcing her to look up at him.
"To humiliate you."
Both hands rip open her shirt to reveal her bra.
Shiva shouts in shock, eyes wide. The fabric is just gone, shredded to pieces and fluttering down onto the ground beneath her. She stares up at Ghost, realising exactly what's in store for her.
"Don't you fucking dare," she barks, raising her foot warningly. That makes her swing, and she hurriedly puts it down.
"You kick me, Shiva, and it gets worse."
His voice is cold. She doesn't doubt the promise there, and Shiva swallows, looking away.
Just in time for the tactical pants around her hips to be torn asunder, as easy as shredding paper.
She's left hanging in her underwear, eyes wide and horrified.
"Enough," she breathes, "enough, I'm fucking humiliated!"
"Are you a virgin?"
Ghost practically breathes it against her. Shiva swallows. She keeps her eyes on the floor. A huge hand snatches at her face and forces her to look up, up, into his soulless eyes.
"Have you ever been raped, Shiva?"
She wriggles as best she can away from him, panic building in her, eyes falling on where he draws a knife out of his holster and tucks the blade beneath the middle of her bra.
"No." Her voice is cracked. "I'm not a virgin. I've never been- been raped."
The knife cuts through the fabric. It slices through each strap until it is just a broken scrap lying on the floor. Then he drops the blade to the seams of her underwear.
"Good."
With two quick flicks of the blade, Shiva is naked in a barn in front of SpecGru's greatest asset, and she shivers.
The knife is placed under her chin, tilts her head up. His eyes are dead when they meet hers.
"Don't look away," he tells her. "You'll take it. Watch it."
"This is too far!" Shiva shouts. "Enough!"
"I'm just starting."
Ghost cracks a hand against her naked arse, and the sharp pain makes her stumble away from him. He doesn't let her go far, and neither does the rope keeping her trapped like a deer. Despite herself, she doesn't look away as the man stalks her, prowling around her prone form for a few moments.
His head ducks to her tits, and the bottom of his balaclava comes up so that his lips can find her nipples. Shiva arches despite herself, because his mouth fastens around a nipple and suckles on it, so relentless and pleasurable that her thighs shake. Despite it all, her voice comes out in a sharp gasp, and she grips the rope tightly. The scrape of his stubble rasps over the sensitive swell of her breasts, and his tongue plays with the stiff little peak in rapid circles, round and round. Every so often his lips will suckle again. It leaves her hot, confused, mind already warring against body. When a hand comes up to her untouched breast, groping and squeezing it, an unbidden groan is forced out of her lips.
"Hear that?" There's no amusement in his voice, just cold, unbreakable force. "You're enjoying this, Shiva."
"No," she snaps, a sound that's immediately cracked open for the defense that it is when Ghost licks at her other nipple, treating it with the same voracious attention he gave the first, and Shiva whimpers.
"Liar." His hand forces her thighs apart. "You're soaking wet."
"Fuck you," she spits, clenching around his palm, squeezing like she wants to break his hand with her legs.
Two heavy cracks make them spring open again, the flesh stinging from his palm.
"Keep them open," he orders.
Two fingers find her folds and spread them. Shiva grunts, tries to make it the only sound that comes out of her. She feels his spit drying on her nipples, and tries to keep herself calm. She just needs to survive long enough for the SpecGru operative to be done humiliating her.
"See?" Ghost taunts.
A single finger rubs her clit.
Shiva can't help herself. She moans, her eyes fluttering shut. It's so good, his touch is firm and practised, like he knows exactly which spot on her body will yield the right noises, what pressure will make her wet and weak.
"Again."
This time the finger circles, draws tight over the nub. Shiva yelps, her hips bucking away from his hand.
"Stop!"
Her order falls on deaf ears. Instead she's forced to pant, to get up on her very tiptoes to tense up her thighs. Ghost is licking her nipples again, wet and sloppy, the sound of his tongue filling the air.
"I s-said stop-!"
It's just the one finger, just some strange man's mouth suckling on her nipples. But Shiva finds that familiar tension is cinching between her thighs. She shakes, shaking her head.
"Stop," she gasps, "enough, enough!"
Ghost grabs her face then, forces her to look around the barn.
"Not enough," he tells her. "Look at the camera, Shiva. Let your fucking superiors at KorTac know why SpecGru shouldn't be messed with."
Oh god, there are cameras.
Her eyes flick around, trying to find where the device is. He wouldn't. Wouldn't.
Shiva swallows.
Her body shudders as her orgasm creeps up on her. There's a point at which she looks up at Ghost, and for a second she thinks he's going to pull his hand away and make her beg.
Worse.
She cums, on his single finger circling her clit and his mouth lapping at her tits. She cums hard, too, with a sharp cry that joins her eyes rolling up and her thighs tensing.
Ghost forces her to cum down slowly, a process that has her sobbing out in a cadence, "oh, oh, oh!"
"Good girl."
Three hard slaps crack against her arse. Shiva shouts, ripped from her afterglow with a cruel bout of pain.
"Satisfied?" she pants.
"No."
Ghost moves away, over to the reel of rope that's ended in a binding tie around her wrists. He loosens it off, and in her weakened state, Shiva drops to her knees. Immediately the rope is tightened again, her arms above her head but her knees still in the hay below. The man stalks back over and grips her hair.
"Open your mouth," he tells her.
Shiva bares her teeth. "I'm not sucking your cock."
The knife is out again.
It gleams in the dawn light as it presses to her neck, cold and merciless.
"If you want scars after today, Shiva, you just ask for them," he breathes. "Otherwise, open your mouth."
Shiva opens her mouth.
The cock that Ghost frees from his tactical pants is thick and heavy, and he drags it over her tongue to wet it. Shiva stares at the strip of bare flesh revealed to her, the mess of hair at the base. Something in her crotch pulses, just momentarily. She almost gags in disgust at the idea of being aroused by this.
Then he’s forcing his way past her lips, barely giving her a moment to breathe before it’s throbbing in her mouth. Shiva gags on it, recoiling. The fist in her hair forces her back onto it, slow and steady, inch by inch into her throat. He doesn't want her dead, he said, but she feels like she's going to choke.
"Breathe," Ghost growls at her, "good girl."
Shiva almost snarls at that, at the patronising words and the way they sound on his tongue. His hips thrust forward, cutting off that urge before she can truly put effort towards it. Instead his cock gags her, and Ghost thrusts again, in and out, slow at first, but working up faster. She breathes through her nose, keeps her eyes on his stomach, refusing to meet his gaze.
"Better," it comes out slightly breathless, "not like you need that fucking mouth right now."
Shiva wants to shout, to shriek at him, curse and protest. I'll kill you. I'll rip you apart.
Instead she feels herself starting to check out. A haze comes over her, a disconnect from her body. Her mind trying to protect her, she realises, so that she doesn't feel the full effects of what he's doing to her. Like it will keep her from realising she's being raped.
Ghost's grip grows tighter. It's a sudden sharp, shock of pleasurable pain and it launches her back into herself, back into realising that he's fucking her mouth hard and fast, wet with her saliva and filling the air with a dirty noise. Shame floods her face, brings her head back into play. Shiva presses her thighs tight together, and her eyes flick up to meet Ghost's, fury, hatred and retribution in them.
"That's it," it comes out low and rough, but it's praise nonetheless, "thought you tried to run."
Shiva refuses to run, refuses to become a doll for the man in front of her to puppet and play with. She clenches her jaw, and the light gleams off his knife, a mutual warning. She relaxes her mouth, and she feels Ghost twitching on her tongue, readies herself to swallow.
He's fucking her mouth for a few moments more before he pulls out. Shiva barely has time to register the freedom to breathe; his huge hand is around his cock, stroking rapidly. The hand in her hair stops her from pulling away, and so when the strings of cum splatter onto her face and tits, it's messy and unavoidable. Even as she pants her way back to even breaths, the mess of warmth is dripping down her cheeks and onto her bare breasts.
"Fuck you," she snarls after a second. "Fucking cunt. This the only way you get off, yeah? Forcing random women to gag on your little toothpick?"
Ghost drops her, his motions calm and disinterested. He steps away towards the reel, spinning it. She's hauled up onto her feet again, grunting at the sudden change in position. Her eyes find him, watch the predatory stalk in his step as he comes back over, and then he's gripping her cheeks.
"Mouth open."
"Fuck you."
He steps away and moves behind her. His hand claps down on her arse, forcing her to cry out. Ghost pulls something over her mouth then, knots it tight around the back of her head. Shiva pants as the gag presses against her lips, shaking frantically against his hold. It's no use. The binding is on tight. She's wordless, though not voiceless. Ghost seems to want that; he cracks against her backside a few more times until she whimpers and shudders, the pain starting to become just the edge of too much. Like he knows. It's uncanny. Uncomfortable.
"Better."
The man comes back into view, his gaze cold and dark, watching her. Taking her in, finding her tells. A moment passes, and he gets close, so close that she can smell him. It washes over her, and Shiva tries to pull away. Ghost grabs her tits, fondling and twisting her nipples to hit the edge of pain. Held against him like that, it's torture, and she can do nothing but whimper and whine into her gag, her hips bucking despite herself because oh, the way he's playing with her, Shiva's whole body is electric with heat.
"Seen you fight before. Knew all you needed was a firm fucking hand to keep you in check, Shiva. Fucking goddess of destruction. Look at this."
A hand is suddenly between her legs, smearing her slick over the leather gloves before fingers are stroking over her clit. She almost screams into her gag, begging wordlessly for him to leave her be. Ghost doesn't understand, or if he does, he doesn't care. One, two fingers push into her, spreading her open. It's a little too much, for the size of him, and Shiva whines in protest.
A protest that doesn't last long, not once those fingers begin working her.
"Look at me," Ghost growls.
Shiva doesn't.
Like everything else about him, about this torture, it's rough and hard. She tries not to, but he makes her moan when he finds her sweet spot. Despite her efforts, her body responds in ways her mind can't bear. The noise it makes against his fingers, the sensation of her slick being wiped against her inner thighs, it's humiliating. Shiva wants to cry. Scream. Instead she whines and feels her world narrow to that spot where he's touching her, to the coil of tension threatening to betray her. She almost wishes he would deny her, wouldn't let her cum at all.
At least that way she can't pretend this isn't the best fingerfucking of her life.
So when his other hand drops to join the first, thumb rolling over her clit to let the other go harder, faster, it doesn't take long to set her off. She strains in her bindings, trying to muffle her sharp shriek of pleasure. Shiva can't let him have it.
He can't own that from her.
But Ghost doesn't show mercy, doesn't break character from the ruthless operative that she's come to fear from his time in the field. So she cums, and she shudders, and Shiva clamps down around his fingers in desperation of a break that he'll never let her have.
"You can cry if you want," it comes out low and breathy, "not going to change my mind."
As if on cue, tears prickle in her eyes and Shiva squeezes them away. She shakes her head, tossing it back when Ghost licks her nipples again. It's torture. It's bliss. Every nerve in her body is so sensitive, and she's just shaking, her thighs twitching against his touch as the wet noise of his fingers inside her grows louder. She doesn't have the capacity for shame right now. It's all overwhelmed by sensation.
"Scream, then. Nice and loud for your bosses."
Her third orgasm pitches her over the edge as she does just what he asks, and she sags heavier in her bindings, panting raggedly into her gag. Her whines are pitiful, and they only stop when his fingers finally pull away.
Slick-covered leather is wiped over her bare tits, joining his dried cum. Ghost laps it off her, almost like it's a shot chased with the taste of her. It's another level of humiliation on an already heavily layered scenario. It just makes her tremble, to be tasted like that and her own mess wiped off onto her skin for him to use as further torment. He licks and sucks until she's whimpering, a pathetic sound half lost in her gag. Her mind wanders, feels the flick of his tongue and the pull of his lips. The scratch of his stubble. It recalls past lovers and thinks of his head between her thighs.
Shiva's face burns in horrified shock that she would ever imagine that.
Ghost steps around her, behind her. Her breathing grows shallow and rapid, fear crawling through her. Is he going to rape her now?
Not quite yet. First, she hears rustling. Then, a thick band of dark cloth covers her eyes, blinding her as it's tied tightly around her head. Then she hears the zip going on his tactical pants and freezes in place, her skin twitching in expectation of what's to come. He makes her wait for it too, his huge hands spreading her thighs, grabbing for her hips, almost trying to get her bent over a little and stick her arse out for him.
Shiva tries to keep her breaths even and calm, and she manages it, right up until she feels the sensation of his cock pressing against her folds.
He makes her wait, but he doesn't let her adjust.
Shiva almost screams as she's suddenly stretched open around him, in one thrust completely full of Ghost's cock.
If it felt big in her mouth, it feels obscene inside her. She shakes, trying to pull away. Of course she goes nowhere. The struggle is more for the feeling it evokes of trying, of not just giving in and going limp. She sobs as he pulls his hips back, without hesitation starting to fuck her.
If she could beg, she would. For it to stop, to let her breathe, but Ghost isn't going to show mercy. She's used, at his mercy as his hips slap against her arse. It's impossible to keep up with. Impossible to know where the sensation starts and ends. It's all just pleasure, excruciating and overwhelming. Shiva can only moan in desperation of her freedom.
"For every contract you stole," despite the frantic pace, Ghost's voice is level in her ear, "for every client you bought. KorTac wants to fuck around? I'll make the rest of you feel it."
Oh, Shiva is feeling it.
She’s feeling the ruthless grind against her walls. The leather of his gloves as he gropes her tits and pinches her nipples. How Ghost mixes the pleasure and the pain to force noises from her mouth that are semi feral. The way she’s up on her tiptoes just to match his height, to try and bring herself level with his cock so that he isn’t dragging her.
She feels it all. It’s keeping her tethered in place, keeps her locked into her body. She can’t float away, can’t disconnect. Every thrust pulls her back.
Ghost drops a hand to her clit and rubs.
“I know what you did in Vondel,” he rumbles in her ear. “I could’ve picked that Austrian, he’s done more fucking damage than you.”
Shiva wants to bark out something insulting, to insinuate that he only took her because she’s small. Because he can’t handle König, because he’s weak.
“But I know you shot Soap.”
She cums like that, with his accusation low in her ear, his fingers rubbing her clit in rapid circles that make her legs shake. Shiva shrieks into her gag, the sensation of coming around a cock that thick almost painful.
He doesn’t cum.
He doesn’t stop either. Shiva is limp in the ropes, her body now a pliant, snug and wet toy for Ghost to screw into. The most she gets from him to acknowledge her orgasm is a low groan of pleasure for the way she squeezes around him. Other than that, Shiva might as well not even be conscious.
“That was personal,” Ghost rumbles into her ear, “so I’m gonna make it personal for you too.”
His fingers find her throat to hold it firmly, not squeezing like she's scared he would. Just holding, a threat of more if she misbehaves. His other hand cracks against her arse again, until she's squirming and whining, the pain blending with the pleasure. At least he's stopped touching her clit-
Those circles are pressing against her again, finding her too sensitive nub and forcing her to build back up to something she is desperate to escape from, something she wants no more of. Shiva begs into the gag, but it's meaningless. Ghost is playing her body like a toy. He's relentless, despite the earlier confession that this is personal he's completely detached from it all.
She hates it. She wishes he taunted her instead, mocked and derided her. But instead it's a level of quiet fury that bleeds through everything.
Her clit is left alone in favour of Ghost groping her tits, thumbs and forefingers rolling her nipples as his hips speed up. Shiva prays he's going to cum soon, to give her a second to breathe. One hand leaves her, a palm cracks against her arse, and then he's spreading her to show the ring of muscle just above where his cock is making her toes curl.
"Ever been fucked in this hole?" Ghost breathes, a gloved finger running over it.
Shiva bucks, trying to pull away, but then he's touching her clit again as she breaks down into sobbing cries of desperation, the muffled pleading no more escaping her lips to be caught by the gag.
"Not done yet."
How is he not cumming yet?! Shiva finds herself begging through the gag, her legs shaking as she's worked up to another orgasm. She's starting to hit her limit, and yet she's convinced he's nowhere near done.
Her cries grow louder. Ghost grips her jaw, his breathing panting as it fans through his mask and over her skin.
"Won't be anything left to give back when I'm done," he promises. "Won't be worth shit."
Somehow, that makes her cum.
Sobbing and shaking, her hips twitching against his merciless fingers as she's forced over the edge. The only good thing about it is that it pulls Ghost with her. That thick cock twitches rapidly, and suddenly she's got mess running down her thighs and into her ruined clothes.
He thrusts into her a few more times, then slowly slides himself free. Ghost lets her slump down in the bindings, his wet cock smearing against her arse cheeks. Shiva is panting, trembling and weak. She doesn't know how much more she can take.
"Don't pass out," he orders, his voice rough. "Don't even try it."
She's close to crying. Her tears are welling up, lost in the cloth blindfold as she hears him step back and then more rustling, something plastic clattering nearby. Shiva is too tired to chase the sound, concentration fixed on the cum that leaks out of her folds.
"I'm not finished with you."
He's in front of her. The warmth of his body burns her.
And then something cold and hard is pressed against her clit. There's a click.
The whirr of vibrations fills the air and Shiva almost screams in ecstatic agony.
The wand stays where it is as Ghost rubs it around her clit, pushes it right up against her nub until her jerking hips are riding it with frantic desperation. Her ragged sobs are muffled by the gag, but they're loud.
She can't take much more of this.
Rope wraps around her thigh, is tied one-handed and tied securely. The vibrator is tucked into it, the head of it roped up perfectly to keep it against her clit. Shiva screams at the realisation, the understanding that Ghost will never let her rest. He'll force her to cum until she passes out.
More movement, more steps. Ghost moves behind her this time, and Shiva jerks as something slick and liquid pours across her arse. Two fingers come back to her folds and push in. Shiva shudders and rocks in her bindings, pulsing around the slick leather. She knows what's coming; Ghost wouldn't bother with the lube otherwise. But she still flinches when he slowly presses a finger past the ring of muscle and inside her arse. It works back and forth, just the middle finger first.
"KorTac still radio silent," he told her. "No Comms. No agreement. We go until they do."
That could take hours. Days. Is Shiva going to be dangling here until she's bought back?
"And if they don't, we go anyway."
Another finger fills her. Shiva cums. It's so good, it's so awful. It's painful. It's delicious. Her thighs are soaking wet.
"This is for Soap," he whispers to her.
There's still fingers fucking her walls when he buries his cock in her arse again. Shiva is hitting her limit like it's a brick wall, her mind firmly locked into her prison as her body shudders and shivers on the constant buzz of the vibrator. She wants to disassociate. She wants to disappear. Her earlier determination to remain in place is gone now, but she's unable to run from her own head no matter how hard she tries.
"KorTac's left you with us," Ghost breathes into her ear. His hips slap at her arse. "Face it. You're ours. You're nothing to them."
No, no, they wouldn't, they would never, Shiva wants to protest, but even if the gag wasn't there she isn't sure she'd believe it.
"What I've done," his breath fans over her face, "what's happened, it's nothing compared to what I'll do."
She breaks then.
Behind her gag, Shiva begs and pleads. Ghost ignores every last word, fills her with more fingers as his other hand flicks the dial of the vibrator. She cums, she screams and fights and twists in her bindings.
No more. No more. I've had enough.
Her body keeps going. Ghost keeps going. Fucking her up the arse like the fact she's a living, breathing human means nothing to him. SpecGru must have designed this one in the lab. Shiva can't think of another reason why he's this cruel and ruthless.
"There's others," he tells her. "Waiting for their turn outside."
I can't, I can't do it, I'm exhausted. All that comes out is noises of suffering and pleasure.
"KorTac left you. Told you."
His breathing grows ragged, his cock starting to twitch. Shiva can't take it any more. Tears stream down her face.
"That all you can take?" Ghost taunts. "Gonna tap out on me?"
She's stuck there, stuck in that barn at the mercy of a psychopath. Shiva is crying.
"Fucking pathetic."
And she's going to cum.
"Too bad." Ghost clutches her to him. He's right on the edge. "We're just getting started."
Stick out your tongue.
Izna's orgasm is intense.
She squirts, wet waves coating her inner thighs as she's forced into her strongest climax of the night. She can barely click her fingers loud enough to be heard over the buzzing vibrator and her own voice shrieking in orgasm. But Simon hears it, immediately shuts off the vibrator and holds her close as he undoes her gag.
"Valeria," Izna cries, literally cries, her face soaked with tears.
"All right, Izzie."
Simon kisses the back of her head, moving to free her hands. Izna collapses into him, curls into his chest, her leg muscles useless. The man behind her slips his cock free of her arse and hauls her into his arms, leaving the blindfold on as he does so. Izna shivers in his arms, body wet with sweat.
"Got to clean you up," he tells her. "Run a bath."
Her voice cracks out in the barest affirmative because she can't manage anything louder. Instead she just lets him carry her, comfort her. The sound of his heartbeat is soothing. The gentle noises he makes, using his own voice, the voice of Simon Riley, they ground her in a different way to how the scene had grounded her.
The bath is running when the blindfold is finally removed, and Izna keeps her eyes closed to enjoy the peace. Ghost isn't in the room with her, only Simon; and he's busy helping her undress, one layer at a time. When she's naked, he guides her into the bathtub.
Warm water laps around her sweaty skin, rinses her clean. Simon places a glass of water into her hand and guides her to drink it all down, then another, and another.
It's so quiet. So peaceful. Just Simon washing her clean, massaging her head. Izna basks in every second of it as she's brought back to herself.
He's wrapping her in a towel when he finally speaks properly, his palms smoothing down her sides to pat her dry.
"Can you talk, Izzie?"
"Mmm."
She nods as she leans into him.
"Yeah. Yeah, I can."
Simon cups her face. She opens her eyes for him. Takes in the sights in front of her. The simple t-shirt and black jeans he's wearing. The fear that lingers in his dark eyes. The balaclava is gone too, just the face of Simon Riley beneath and gazing down at her.
"You hurting?" he asks.
She shakes her head. "I'm great," she whispers, because it's true. She's feeling the best she's felt for weeks. Since she got back from the mission to escort Valeria.
He guides her to the bed and lays her down.
"You're not afraid?"
She shakes her head. Proves her words by curling into him and burying her face in his neck.
"Clean," she whispers. "I feel clean. I feel like me."
Simon pulls her into him, still cautious. "Did you stay with me the whole time?"
"Mm." Another nod. "Yes. Yes, I was there. I never left."
Simon kisses the top of her head. "You felt it?"
"All of it," she breathes. "I felt it all. I can do it. I can."
His thumb strokes her cheekbone, coaxes her to look up at him again.
"You can do it."
His voice is like a rumble of thunder. It soothes her, the depth of it. Izna exhales heavily.
"Did you, I dunno if you liked it," she manages.
"Was waiting for the word," Simon admits. "The clicks. Kept pushing. Wanted to see how much you'd take."
Izna presses her lips to his hand. "All of it," she tells him. "I can take all of it. All of you. Let me have it, Si. I want it."
Those dark eyes flicker with heat. Then he's kissing her, kissing her like Ghost never did, and it's all Izna needs to be fully back in her own body.
It's not healing. Nowhere near. But it's a reminder she can persevere. That after everything, this body is hers. That there are ways to fight the way what happened made her feel.
She kisses back, eyes fluttering shut, and Izna allows herself to be lost again, this time in the comforting touch of Simon Riley.