"And I know exactly why you're looking for Minato Namikaze."
"After he had you at his mercy in the vault last time, did you go home and spend the night tossing and turning?"
"Did your whole body feel off, like your blood and energy were blocked and someone had stuffed cotton into your meridians?"
"You wanted him to do it again, but you couldn't find him. It was driving you crazy, so you came to pump me for information."
Talia's pupils trembled. At last, a crack appeared in her hard expression—the one Yongye had been waiting to see.
Her lips moved. She wanted to argue, to say, "You're talking nonsense." But the words stuck in her throat. She couldn't force out a single syllable.
Because everything Yongye had said was true.
She really couldn't sleep. She had tossed and turned, her mind full of that hour-plus in the vault.
The man with short silver hair and blue eyes. The warmth in his gaze. The incredible sensation of having him set her body right, from head to toe, over and over again.
She wanted it again!
No, she wanted it countless times!
The thought lodged in her heart like a thorn. The deeper it sank, the more restless she became.
She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, then slowly opened them.
"...Deal."
"But I have one condition. You can't tell Minato Namikaze I came to you."
"He doesn't need to know about this."
Yongye's grin stretched almost to his ears.
"Sure, no problem. I'm a man of my word. If I say I won't tell him, I won't."
He reached out and rested a hand against Talia's waist. Through the fabric of her tactical jacket, his fingertips pressed lightly but precisely on a pressure point where her spine met her