“I’ll help you.” I squeeze the mug hard and gather my courage, what little there is left. “But you have to swear you’ll help me in return. I’m not getting involved with this stupidly suicidal plan if I’m just going to be left screwed in the end.”
He smiles, almost beaming, and tosses the file aside. “I promise, little thief, you’ll be screwed, but I’ll give you what you want in the process.”
I glare at him. “You don’t have to be a dick, you know.”
“I know that, but it’s fun. What do you say? Are you my girlfriend now?”
“I’ll play your game if that’s what you mean.”
He walks forward toward me and I watch him coming like a freight train speeding along the tracks. I step back and back until I bump into the window. He takes the mug from my hand, places it down on a table, and grabs my other wrist, pinning it against the glass above my head, and I can smell him, the musk on his skin, and see his cocky, horrible smirk as he moves closer, my other wrist pushed up behind my back.
I resist the urge to groan because I won’t give him the satisfaction of knowing that I like this despite the pain and fear, or maybe because of it.
“First rule of being mine. You will do as I say. You will obey. No more talking back. No more mouth.”
I give him a little smile. “But you like my mouth.”
He bites my lower lip hard and I gasp in surprise. “Yes, I do, but mostly when it’s wrapped around the tip of my cock and sucking nice and hard.”
“God, you’re an asshole. That’s never going to happen.”
He smirks and clearly doesn’t believe me. I’m not sure I believe myself.
“Rule one isn’t only for my pleasure, little thief. It’s for your protection. If I tell you to do something, I need to know you’ll do it no questions asked. We’re about to crawl into the pits of hell and you’ll burn to ashes if you can’t listen.”
“I’ll do my very best. What’s rule two?”
He smiles and breathes me in like he’s loving my perfume. “Rule two is you will not try to run. I need to trust you and you have to trust me if this is going to work.”
“It’s hard to trust a man that wrenches my arm behind my back.”
“Bullshit.” He brushes his mouth along my throat. “If you wanted me to stop, you’d say so.”
God, what a prick. Again, he’s not wrong, but he’s definitely a bastard.
“Is that all? You just need me to be a smiling, compliant doll, right?”
“A charming doll, but yes, that’s right. My doll. Get close to Charlie. Find out what happened that night. The full story, no bullshit. If you make that happen to my satisfaction then I swear to you, Gracie, I will help you find your cousin.”
I stare into his eyes and for the first time, I believe that he’s telling me the truth. The only problem is that little phrase, to my satisfaction—I can see that being impossible or nearly impossible, but I’ll deal with that another time. One more problem for Future Gracie to worry about.
“You have a deal then.”
“Good. Shall we kiss to seal it?”
“Do I have a choice?”
“You always have a choice.” And he presses his lips to mine, his tongue in my mouth, and a moan escapes my throat as I kiss him back, pinned and at his mercy like the night before but better, the sunshine breaking through the gloomy clouds and glaring on my back, his hands hard on my wrists, the kiss like a hurricane on my spine, an atom bomb of want and pleasure rocking along my skin.
He breaks it off and releases me. I stand there with my fingertips against the cool glass as he strides away and I stare at the way his muscles work, rippling like stones in a pond, and the melting heat between my legs suggests this isn’t going to be easy, god, no, it won’t be easy, but if I’m smart and more than a little lucky, I might get what I want.
I just might have to kill for it first.
Chapter 7
Grace
I thought that becoming Calvino’s fake girlfriend would mean I didn’t have to work anymore, but no, I was very wrong about that.
What it really means is I can’t go back to my own apartment and I can’t tell anyone the truth about my situation, which is as lonely as it sounds, stuck in a home that’s not mine, wearing clothes that aren’t mine, dating a man I can barely stand and who clearly sees me as nothing more than a tool with tits and a pussy. But if he’s using me then I’m using him right back.
The afternoon shift at Crystal Lake isn’t the best, but at least Juniper isn’t working and I get to split the tables with Kia. She winks at me as I bend over and take orders from a couple of older guys that stare at my chest, and even though my outfit’s basically designed to show off my boobs and it’s nearly insulting for them not to look, I still wish every once in a while they’d make some eye contact.