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Reyes had refused a dozen entreaties to share Eve’s bed. He valued her friendship too much to cloud it with sex, even though she’d assured him repeatedly that she wasn’t a clingy sort and would never have had expectations of him beyond sex.
Had he been tempted? Hell, yes, but right now he was glad he’d stuck to his guns.
He pulled Angelica close to his side, lifting her off her feet, then levitated to the second story, Eve close behind.
Once within he closed the door, and after settling both Eve and Angelica in the sitting room, he swore Eve to secrecy. He then told her about his desire and efforts to destroy the Starlin Group.
Eve listened wide-eyed. “So let me understand. You bought Angelica at auction and now both of you are pretending to support a slave-slaver relationship because you’re undercover?”
“Exactly. But this group is heavy into torture, and I need some kind of proof that I’ve been hurting Angelica or I won’t be able to move higher up in the organization.” Though the last bit wasn’t the entire truth, given that he’d soon be Sweet Dove’s partner, he felt it necessary to keep Eve in the dark, especially where Sweet Dove was concerned. The less she knew, the better.
Eve leaned close to Reyes. “I want you to know how much I appreciate that you’re going after Starlin. I never said anything all this time about the company you’ve kept, but now I understand and I’m so proud of what you’re doing.” She included Angelica as well, grabbing for her hand and giving a squeeze. “For what you’re both trying to accomplish.”
Reyes nodded. “The moment I escaped my own slavery, I set my mind to it.”
Eve nodded several times, but said nothing more. Reyes let the moment breathe as his own dedication to the mission filled his mind all over again. Eve often purchased slaves, but always with the end goal of setting them free. They were like-minded.
Finally he asked, “So you think you can create some realistic bruising?”
Eve rose to her feet and placed her oversized makeup case on the table, then turned to look Angelica over. “This will work best and be more accurate if the bruises are all over the body, which means, my dear, that you’ll need to take your clothes off. You can keep your underwear on.”
“Whatever it takes.” Angelica reached down and slid the long T-shirt she wore over her head, kicked off her shoes, then stripped out of her pants.
A shiver went through Reyes. He’d made love to her a lot over the past two weeks, but the sight of her wearing just her bra and a very sheer black thong worked on him all over again.
Angelica turned toward him, her cheeks flushed. She covered the blood-chain at her neck with her fingers. “What’s going on?” But she laughed.
He shook his head back and forth several times. “It’s just that … what can I say … I mean look at you … ” He waved a hand toward her several times, looking her up and down.
Eve laughed at him and said, “Reyes, maybe you could focus on some paperwork or something.”
He cleared his throat, grabbed his laptop, and moved to a nearby club chair. “I’ll leave you to it.”
Of course he might have had his gaze glued to his laptop screen, but he could still hear the two women.
Eve said, “There’s just one thing. To make this as realistic as possible, I should add a preternatural charge to each bruise. It’ll cause some mild discomfort, but the charge will invade the skin and deepen the appearance of the wound.”
Reyes glanced at Eve and intervened. “No. I don’t want anything like that. You’re not to hurt Angelica.”
But Angelica pivoted slightly in his direction. “Nonsense. We want this to be realistic. I say do it.”
Eve smiled. “I like your spirit. How about I try out a preternatural punch, then you can tell me how many of these you think you can take.”
“Done.”
“Hey,” Reyes called out, trying to stop the madness. “Don’t I get a say?”
But the women ignored him. Eve placed her fist against Angelica’s abdomen and let loose, but Angelica barely flinched.
“Easy-peasy,” Angelica said. She touched her abdomen. “That hurt a little, but look at the redness.” She glanced at Reyes. “I can take it, really I can. This isn’t bad at all. I just wish I’d known about this technique. We could have done this sooner, starting at the after-auction party.”
“Fine,” Reyes said, though he scowled.
Angelica turned back to Eve. “Try a cut this time.”
At that Reyes jumped from his seat, setting his laptop aside, and drew close to Angelica once more. “I’m drawing the line. No cuts.”
Both women stared at him, brows raised.
“I’m serious.”
Eve exchanged a glance with Angelica. “We can see that.”
“How about just one cut?” Angelica suggested.
Reyes shook his head. “What’s with you?”
“It’s simple. We’ve got Scorpion’s attention and we should capitalize on that.” Even though Sweet Dove was Scorpion, he knew Angelica couldn’t mention Sweet Dove’s name without arousing Eve’s curiosity. And right now Reyes didn’t want anyone to know about Sweet Dove. Getting as close as he could to the woman was the key to gaining access to Starlin’s internal organization. Once he had that information, he could take Starlin down piece by piece.
But he hated the thought of Angelica being cut in any way.
Reyes turned to Angelica. “Please don’t do this. I can’t explain it, but I don’t want to see you cut. Maybe you can handle it, but I can’t. The bruises will be hard enough for me to look at.”
Angelica put her hand on his face. “Fine, no cuts, not even fake ones. I wasn’t thinking of how this might affect you, only of the end result.”
She reached up and kissed him, a gesture that brought his breath up short. He wanted more and again became acutely aware that she wore only a bra and a miniscule thong.
If Eve hadn’t been in the room …
Angelica smiled. “Go back to your laptop because right now my blood-chain is singing.”
He shook his head, turning away from her once more, and headed back to his chair to explore the latest posts on the Starlin Web site.
* * *
With each charged punch, Angelica took a deep breath and let the resulting pain flow out of her. Eve would then spread on a layer of makeup in different shades of purple, blue, gray, and even some pink. Some of the splotches were small and others large to indicate she’d been hit by different kinds of objects.
