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Wonderful. I stuck my finger in my mouth to stop the little bit of bleeding and reassessed my opponent. The problem was, I had no idea how locks really worked.
Steeling myself with a deep breath, I got comfortable in a new position on the floor, adjusting my feet so that they didn’t fall completely asleep beneath me. I pawed at my birds-nest of hair with a quickly sinking stomach.
“Don’t tell me I used them all…” I muttered to myself.
But no, I hadn’t. I found one, the last one, tucked in the back of my braid.
As I pulled it out, a lock of hair came with it, making my grown-out bangs fall into my eyes. I swiped the still wet hair from my forehead with the back of my hand, then set to work trying, one final time, to free myself.
If I couldn’t get out this time, I was stuck there while Vasile was elsewhere, all sexy and handsome, alone in some big luxurious bed with Turkish sheets, probably wearing just his…
I was losing my focus. Shaking off the thoughts of his body, I narrowed my gaze on the lock, trying hard to envision its internal workings.
But they were as mystifying to me as Vasile himself. I wriggled it and turned it, jiggled it and jabbed it. No luck.
I stabbed it one final time, with no success.
“God damn it.” I fumed rarely using such a phrase as my upbringing taught me it was unbecoming and beneath me to swear.
Defeated, I let my forehead thunk softly against the wood. And with a quiet click, the door sprang open, the abandoned hairpin falling to the floor.
“Oh my god,” I chirped, a bit louder than I should, and peeked out into the darkened hallway. There was no sign of Vasile.
Whether it was a good idea or not to go find him, I didn’t know. He’d not wanted me as I thought, so my head spun trying to figure out another angle of attack that would free me from my upcoming enslavement to Petre.
Padding through the rooms, I moved silently while I worked through a new plan. In what I assumed was the drawing room, I found a crystal case that contained a row of silver-plated pistols and below that a row of equally ornate and imposing knives. I hesitated there, looking down at their dangerous edges in the moonlight.
The voice of my fencing coach drifted into my head. “Nyet, girl! Nyet! Never go into a fight unarmed!” she barked, her thick Petrograd accent making her sound doubly formidable.
I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, but a knife seemed like a good idea in the moment. Certainly, having a weapon at hand right now would be an asset rather than a liability. And I had no idea how to handle a pistol.
Carefully, I lifted the lid of the crystal case and chose the smallest of the knives, which had the thickest blade. Its serrated edges glinted in the moonlight, and I was surprised by how comfortable and well balanced it felt in my hand.
I resumed my hunt for him. I almost suspected he wasn’t there at all, but at the end of the last hallway I saw a closed door. Trying the knob, I found—to my delight—that it wasn’t locked.
Gritting my teeth as I turned the knob all the way, I carefully made my way inside. And there he was, lying on his back in bed, sound asleep. Bare chested and beautiful.
Keeping the knob tight in my hand, I gently rotated it to the left, careful not to let go until I knew that the catch was not going to click and give me away.
His breathing was regular, almost mesmerizing. The drapes were open, and the barest hint of dawn light was beginning to break in the room. He was beautiful when he stared me down, but even more beautiful now, so peaceful as he slept.
Standing by his bedside now, knife in hand, I gazed down at him. If I’d felt powerful by the pool, that was nothing compared to how I felt here, with this beast of a man at his most vulnerable, and me armed to the teeth.
I could do anything to him. Anything. I could scar that perfect face. I could stab him just enough to wing him.
I could kill him. Right here, right now.
Climbing carefully up onto the bed, slowly, silently, I straddled his wide chest, gaining leverage as I studied the glint of the blade in my hand. It wouldn’t be difficult. I could raise the knife above my head and plunge it downward.
I would never have a better opportunity to make my own way in the world than this. Nobody knew where I was, and if I did kill him, nobody would find him for days. I didn’t even need to seduce him for this plan to work.
