Page 86 of Twisted Knight

I sit there with my head angled to the side and study a woman who seems to be so much more than I expected upon that first meeting, and question myself over what to think.

Ruining her family is my end game. She’s going to be a pawn in that game. And yet I can’t stop wondering what would happen if we’d met at a different time and in a different way.

How would things between us have gone then?

But what-ifs are hard to deal with when you’re dealing in what you need to do next.

She meets me stare for stare, her lips a pout and her eyeliner smokey. “Give me time, Knight, and I’ll figure you out.”

“Thanks for the warning.”

“You’re welcome.”

I lean forward, intrigued. “What about you? The woman who goes on dates with men who don’t respect her. Who is said to be marrying a man but tells me she isn’t. Who is most likely scheming behind my back on how to take me down. Who exactly are you, Rowan Rothschild?”

She pauses for a moment, glancing away before turning back to me with a mischievous glint in her eye. “I thought a little mystery was a good thing?”

I chuckle, admiring her wit. “Fair enough, Sunshine. Fair enough.”

“Hey, Holden?” She smirks and leans in closer so that I have no other place to look besides her lips. Her cleavage. Her. “We should probably go.”

“Should we?”

“Mmm-hmm.” She nods. “The question is where.” With those words, she stands up and saunters away, leaving me looking after her with a shaking head.

The damn woman was supposed to be a conquest. Collateral fucking damage. I’m not supposed to like her beyond her sex appeal. I’m not supposed to want to know more of her for reasons other than fucking revenge. I’m not supposed to want to fuck her for reasons other than simply fucking her to throw it in Chad’s face and to stake my flag in making the face of their company mine.

But she opened up.

She uncovered truths I thought were different. It was her sister here at the diner, not her. It was Cassie who owned the reputation for being a spoiled brat, not Rowan.

How did I not put two and two together? How did I miss that Rowan went to a boarding school?

How can I think I’ve figured every angle of every goddamn thing when it comes to all of this and then find out I haven’t? Are there other holes in my plan? Other things I missed?

Will you look at that? You’re fucking human, Knight.

Fuck that.

Where does this leave me?

I don’t have to particularly like someone to fuck them. It’s just a means to an end with a great orgasm in between.

But I like Rowan and that’s an unexpected twist.

I rise from the table, say good night to our server, and head out the door to the woman standing in the moonlight waiting for me.

Fucking complications.

I don’t need them.

I don’t want them.

And yet it seems I’m about to walk head-fucking-first into them.

TWENTY-SIX

Rowan