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"Do you ever smile?"
"I don't remember the last time I had reason to. No," I said when her face went sad. "Don't feel bad for me," I demanded. I had never been plagued with something resembling a conscience, but I couldn't take pity from a woman whose life I was going to need to take eventually.
"I—" she started, trailing off then I threw off the covers and climbed naked out of the bed.
Nudity tended to work well in ending uncomfortable conversations.
Sometimes, because of desire.
Other times, because of shock.
I didn't let myself stop to see which one Josephine had on her face, just walked to my bathroom for a shower.
Of the cold variety.
Chapter Ten
Jo
I almost died.
Legitimately.
I wasn't exaggerating.
I'd been stupid and reckless and a little too optimistic about how close the house was to a main road or another house, anywhere that I could find help.
When I'd heard Ace coming, I'd panicked, gotten all turned around, then somehow found myself closer to the house again.
Crouching there by that pile of wood, I had all the classic signs of hypothermia. The shivering, the slow pulse, the shallow breathing, the drowsiness, and even confusion.
The confusion maybe most of all.
Since I had been sure in those moments that Ace's eyes had been glowing red, that his tongue had been forked, that there had been weird bone-line things starting to jut out of his forehead.
Clearly, my consciousness and my unconsciousness had merged, creating some weird, otherworldly creature out of the man kneeling before me, my captor that was there to save me.
I didn't remember much of anything after that until I woke up feeling like a furnace was underneath and around me.
It took a long couple of minutes before I realized that the warmth was coming from a body. More specifically, Ace's body.
I should have jumped off of him, ran away screaming.
I didn't do that, though.
And I tried to convince myself that I stayed because I was cold, because it was important to warm up completely after a brush with hypothermia like that.
I knew the truth, though.
I didn't want to move because it felt good being close to him. And not just because he was warm.
Was that screwed up?
Yes. Yes, absolutely.
I had almost just died.
Because I was trying to run away from him.
Then there I was, snuggling up to him, making small talk with him, and enjoying it more than it could have possibly been healthy psychologically.
Then, oh, then, he had to get out of that bed.
Naked.
The man just stood up and bared it all.
Let's just say... there was a lot to be bared.
I was annoyed at myself for noticing, but he'd surprised me. I hadn't been able to look away fast enough.
Yeah, that was the story I was going with.
I never really considered what Ace was like under all those hoodies and grandpa sweaters.
Apparently, he was built much like a Greek god was. He was nearly six-and-a-half feet of sculpted, yet not bulky, muscle. I guess I pictured him always curled up with a book, not working out. But, clearly, he had a dedicated regimen for his body to look that good. From his eight—yes, eight—pack and right on down to those deep dips of his Adonis muscles.
Normally, that was as far as the average woman could see of the above-average man.
But when my eyes followed those indents, they didn't meet the waistband of his pants. Oh, no.
They found more skin.
Ace was big everywhere.
And he was even bigger still because he was hard.
There had been a deep, undeniable pulsating need inside when my eyes landed on his cock. That primal, cavewoman part of me could practically feel the fullness of him inside.
The sensation was so intense that even after he turned to walk away—and we weren't even going to talk about that biteable ass of his—I'd needed to press my thighs together for one long minute to calm the chaos there before I could even focus enough to walk out of his room.
"Hey there, pretty lady," a voice said as soon as I moved into the hall.
I turned to find who had to be Daemon, even though he hadn't visited with Red. From what I understood, Daemon and Bael were new additions to the team or gang or club, whatever it was that they called themselves. I figured maybe they didn't check on her because they didn't know her like everyone else.
Daemon looked younger than the others, but with the same rough-and-tumble biker look that most of them had with his dark hair, tattoos, and several visible piercings.
"I, ah, hey."
"Where's the boss man?"
"Taking a shower," I told him, shrugging.
"Does he know you're out here in the hall?"
"He didn't tell me to stay put," I said, getting a smirk from Daemon.
"I like the way your mind works," he decided, moving forward, draping an arm around my shoulders. "How about I tag along while you break some more rules? Want to dig around in the basement? Deface some of the fine art? Rip some random pages out of pivotal books in Ace's library?"
