AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Kai wouldn’t dole me out,” I cut in.
“Okay.”
“Do I have to worry about Rada?” I lifted my chin in the direction of her bedroom.
“No. Do you want out of this?”
I shook my head and made for the bag, but he jerked it out of reach. “Answer me honestly.”
I hope I exuded calm when I said, “Why go to all this trouble then, Sax? Finding me on a yacht, playing pretend-poker with me in the docks, plonking me on a private plane, taking me to the UK. It’s clear you need me for something. Maybe it’s about time you tell me why.”
After an exhale, Theo let me take the shopping bag. “I need you to play.”
My fingers grazed his as I hooked the plastic handles, the tension between us amplifying from azingto abang.
“That, I can do.”
We’d moved closer somehow, this bag of hair dye bringing our lips within inches. He smelled of scotch, a sharp, nutty scent mixing with his woodsy cologne. Theo was the essence of an evening hike up a tree-lined cliff. Fresh air and smoke. Fire and stone.
God, I had to touch him.
“Scarlet,” he warned.
Each shade of pigment in his irises was visible, the dark blue of an ocean bottom, the bright of the sky, the navy of the horizon. A mosaic of blue beauty. His favorite color, and mine.
I’d moved so my lower lip grazed his. My lids were half-mast, my hand reaching up then sliding down the suit-sleeve of his arm.
Cold hit much too soon.
Theo had stepped away. “We don’t have a lot of time.” He gestured to the bag. “Do you need Rada’s help with that or…?”
I cleared my throat, then had to do it twice, since my heart had nestled in my windpipe. “I can do it.” Trying for a joke, I added, “Do you have any idea what it takes to maintain this unnatural blond shade?”
Theo didn’t smile.
I stepped around him. “I’ve been directed to a certain bathroom. I’ll be in there if you need me for anything else.”
“I don’t.”
My back stiffened, and I skipped a step, but kept walking.
“Neither do I,” I said, but it was too quiet for him to hear.
* * *
I threwthe plastic bag in the cream-marbled sink, gold flowing through the expensive stone like small rivers. This wasn’t an estate that would install shower curtains, so I bent around the glass partition and twisted the monogrammed tap to HOT.
In a single strip, I was naked and ready for a few moments of gloriousness. I readied to get this gloppy hair dye business over with, because every cell in my five-foot-seven frame was looking forward to that spray. I’d shave my legs while waiting for the color to set—I didn’t care, as long as I could get that rain shower system battering my shoulders like a little marching ant army.
The steam added a light dew to the bathroom, coating first my mouth, then my lungs, with delicious moisture. I rifled through the plastic that was quickly becoming damp and sticky and pulled out the box.
When the model’s face flashed up at me, she fell to the ground.
“No,” I said, then it became a whisper, “no, no, no.”
I retreated, the backs of my legs hitting the toilet and I tumbled, grappled for the marbled walls but found no resistance and smacked to the floor.
“No,” I sobbed, pulling my knees close.
