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“Anyway, she won’t get the chance to kill us in our sleep. Dom, let Rocky loose. She’ll stay in her room or she’ll regret it.” Aiden tossed me his keys as he stood.
“Fantastic plan,” Xander said as he and Aiden left the room. He turned to call over his shoulder, “Yell for help if she kicks your ass!”
None of us had cell phones. Aiden had always been a luddite, but Selena’s arrival had pushed him over the edge into straight-up technophobe.
I shook my head, tossed the bloodied bandages into the garbage, then headed in to face the little dark-haired spitfire.
She stared up at the ceiling, as if she wanted to ignore me.
“If I cut you loose, are you going to try to kill me?” I asked her. “Because I assure you, there is no way out of this house without Aiden’s permission.”
When her gaze turned to mine, her dark eyes were alluring. Until she bared her teeth at me in what might have been an approximation of a smile. “So you’re trapped too?”
“Yep. Difference between the two of us is, I don’t mind it. I’ll do anything for Aiden.” And he would do anything for me.
Well, anything except resist fucking each other’s girl.
Something about Selena opened up an unexpected pool of desire low in my gut. Most women would have freaked out to finding themselves in the position she was. She was so cool and calculating.
Aiden could pretend he’d chosen her because she was so immediately available, because Gavin would find her incorruptible, but deep down, he wanted someone who would stand on her own two feet in our dark, gritty world.
“I know you don’t want to play fiancée, but that will keep you alive for a little while.”
Her eyes shifted around the room, then back to mine. She gave me the feeling she was trying to look right through me, into my soul.
Too bad she probably wasn’t going to find much.
“So what exactly does he need accomplished before he kills me?” she asked.
Smart girl. She knew that she’d be a loose end needing to be taken care of.
“Just make him fall in love with you, and you might find yourself with a permanent position.”
Her lips twisted ruefully. “Not really my style.”
“Aren’t you Belladonnas good at making men love you?”
She looked me dead in the eyes and lied, “Artifice has never been my strength. I’m a naturally honest person.”
Sure. And I was a naturally patient one. “Well, artifice is required now. Aiden needs someone to pretend to be his fianceé. And lucky you, you’re the lady for the job.”
“Lucky me,” she said dryly. “It’s better than being shot in the head.”
“That’s my girl. I love the optimism.” I patted her leg, where a little too much of her thigh was still exposed. I liked this girl underneath the bubbly vapid exterior that I’d seen at the party so much better. A girl who left a mark. I ran my thumb absently over the bruise on my cheek as I studied her.
She immediately tried to push herself up, try and take control of her body, only for her arms to go back out from underneath her.
“They’ll be weak at first from the drug,” I said. “Feeling numb through your limbs?”
She nodded, her eyes flashing. She didn’t like being helpless at all.
“I can help that go away,” I told her. “But you’ll have to give me permission to touch you, sleeping beauty. You and I are going to be working together and I don’t want to be murdered when I’m trying to enjoy my waffles.”
“You’re the one who did this to me in the first place!”
“Who says the cure can’t also be the curse?”
She closed her eyes. “Fine.”
