AllFreeNovel
Share Us
We worked in silence, but it wasn’t a bad kind. It was the kind that two people had when they went on a first date, and there was something there, but they were each trying to suss out what the other person was feeling.
“So,” I began, figuring now was as good a time as any. “Tell me all about how you ended up working for the Moranos in the first place.”
Her face tightened a little, and she shrugged. “I needed money.” I thought she would stop there, but then she continued, “Fresh out of juvie. I didn’t have a job, and my mom was sick. Or at least that was what she told me. However, the truth was she needed the money to take off with her new boyfriend.”
“What a bitch,” I commented, and Emily glanced at me. For a second, I thought she would be offended, but then she smiled.
“Yeah. She was a bitch.”
“I almost went to juvie at sixteen,” I told her. “For beating this kid up. He was talking smack, and I got pissed and hit him till he was black and blue.” I shook my head at the memory of my impulsive mistake. “I’ve never lost my temper after that. I find it’s just not worth it most of the time to destroy myself to spite someone else.”
“You were a lot smarter than me,” she said.
“And you were a lot kinder than I was,” I replied.
She glanced at me and gave me the barest hint of a smile. “Thanks.”
I celebrated the smile for what it was. The beginning of a truce.
15
EMILY
The ultimate test began at bedtime.
I stood in the ridiculously grand bathroom, staring at myself in the mirror and doing just about anything to stall. I first started by looking around at the pristine white marble tiles and the gold trim on the bathtub.
Seriously, I thought with a roll of my eyes.What kind of serious narcissist needed gold on his bathtub? Was he Rumpelstiltskin?
Although, I couldn’t deny that it did give a hint of sophisticated elegance to an otherwise boring bathtub.
Nevertheless, the sculpted ergonomic soap dish seemed like complete overkill.
But none of that was enough to distract me from what I knew was coming.
The minute I walked out of this bathroom, everything would change. I would have to sleep there with him.In the same bed, to be more exact, and just thinking of it made images flash in my mind—images that were hot and sweaty and erotic.
He might have agreed not to touch me the entire night, but that didn’t mean I stopped fantasizing about him doing the exact thing.
Reminding myself that I hated him didn’t do any good…it was hard to get my body on board with what my brain already knew.
It knew he was a bad guy.
Likely a murderer.
But my hormonal body didn’t care. All my body seemed to care about was his smoldering gaze, his hands that knew exactly where to stroke, his kiss that set me ablaze.
And his gaze that had followed me as we cooked and chatted.
It was weird…the camaraderie that had formed when we’d spoken of our past. He was one of the few people I’d been able to tell mine to, and I had no clue why I was so comfortable volunteering that information. Maybe because a part of me thought he would understand doing anything to survive, even if it meant stealing.
And he did seem to relate. To the point where I’d almost forgotten what got me here in the first place. He hadn’t responded with any judgment, hadn’t accused me of lying the way Angel did. It made me want to bare even more of my soul to him and forget that he was technically holding me against my will.
Which was very dangerous under normal circumstances but even more dangerous now, considering I was already having trouble controlling my sexual responses around him.
I’m not a rapist,he’d said.I don’t plan on doing anything to you that you don’t ask for.
But what if I asked for it? What if I lost my mind sometime during the night and asked him to fuck me, to make me feel good, even if it was only for a few seconds?
