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“You want to do it too,” he says in a hushed tone. “You’d like to be set free from playing by the rules. The lesson to keep in mind is to know what you need to do to get there—before you can break free of the rules, you have to play by the rules. You have to play so well, you manipulate the game pieces in your favor. You win the game altogether and then you change the game. You can change therules.”
I hack out a sound between a laugh and cough. “But I don’t play by the rules, Kaden. Aren’t you always scolding me for being dressed inappropriately?”
“What I’m talking about encompasses far more than your manner of dress.”
“How am I doing, by the way? Is this dress too much? Too little?”
I regret asking for his input. Being on the receiving end of a once-over from Kaden Raskova is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.
His mysterious deep-set eyes possess the power to make my heart go still. They make me hyperaware of myself and my body as they flit over me.
Heat and tension thicken between us in the seconds it takes. I sit obediently in my chair and wait out his intent study. Those dark orbs dipping from every inch of my face, down my throat, past my shoulders, and for a final appreciative gander at my breasts.
He openly eye fucks me.
That’s what’s happening. What I basically asked for.
My face warms up and my throat feels parched. I reach for my glass of way-too-expensive sparkling water.
“Is it a dress appropriate for the Arcadia?” he says. “No.”
I swallow down my water and then frown.
“Is it a dress that I quite enjoy seeing on that figure of yours?” he asks before a momentary pause. “Abso-fucking-lutely.”
I laugh so abruptly, the stuffy woman at the table nearest ours throws me a dirty look. Answering her look of offense with a stink eye, I return to my amusement with Kaden.
“I think that’s the first time I’ve heard you cuss. You’re so perfect, I assumed it was beneath you.”
“There’s much you don’t know about me. My occasional crass language is just one thing.”
“Okay then, tell me. How do you break the rules? In what ways do you do what you want when you want?”
The subtlest smirk pulls at the left side of his mouth. He doesn’t let it win though. In another millisecond, it’s gone.
“I don’t think you can handle knowing, Lyra. That very real side of me can be… a lot to handle.”
“Try me. Tell me more.”
“I’ll do more than tell you. I’ll show you. Let’s go.”
“What, but dinner—okay, okay!”
Kaden’s up on his feet and he’s whisking me away. We’re speed walking through the extravagant candlelit dining room of the Arcadia, garnering pointed stares as we go. Several staff members attempt to stop Kaden with furrowed brows and worry imbued in their tones. They think something about the Arcadia has displeased him and they’re desperate to fix it.
He waves them off without a care.
I’m scrambling into my seat in his Tesla. We shoot out from the valet lane and merge into oncoming traffic with high speeds.
Several times I attempt to ask where we’re going, but Kaden merely ignores me and hits the gas even harder.
I’m disoriented by what’s going on, surrounded by the headlights of traffic and the many ritzy buildings whipping by.
Until Kaden stomps on the brake and we stop outside the Easton Opera House.
Tonight it’s closed. Meaning no shows, no performances, no anything.
Kaden parks. He creates his own parking space on the curb of a busy street despite the fact that there are giant white letters painted into the tarmac stating ‘NO PARKING’ and the sign posted on the sidewalk warning the same.
