Chapter Twenty-Two
Arianna
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I ROLLED OUT FROM UNDER the bed, brushing the dust from my body, and wondering how long it had been since anyone had bothered to clean these guest rooms.
“Thank goodness,” he muttered, and I could see his face was pale. I got it, I did – he was terrified he was about to be exposed, and the punishment for him would likely have been worse than anything I’d have faced. And yet, still, even though I was profoundly aware of the danger we were in, I couldn’t keep the smile off my face. Something about excitement always kept me going, even when I should have known better.
I climbed back up on to the bed and sat on the edge, smiling at him. He was pacing back and forth, looking stressed as hell, and I didn’t blame him. I had no idea what kind of relationship he had with Arnold, but judging from their conversation, Arnold seemed to trust him. And here he was, hooking up with the one woman Arnold had basically told everyone was entirely off-limits.
It just showed how much he wanted me, that he was willing to go as far as he had to get what he wanted. He desired me and he was going to do whatever he could to make that desire into something. And fuck, it had been worth it – my body was still tingling from the orgasm he had given me, my system still lit just by the mere fact of his presence.
“We need to get you out of here,” he muttered to me, his eyes glazed as he tried to work out the best way to do that.
“I’ll just go back to my room,” I told him, and I rose to my feet to head for the door – but before I could get so much as a hand on it, he grabbed me.
“We need to be more careful,” he warned me. “Someone could be watching the room to make sure there’s nothing strange going on.”
“Why would they think that?” I asked. “Has Arnold got reason to doubt you?”
“I didn’t think so,” he muttered. “But if he’s coming here looking for you...I can’t be sure he hasn’t caught on.”
I paused. Hmm. Okay. Did he think Arnold had his suspicions? If that was the case, it was up to me to throw him off the scent, convince him he was the only man for me. At least I had some practice with someone I really did have amazing chemistry with – perhaps I could find some way to copy and paste that into whatever I shared with Arnold, though it seemed nigh-on impossible now.
“Let’s get you out of here,” he told me, and he made his way over to the door and cracked it, peering out. I couldn’t hear anyone out there, but they might have sent guards up looking for me. I was the center of attention, just the way I liked it, though I wished I could have run a little more under the radar at a time like this.
“Okay,” he muttered. “There’s no one I can see. I’m going to go out into the corridor, and if I don’t come back in thirty seconds, that’s your sign to make a break for your room. Do you understand?”
“I get it,” I replied, trying to ignore the twist of excitement and nerves all wrapped up together in my chest. I should have known better than to allow my feelings to get the better of me, but it was hard to deny them in a place like this. I was running on pure instinct, basically, and it was so tempting to just indulge myself in as much of it as I could find.
He slipped out the door, and I counted down the seconds until I could follow him. Though, damn, it was tempting to just stay right here, with him, to forget anything else was going on and spend the night fucking him senseless. I loved being with him, loved being close to him, loved being around him, and I didn’t want to have to break it off for someone like Arnold, who truly and honestly did nothing for me.
But I didn’t have a choice. I would land us both in trouble if I tried anything like that, and I wasn’t willing to mess up both of our lives for the sake of a good fuck. Once the time was up, I stepped outside, and hurried across the corridor to my room, closing the door behind me before I could get distracted by his presence again.
But as soon as I stepped inside, I felt something catch at the back of my mind. Something was wrong, something was really, really wrong – someone was here. I turned around quickly, my eyes darting back and forth in the darkness I had left behind, and then I reached for the light and flicked it on.
“Arnold!” I exclaimed in shock, as soon as I saw him there. Had he just turned and come down here as soon as he left Dean’s room? This was ridiculous. I hadn’t expected to run into him like this, and I was thrown for a serious loop. I didn’t like this, not one little bit, but I didn’t have a choice but to go through with it.
“Oh, it’s so good to see you,” I told him, and I moved towards him and wound my arms around his neck. I prayed he wouldn’t be able to feel the thrum of my heart against his chest. I was terrified, terrified he had heard me coming out of Dean’s room and that he knew what was going on here. I had no idea how to compose myself, so I decided to just plant a kiss on his cheek and hope for the best.
“You too,” he replied, but his voice sounded a little...strange. There was something off about it I couldn’t put my finger on.
“Where have you been today?” he asked, with some curiosity. “I haven’t been able to find you since breakfast.”
“I went for a walk around the gardens,” I replied – it was the truth. I had seen plenty of the staff there, and they would be able to back me up if he needed proof.
“The gardens?” he asked, his suspicion obvious. It was the first time I had seen any sort of crack in his jovial façade, and it was unsettling. I knew he had this in him, but I had hoped I might be able to avoid becoming the focus of it for a little longer.
“Yeah, I love nature,” I explained with a dreamy sigh, trying to make it sound as though all of this was just some lovely weekend break for me and not some insane, ridiculous example of being kidnapped for my involvement with someone I barely knew.
“I wanted to see the roses,” I continued, bringing to mind the pink blooms I had spotted when I had come out of the kitchen. “They’re so beautiful at this time of year, don’t you think? And so romantic, too...”
I was trying to sound as floaty and airy-fairy as I could; I needed him to believe I could never be anything even close to a threat to him, and the best way to sell him on that was to play the part he wanted from me. I knew he was hoping for a girl he could pretty much convince to do whatever he wanted, and for now, I was willing to play along.
“They are,” he replied, and I was sure I could feel him softening slightly. Inside my head, I let out a sigh of relief. I needed to play this character for him, keep playing this character. It was the only way I was going to be able to get through all of this in one piece.
“I brought you something,” he told me, and he gestured to the bed – for one horrible moment, I was certain he was going to ask me to lie down right then and there so he could take what he wanted, and I wasn’t sure I would have been able to pass off my recent hook-up with Dean so easily if I had done that, but when I turned to look, I was in the clear. It was a dress; a beautiful, navy-blue dress, laid out on top of the bed, waiting for me.