Bound to Cruelty - Page 41

“Fine, we’ll see you when you get here.”

He hangs up without a goodbye, and I slide my phone back on the tabletop. Shit.

We are currently sitting in a tangled mess of webs. There is a lot of unwinding Selena and I both need to do before we go back to the penthouse.

I stand, button my jacket, and march to her door. Since she won’t answer anyway, I don’t bother with knocking.

When I enter, I scan the room, spotting her on the bed, curled on her side in her underwear and a t-shirt. There’s a book propped in front of her.

“What?” she says, not even glancing up from the pages.

Any other time, I might find this image the sexiest thing I’ve seen in a very long time. But there’s a pendulum hanging over our heads, and I’d like to keep it on my neck for now.

“We are leaving. Pack your stuff.”

She looks up. “What?”

“We’ve been called to the penthouse. Your brother wants us there immediately.”

She presses her lips together, her forehead crumpling. “Why?”

I’m two seconds from running out the door or throwing her back on the bed and climbing between those plush thighs again. I grip the wood of the frame to ground myself. “He didn’t deign to give me an explanation. If you want one, you’ll have to call him yourself.”

She glances at her phone on the bedside table, then back at me. “I think I’ll pass on that one. How long do we have? Can we stall for a couple of days?”

I push away from the door to get closer to her. It’s easier to read her eyes the closer I get. “Why would we stall?”

She shoots me a dart of a look. “You want to come up with a story on the fly? Explain about us…um…being more intimate with each other than we should be?”

“There’s no reason we have to say anything.” I slip my hands into my pockets and enjoy seeing all her smooth skin on display.

“You don’t think my brother won’t spot something is off the second he sees us?”

I shrug, pretending indifference I don’t feel at all. “I’m an excellent actor, Selena. Kai only sees what I want him to see. On my face, at least.”

Her lips flatten and her eyes narrow. “Are you implying I’ll rat us out to my brother? There are definitely things I think we’d be better off keeping to ourselves. But…” She shifts to sit up, sliding her legs together and running her hands over her knees. “What is my silence worth to you?”

A hot cut of anger slices through me. “Are you fucking kidding? You want to barter for my silence over something you don’t even want him to know in the first place?”

It’s her turn to feign indifference, and I can tell she’s faking it. She’s been pretending since day one. “He won’t cut my throat for sleeping with you. I can’t say the same in reverse. I might not agree with it, but I know how to get what I need out of any situation.”

I blink, letting the mask slip over my features more fully. My usual beautiful-boy-without-a-brain act. “And what do you need, Brat? Besides your ass whipped until it’s red.”

She wiggles like the idea isn’t totally unappealing. My hands ache to touch her, but I don’t let her see a single bit of it.

Something dark slides into her eyes. Pain maybe? “I want to know why the fuck you puked your guts out after going down on me the other day? I want to know what I did to make you treat me that way. You didn’t even wait until I’d gotten far enough that I didn’t have to hear it.”

I clench my fists, never having to hold on to my mask more than I do right now. “It wasn’t about you. It had nothing to do with you at all.”

She tilts her head. “And how am I supposed to believe that? Especially when you’re wearing that face.”

I give her a lazy smile, a default for me, as I think about what she’s asking. A dazzling distraction. “You can believe what you want to believe. That’s on you, not me. I’m not here to stroke your ego, or make you feel like a princess again. It doesn’t matter. It shouldn’t have happened anyway.”

It’s the wrong thing to say. The second the words leave my mouth, I know.

She shoots to her feet, her hands clenched. “Well, we don’t want to keep Kai waiting, do we?”

She stalks to the bathroom and slams the door loud enough to rattle the art on the adjacent wall. It’s a good thing they bolt those bastards in, or else they’d have hit the floor with how much awareness she shows when she’s throwing around all that attitude.

I flex my hand, only allowing this tiny departure, then head to my room to pack up.

Tags: J.L. Beck Romance
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