Page 132 of My Dark Prince
Did she unpack?When?The woman was a demon.
I shook my head. “Mi casa es tu casa.”
She tossed her hair outside her robe, and my breath caught in my throat – she was so fucking pretty. “Tu casais probably an exotic animal trafficking hub, judging by that mysterious south wing no one is allowed to go into.”
Well, at least that confirmed she didn’t know about Seb living here.
I hopped off the bed, still as buck-ass naked as I’d entered, and chased her down the hallway, grinning from ear to ear. “There’s no trafficking going on. The kitties are well-provided for and are enjoying every minute of it.”
“Kitties?” She screeched into a halt, swiveling around, her fists curled by her sides, not bothering to glance down at the goods. “Did you really just make an animal abuse joke?”
To a vegetarian, no less.
“Hey, you started it.”
“You have no red lines.”
“True story. But I do adhere to safe words, so there’s that.”
“It wasn’t a joke.” Her eyes tapered and her cheeks turned as pink as those nipples I could see through her satin cloth. “I was serious about my accusation.”
“No, you weren’t.”
A lock of hair fell across her eyes. I reached to tuck it behind her ear. Because this was real life and not a book, the lock slipped right back to where it was.
I snatched the throw from the couch and wrapped it around my waist like a towel. “If you seriously thought I was a threat to anyone, you wouldn’t willingly move in with me, and the FBI would be here, searching my rectum right about now.”
“You’d probably enjoy it.”
I shrugged. “Don’t kink-shame me, missy.”
Her nostrils flared, and her jaw tightened. We were now equals. I could dish it out as good as I got it.
She shook her head and started for the corridor. Very well. She must’ve chosen one of the guestrooms downstairs.
I joined her, as though we’d embarked on a leisured stroll. “So, how long will you be staying with me?”
“I’m thinking forever, would you mind?” Her weak attempt at getting a rise out of me failed.
“Au contraire. You are always welcome. We have lots of catching up to do.”
“Gossip columns helped me stay all caught up with your antics.”
“… and I cannot wait for you to attend one of my orgies.”
The most persistent rumor – a media favorite, really – was that I hosted sex parties. Wild, illicit, dangerous sex parties. It all started when I hired a car detailing service. They came on the same day of every month like clockwork, taking with them all twelve of my cars to deep clean and refill with gas. A passing jogger spotted all the parked vehicles on the curb outside my property and drew the wrong conclusion. I never corrected them.
Briar stormed down the corridor, not bothering to check if I’d followed. “Has anyone ever told you you’re gross?”
“On an hourly basis, actually.” I plucked a rose from a vase mid-step, tucking it above the shell of her ear. It somersaulted to the tiles when she swatted it away. “I mean, you did meet my friends. Tough love is an understatement.”
“Are you and Frankie having an affair?” she demanded.
“Answer my question first.” Itsked. “I understand we’re playing a game of who’s gonna break first – you, by the way, I’d take you straight to the altar if it were up to me – but I want to hear the reason behind your change of heart.”
That was the thing about greed. Just the slightest taste of what I wanted, and I could abandon every moral.
You see, something switched in me when Seb and I fought on the grass. That tiny flash of normalcy emboldened me. It told me that I could fix things with Briar. Or try to, at least. Seb wouldn’t kill me for reneging on my promise. Or maybe he would, and that would benormal.Us again. He’d call me a bastard, rough me up a bit, and we’d go back to being brothers.
