Page 7 of Iron Princess
“But nothing. You ready to stop trying to kill me for two minutes so I can let you up? If not, I’ll stay right here as long as I need to.”
Her cheeks regain a flush of color as soon as she realizes my hard-on is notched against her pussy.
“Nothing you haven’t felt before, princess.”
She bares her teeth like a wild thing. “I can’t believe I let you—”
“Fuck you six ways to Sunday? You should probably add in there that you can’t believe you liked it so fucking much.”
“I hate you.”
For some reason, that actually makes me smile. “Haven’t you heard that love and hate are two sides of the same coin? I bet I could get you there too. Maybe just tell you that I don’t intend to bury a bullet in your brother’s head.”
Her mouth falls open and she blinks repeatedly. “You’re not going to kill him?”
“We go back a long time, and even though he obviously fucked the wrong person over in a big goddamn messy way, I don’t end people I like. The list is short enough as it stands. I don’t need to go scratching names off it for no good reason. Although, I guess I have five hundred thousand good ones when it comes to him.”
“I don’t understand. You said—” Temperance shakes her head as though she’s having comprehension issues.
I shift as her hips relax. “I took a hit. Exclusive contract. That means no one else can take the job and get paid for it unless I don’t complete it within thirty days.”
“And you’re not going to kill him.” She breathes a sigh of relief, but it’s way too soon for that.
“Don’t go thinking Rafe is out of the line of fire yet. He got himself into some bad shit, and if we get him out of this, I might still beat him to death for being so fucking stupid. That’s what gets people killed. Add on top of that all the extra work he’s made for me, and the fact Mount had to get involved, he’ll be lucky to keep his hide intact.”
“Who wants him dead?”
I shake my head. “I’m not telling you shit, because I’m sure you’ll have your little geek-squad hacker friend go trying to run them down, and then they’ll know we’re coming for them. I’m playing this the smart way.”
“Let me up. Please.”
I meet Temperance’s warm brown eyes, which are drained of the urge to murder me. At least, for now. She’ll probably want to kill me again later. I haven’t told her everything yet.
I wouldn’t be much of a hit man if I revealed all my secrets.
5
Temperance
When the man in my apartment rolls off me, so many thoughts are running through my head, I’m not sure how to deal with all of them.
Scratch that. Any of them.
As I turn my back on him and attempt to gather myself, I focus on the facts.
Someone put out a hit on my brother.
This guy—the one I knowbiblically, but don’t know his actual name—knows my brother.
Mount knows that he accepted a hit to kill my brother.
Because he’s a freakinghit man.
And I just turned my back on a killer.
I whip around to face him, and his expression is hard to read. If I had to guess, I’d say a mix of amusement, approval, and ... arousal? Since apparently I caught him on the tail end of adjusting himself.
“You go back a long time with Rafe?”
