Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 98819 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 494(@200wpm)___ 395(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98819 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 494(@200wpm)___ 395(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
My breath shudders out of me. I let my tears disappear in the dark fabric of his expensive suit and raise my head. Time to negotiate terms. “I need to go into work.”
His hand on my back stills, but he says, “All right.”
“And you can’t come. You can’t interfere with the investigation.”
“You can’t stay at your townhouse. Your room at the Hotel Magnifique is always available for your use.”
I take it as a good sign that he’s not ordering me to stay there.
“All right. Then that’s where I’ll sleep. It beats a giant golden birdcage.” The joke slips out before I can stop it.
The side of his lips quirk.
“Where did you even get a cage that big? Never mind. I don’t want to know. Just don’t lock me up again.”
“I’ll try.”
I shake my head at him, almost smiling as we fall into our familiar pattern of banter. “You’ll try? You, the great Rex Roy, who succeeds at everything?”
“Not everything.” He sobers and kisses my hand.
I bite my lip, remembering the accusations we threw at each other in the heat of the moment. I need his help, but I don’t trust him anymore. Not like I did.
But maybe we can start over.
“Truce?” I turn my hand over so he can shake it, and he does.
“Truce.”
9
Inara
* * *
I’m still a little shaken when I arrive at work, but I fought hard to get to this moment. I can’t fall apart now.
But I still feel Rex’s warmth from where he cradled me. “You are everything to me,” he murmured.
“Then don’t destroy me,” I whispered back.
He agreed, with a few conditions, to let me do my job. He respected my boundaries, like when he asked to touch me. He didn’t call me ‘little bird.’ He’s trying to respect my wishes, but a part of me wishes we could rewind time to when I allowed him full mastery of my body.
Will I ever hear him croon little bird to me again? I’m wondering if we can repair the damage between us.
Time will tell.
I’m lost in my thoughts the whole way to work. Good thing that Ivan’s driving.
Just before we reach the final block, Rex texts me.
Sir: The team is analyzing the evidence left at your townhouse. I’ll update you as soon as I know more.
It’s the perfect text to get my mind back on the case. But at the same time, he’s reminding me that he’s still “Sir” in my phone. Maybe he’s trying to tell my brain to remember what we once were. I told him to take care of me and give me what I needed. Maybe he knows that seeing “Sir” pop up on my phone will both soothe and infuriate me. Being annoyed with him is a safe outlet, one that won’t send me spiraling but will distract me from the horrors of the case.
Or maybe he’s just being his same old arrogant self. He plays this game on many levels. Every move can have five meanings, and I’ll go bonkers trying to figure them all out.
But I’m grateful that he texted. It makes me feel like I’m not so alone.
“Here we are,” Ivan announces when the precinct comes into view. “Good thing they fixed that thing with the grid earlier, or we’d still be in traffic.”
“There was a thing with the grid?” I ask, and he waves it off. “It happened earlier. Don’t worry about it.”
When he gets out and comes around to open my door, identical blond twin giants are waiting for me. They’re tall and built but move light on their feet, like professional fighters. These are the bodyguards I agreed to. I let them trail me to the station doors, clocking all the double takes and funny looks we get.
“Have a nice day, Mrs. Roy,” one of them says.
Mrs. Roy? I jerk out of my thoughts and frown, but my bodyguards are already drifting away, so I don’t call them back to correct them. I pull out my keycard and swipe it to open the door.
Instead of the light flashing green to signal the door unlocking, it flashes red. I try swiping my keycard again, but get the same red error light.
“Ramos,” Diego Silva, the crime scene investigator, sidles up to me, a takeaway cup in his hand. “Did I just see two members of Fraternitas walk you to work?”
“What?” I glance back, but the twins have disappeared. “Do you know them?”
“Do I know them?” He looks at me like I’m nuts. “No, I just recognized their rings. I’m not on speaking terms with the most powerful gang in New Rome’s history. Which begs the question—why are you?”
“I don’t know them. They just—” How do I explain that Rex Roy himself made me agree to a security team before he’d let me leave the sex club we both attend? “Long story.” I give up trying to swipe my key card. “It’s been a few crazy days.”