Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 109033 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 363(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109033 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 363(@300wpm)
An indignant flush crept up Draya’s neck and into her face, while her ears reddened.
“Your plan would never have been successful, by the way. Luka’s too smart for that. He would have picked up on all the red flags. He would have sensed your game, and he would have put a fast end to it. In short, you chose the wrong target.”
Draya’s lips flattened. “You could be right. But then you also could be wrong. So if he dumps you at some point in the future, I’ll slide back into the picture. And I will have him. I’ll show you how securing a mark is truly done.”
“Not my style.”
“Oh, come on. You’re a siren. It’s what they do. Choose, seduce, trap, exploit.”
“No, it’s what you’d do if you were a siren. I’m no user.”
Draya let out a fake laugh. “Of course you are. Willingly or not, you’re as much a manipulator of men as I am. I’m just honest about it.” She looked Naomi up and down. “You’re too much of an uppity, cowardly little bitch to admit it.”
A feminine sigh drifted through the air. “Really, Draya, you hate your job so much that you want to get fired?” asked Ella. “Because that’s what will happen after this.”
Both Naomi and Draya looked at the redhead.
“Not an issue.” Draya jerkily tugged at the hem of her floral blouse. “I was planning to quit anyway.” With that, she marched out of the changing rooms.
Rolling her eyes, Ella crossed to Naomi. “I take it she’s upset that Luka claimed you?”
“Not for the reasons I would imagine you’re thinking,” said Naomi. “She was never really interested in him as a person. He was her mark. She’d intended to hook him, use him, and then eventually drop him.”
“Ah. So that’s what she meant by the whole ‘you’re as much a manipulator of men as I am’.”
“Yup.”
Ella sighed. “He isn’t going to be happy that she got all up in your face like that. You are planning to tell him, right? Because if you don’t, I will. He’s your mate. It’s the kind of thing he should be made aware of.”
“I know.” It would totally feel like tattling about the mean girl at school to her parents, but she’d sworn to him that there would be no more secrets. “When I see him later, I’ll tell him. He’ll probably just do what you did and roll his eyes.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Watching from her living room sofa later that day as Luka paced like a caged jungle cat, Naomi inwardly sighed. “I really just thought that you’d roll your eyes.”
He slid her a surprised look. “Excuse me?”
When he’d appeared to help her transfer the rest of her stuff to his place, she’d lapped up his little displays of possessive affection before casually tossing out that she’d had a brief chat with Draya. As was typical of Luka, he’d demanded every last detail. With each one she’d revealed, his expression had gone darker. And then a stream of Russian curses had all but burst out of him as he began to pace back and forth.
Well, who would like hearing that they’d been someone’s mark? That they hadn’t sensed such a thing? That they’d almost gone ahead and slept with a person who had set out to manipulate and use them?
Maybe Naomi should have kept the confrontation to herself after all. At least for a short while. He was already on edge due to the cleric situation. But then Ella would have informed him of it anyway, so keeping it quiet hadn’t really been an option.
She rose from the sofa. “I can understand why you’d be mad that Draya thought she had a prayer of playing you, but—”
“That’s not why I’m pissed,” he said, coming to a halt.
She felt her brows slide together. “It’s not?”
“No. I’m pissed that she dared go near you.”
Aw, he was too sweet. “She didn’t really have much of a choice, to be fair. The changing rooms weren’t at all spacious, so there was no real way she could have physically avoided me.”
Luka prowled toward her. “She could have stepped aside, let you pass, and walked right on out of there. She could have kept her mouth shut and her opinions to herself. But no. She decided to give you grief instead.”
“She didn’t touch me, though,” Naomi reminded him. “She just—”
“Tried filling your head with shit and called you a cowardly little bitch,” he finished, his tone clipped.
Naomi shrugged. “I’ve been called worse.”
His eyes blazed, a murderous glint in their depths. “By who?”
“Uh, never mind. Doesn’t matter. Forget I said anything.” She fisted the front of his shirt. “Look, I’m not upset. What she thinks or feels means nothing to me.”
“What she did is still unacceptable. Whether it bothered you isn’t the point. She should never have dared pull that shit.”