Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 86768 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 434(@200wpm)___ 347(@250wpm)___ 289(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86768 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 434(@200wpm)___ 347(@250wpm)___ 289(@300wpm)
I button up the shirt and roll the sleeves up before walking to the door and, after a quick listen, opening it. The living room is empty. I assume Val or the other guards are outside in the hallway. I go to the window, but I’m not sure what I’m looking for. It’s not like I’m going to follow Santos. How and why would I do that?
Camilla’s name comes to mind, and I am very aware of what that feeling in my gut is called. Jealousy. I don’t like it. He hates her, though. I heard that much in his words, but more importantly, I saw it in his eyes, in the way they’d emptied. Deadened.
What happened to him? What did they do to him? He lived with them for a time and at the end, the Commander, their father, went missing. I gather that Santos was responsible for that. What did the Commander do that was so evil?
The image of Thiago’s scar is followed by Santos’s words. His father did that to him as a lesson in obedience. If he could do that to his own son, what did he do to Santos?
I shudder and turn to go into the bedroom when I hear the sound of the key card being used to unlock the suite door. Before I can make it to the bedroom, it opens and Ana enters with Caius right behind her. She stops as soon as she sees me. Caius is talking to Val, but as soon as he notices me, he, too, stops. He takes me in, and I remember I’m naked but for Santos’s dress shirt. I wrap my arms around myself instinctively because his gaze has that effect on me. It makes me feel cold. Exposed. Vulnerable.
“Sis,” he says, nudging Ana farther into the room.
Val meets my gaze, but he’s shut out when Caius closes the door. I wonder if Caius were to threaten me, would Val defend me if Santos wasn’t around?
“Should we have a drink?” Ana says, setting her clutch down and moving to the wet bar as if they’re just getting back after a nice night out. Maybe they are. What do I know?
Caius drags his gaze from me and turns to her. “Go to the bedroom. Wait for me there.” She glances at me, opens her mouth, but Caius shuts her up with a single command. “Get out.”
I watch her in my periphery because I’m keeping my eyes locked on Caius. Ana is a prop. Nothing more. He’s using her for something. Maybe it’s just sex, but I don’t think so. It’s too coincidental. Her family is established in Avarice, though. Maybe he’s going to do with her what Santos is doing with me, a marriage of convenience?
“Where’s my brother?” Caius asks after eyeing what I’m wearing again.
“I don’t know.” I shrug and turn to walk into my bedroom, wanting to be away from him.
Caius is on my heels though, and before I can get too far, he captures my arm and stops me.
“What do you mean, you don’t know?”
“I mean he didn’t tell me. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not his confidante.”
His gaze moves to the shirt I’m wearing. “But you two are getting cozy.”
I raise my eyebrows. “Let go of my arm. I want to go to bed.”
“Warming the bed for my brother? Is that what he instructed you to do?”
“Is that any of your business?”
“No, I guess not. You’re adults. You can fuck without my permission. And I hope you are, come to think of it.” He releases my arm and walks over to the wet bar to pour himself a whiskey.
“What does that mean?”
He studies me as he sips his drink. “Nothing. Just that it’s the only way to get pregnant.”
“What?”
“He didn’t mention it?”
Did I believe Santos when he told me he’d have me visit a doctor he trusts to refill my birth control prescription? I’m not sure what I thought. I have three weeks though, and there were more pressing things to get through, like my honeymoon.
“Oops,” he says. “Cat’s out of the bag, I guess.”
Dickhead.
“But tell me, you are getting cozy. I mean, you’re wearing his shirt. I’d think you’d want anything that reminded you of him far, far away, considering he forced you into his bed. Unless, of course, he didn’t have to force you.”
I study him. This is bothering him. “Would it upset you to know we were getting close, Caius?”
His jaw tenses. He doesn’t like the idea. I get it, don’t I? I’m the enemy. Caius wants to make sure his brother is firmly on the right side of things. His.
“So, you and Ana were besties once?” he casually asks.
“Until she betrayed me. You’d do well to watch yourself with her,” I warn him, wanting to give him something to worry about too, although I know he has his own agenda with her.