Total pages in book: 140
Estimated words: 138003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 690(@200wpm)___ 552(@250wpm)___ 460(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 690(@200wpm)___ 552(@250wpm)___ 460(@300wpm)
Should be angry. Given she isn’t, I’d hate to see her truly pissed off.
Liar, whispers a little voice inside me. Or else you wouldn’t be reacting like this, aching to slide your hand higher. Feel her heat. Slide through her wetness.
“I wasn’t the one who gambled without the means to pay.”
“He said he didn’t know the stakes until it was too late.”
“He could’ve stepped away from that table at any time. He didn’t have to mention your name. Hell, he didn’t even have to bring you into it.” Though I’d counted on it.
“But you knew I was there. You planned for—”
“His greed? You’re overestimating my talents.” All men are greedy. You just have to find what it is they crave. What Tod wanted was money, maybe a little adulation.
“But you did twist his words.”
I keep my eyes on hers because the tiny white triangles of her bikini are a fucking travesty. And a feat of grace, how they hold all that lusciousness.
“He said you purposely misunderstood what he was offering.”
“I needed to get you in the room for a conversation.”
“Conversation?” Her brow quirks like a taunt. “What if I’d had the money to cover him? Would you have moved on to someone else?”
“I knew you didn’t. But I would’ve come at it from another angle.”
“But why me?”
“Why not you?” I spread my fingers, maximizing the contact with her skin.
“I’m not some random choice, though, am I?”
“You’re not,” I admit.
“But when you came into the gallery—”
“It wasn’t to set you up.”
“I don’t know whether to believe you,” she says, moving onto her back again.
My gaze sweeps over, my will melting like ice cream dropped to a hot sidewalk.
“Then believe this.” I take off my sunglasses, setting them down and swiping up a champagne flute. Fuck, I want to swipe her up, drag her back to my lair, set her on her back, and fuck this craving out of my system. “Only an idiot gambles when he doesn’t have the means to pay,” I say, filling her glass. “Shallow men believe in luck. I believe in cause and effect.” I allow the weight of my words to sink in as I pass the flute her way.
“Thank—oh!” She gasps as I spill a little of the cold liquid on her stomach.
“Oops,” I mutter insincerely.
“You did that on purpose.” Her eyes narrow like vengeance as her hand moves to rub at the spill. I catch it, and her breath holds as I move to my knee before hitting the air once again as I swipe the flat of my tongue across the spill.
“There.” The word is all husk and want as I lick her again. “All fixed.”
I glance up. Her mouth is open, and the hand not holding her glass still hovers in the air.
“Remind me,” I begin, not moving. “Was it three full-priced artworks for a flash of your panties?”
My delivery of her earlier words makes her smile. Kind of.
“The point is moot, don’t you think…” Her eyes dip, indicating her bikini bottoms. “You’re already looking at them. I suspect you’ve been staring at them all that time you were supposed to be working.”
“That’s what you think, is it?”
“I know it. I could feel your eyes on me.” With a tiny sigh, her body softly undulates. It makes me wonder just how wet I’d find her right now.
“What will it cost for you to take them off?”
“I don’t know… what would it take for you to seduce me?” Her tone is all tease as I hook my fingers into the thin sides of the white fabric.
“Six? Ten?”
“Raif.” This time, my name is a soft warning. But she doesn’t stop me. “We can’t keep doing this.”
“We can do whatever we like. That’s the pleasure of being us right now. Ten,” I add. “Twenty.” I begin to tug, and she lifts a little, aiding the fabric’s slide. “Thirty.”
“Thirty pieces,” she whispers.
I frown, my mind going to silver and biblical connotations.
“There are thirty pieces in the gallery’s next exhibition.” Her eyes are like dark sapphires as she watches me drop the tiny garment to the lounger behind me.
“Done.”
“You don’t know how much each piece is worth.”
“Doesn’t matter. Double them. Triple.” I’m having this moment. “When is this show?” My voice is soft as my fingers make manacles around her ankles.
“Soon.”
“Better put sold stickers on every piece.” I slowly slide her legs apart.
“Raif, here?”
“Uh-huh.” Wider. Wider. Until her heels hug the edge of the lounger.
She tips her face to the sun as my hands glide from ankle to knee and higher.
“You’re so fucking pretty,” I say, parting her flesh for my gaze. “And you’re all mine.”
9
LAVENDER
“You’re all mine.”
Bought and paid for. That thought shouldn’t turn me on, but it does.
He wants me at any price. Doesn’t he know that I should be paying him?
Or maybe not, if he’s going to do what he did last time. Left me pulsing and empty and crazy for him.