L

ime. Because I must have m

oor click shut behind me, sealing us in

en hundred miles away from Manhattan, where sh

ow she flew into

flagship Velvet Tears in New Yor

le I was waiting for Olivia out front-and stood hidden behind the v

chi

n't turn

ng two-way mirror, a crystal champagne flut

low sip of vintage Krug, "the litt

side her at the glass, staring do

blonde stripper I put on Ben's tab

are ass to leave bruises, his head thrown back

flatly. "Unless she's brain-dead, she'll pack her shit and block his number b

what rational h

they take the hit,

leave him."

urns her back

h, backless black silk gown

rom her sharp cheekbones, her blood-red

f a bear trap and she knows ex

e. A five-second peep show through a mirror isn't going to break two years of brainwashing. She can barely see his face clearly from up here. And gues

a fool who d

e tilts her chin up, her dark, calc

u to sleep

her for three

what

to sleep wit

of her fu

xy. Sanity was never p

orless sound that scrapes stra

out of y

dead s

sure as hell don't fuck Ben's side p

o the low glass table where th

ead, you let him fly out to Chicago every week to play house while you sit in

th Apex expires in three months, and he's been playing the devoted boyfriend so she'll sign her b

r ribs, her red stiletto nails diggi

ses. "There's something else

off on the librarian-on-the-street, freak-in-the-sheets routine. And from what I just felt underneath that hideo

ntouched

ree

hovers an inch abov

and look at Roxy, wai

ce is

t," I sa

cloned six months ago. I've read

ood floor, stepping right b

s a virgi

decanter down with a heavy thud. "What is sh

s day

anatic, a pathological lia

y syllable. "And Ben gets off on it. He loves the power trip of having this pure, untainte

oxy. Especially not women who write five-h

y why you're goi

est, her sharp fingernails dragging lightly over the black cot

lush against me, pressing the s

the in her heady, narcotic perfume and the

n cue-there

nimal instinct. Blood rus

hits me fa

flex that I fucking despise

ess. It isn't ev

k, mutually destructive war s

and she knows the exact chemic

way from him, Kla

umb traces my pulse-the exact same spot on my

ttle virgin anymore, the illusion shatter

o her dark, man

n my jet, fly back to my own city, and let Roxy and

I say

ound her slender wrist, and pee

r your pathetic little

its. Rejection has always

gle step back,

manov D

y stops beating f

jaw locks so tight

d you ju

ss her painted mouth. "The one sitting inside my father's biometric vault. The one

t just

masterpiece of Russian history. The cr

te collection since the day her bastard father outbid m

ell it to me," I say, my

rthday last month. The second I fly back to New York tomorrow, I can

ng me the Ro

for the li

roaring tide of adrenali

are i

ated," she

ash with vi

belongs to him. Do it-and I'll have a private courier fly the da

ad fuckin

ill slices straight

her hard against the two-way mirror-right over the spot

are throat-not tight enough to cut her air, just an

s parting, her chest he

my thigh hard between her legs

a practiced, theatrical sound d

nn

n ugly winter coat bit her own lip until it b

I are both rot

lden boy continues to ruin his own lif

ntil my nose

the glass. "If I play your game, and you try to welch on this wager... I won't just take the dagger.

nch. She gets of

st my palm, her pupils blown wide a

razing the corner of my jaw

debts, Klaus. G

throat like I'm

pe her perfume out of my lungs, and tu

letting the bass of the cl

didn't ju

t just