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She batted my hand away. “You’re telling me,” she muttered. Then her mouth puckered impishly. “Am I the number one thing up your ass?”
I rolled my eyes, moving past her. “Show me to my room.”
“Number two? Don’t tell me I’m number three because I really hate losing. It’ll only make me want to beat the first two.” She followed me as I stalked across the small living area. There were windows along the walls, but nothing like the first-floor grandeur. Once I made it to the kitchen, I saw that the rest of the apartment consisted of two bedrooms across from each other. The room on the right was clearly Mattie’s with its weirdly childish four-poster bed draped in gauzy curtains and tied up with pink bows. The room on the left looked more like a guest bedroom, and sported an extravagant, stained walnut bedroom set, walk-in closet, and three-piece bathroom with an open, dark-tiled shower.
Mattie leaned against the doorway to the guest bedroom, her eyes roving over the sparse furnishings. “I didn’t know that the… party… was two weeks away. Hopefully, we can snag something incriminating well before that.”
I turned, unbuckling my utility belt that weighed down my hips. “About that.”
Mattie lifted her brows. “What, you’ve changed your mind?”
“No.” I unclipped the fasteners that kept the bulky belt around my belt loops. “We need to have a chat about this party.”
Mattie schooled her features into a carefully crafted mask of indifference. “A chat?”
She really would fool most people with her poker face. It was damn convincing. Only, she couldn’t fool me, and I had run out of patience for her half-truths. I slid the belt off and tossed it onto the bed where it landed with a heavy thunk. “Tell me what I’m missing.”
Mattie straightened away from the door frame, her instincts clearly primed to avoid conflict. “Missing?”
“Did you know,” I drawled, advancing on her slowly, “that when a person is lying in an interrogation, they will often repeat words to the questions, rather than answering them?”
“Fascinating,” she said, stepping back.
“So, what are you lying about, Mattie?”
She left the doorway, backing away to her bedroom. “I’ve told you everything I know about my parents.”
“That’s not what I asked,” I replied softly. With two long strides, I caught up to her, and as though my palms had been aching to touch her, I felt a hum of relief when they connected with her forearms. I pulled her to me, swerving her sideways in the hallway so her back pressed against the wall and I caged her in. “I asked what you’re lying about.”
She didn’t fight my touch, but her breath kicked up in pace, and she stared down at my chest. “Alright,” she whispered, lashes fanned out across her smooth cheeks. She flicked a guilty look up to me, and I nearly drowned in the warm chocolate of her eyes. “I… don’t floss twice a day.”
I clicked my tongue in annoyance, rolling my eyes away. “Mattie.”
“And I drink too much coffee.”
I took her chin between my fingers, lifting her face to mine and bending down close to her. “You’re so full of it, Matilda Thorne.”
She batted her eyelashes. “Full of what? Intrigue? Wit?”
“Sass,” I corrected, my thumb smoothing up her chin like I had no control over it. I coasted the pad of my finger along the bottom of her lip. “And total horse shit.”
Her throat worked as she swallowed, and her eyes bounced between mine with a sort of dazed quality. “I think you like it.”
I did. Shit… I really did. My body drifted closer to hers, pressing her firmly between me and the wall. What am I doing right now? I wondered distantly. “This is not part of the plan,” I whispered, my breath caressing over her lips.
Her mouth quirked up a fraction. “When do your plans ever go well with me?”
“Never,” I murmured, bending down until our lips were nearly touching. “Not one time.” Get a grip, asshole, my logical voice chided. She’s your assignment, not your one-night stand. I placed my palms on the wall on either side of her, and gritting my teeth, I lifted away from her. “Regardless, something is off here. I can’t help you if I don’t know the details.”
“You have all the details you need,” she said firmly. “Really. We just need to find a time Augustus isn’t here, and once I have something useful, we can get out.”
My instincts clamored for me to make her talk, to find out what piece I was missing in all this. But suddenly, Mattie brought her hands between us and smoothed them down my chest and to my navel. I sucked in a breath, straightening away from the wall and widening my eyes in surprise. She reached the waistline on my pants and hooked a finger through a gap in my button-down. “A button came undone,” she murmured.
I stepped away from her, looking down, but all the buttons were still fastened. Mattie darted away, dancing to the side and slipping into her bedroom. I looked up just as she slammed the door. A tinkle of laughter trickled through the closed door, and I scowled at it. “I swear to God, Mattie, I’m going to put you over my knee one day.”
She cracked open the door, and half her face peeked out. “Always threatening me with a good time, Kael.”
“You little—” I stepped forward, but she closed the door firmly again and turned the lock.
