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“Goodnight!” she sang in a muffled voice.
I stood there with my hands at my belt line and face hot with irritation. Alright maybe it wasn’t just irritation. I felt heated, but I was pretty sure it had more to do with the idea of putting Mattie’s perky, bare ass over my knee than anything else.
“Fuck,” I hissed, turning on my heel. I went into my room and slammed the door. It was going to be a long two weeks.
You’re punishing me, aren’t you?” Kael grunted, hefting two dress boxes, three bags full of shoes, and six bags stuffed full of clothing to the apartment elevator. After a week of enduring solitude and going a little crazy in my parents’ prison, I’d finally arranged for an escape in the form of wasteful spending. Also, I might have wanted to be petty with my stony-faced companion. He deserved it.
I flounced past him after the doors parted. “That doesn’t sound like me. Don’t be dramatic.”
“Yeah, quip all you want,” he gritted out, shuffling to stand next to me under the weight of the shopping bags. He reached out and managed to tap the fifth-floor button with some difficulty. “Just wait until we’re alone again.”
“Maybe you should drug me so I’m more compliant,” I replied archly.
Kael shifted a look to me over the stack of boxes. His eyes simmered with amusement and irritation. “I knew it. You are punishing me.”
I clicked my tongue, looking forward again. “I thought you liked punishments. What was it you said? Oh, right. ‘Submission has its perks.’”
“Keep pushing my buttons,” he murmured back, but I heard the smile in his voice. “See what happens when I get turned on, little rabbit.”
My neck went hot. “Jesus, you’re direct,” I muttered.
Kael laughed, soft and full of the promise of something dark. The elevator doors opened, and we were met by a pair of black-clad guards who stood outside the door. My parents had beefed up their security after they had had me firmly back in their clutches, and although Kael went everywhere with me, the security detail ensured that we couldn’t do a whole lot of sneaking around.
Mostly, it had been a week of forcing Kael to watch Real Housewives in my tiny apartment and creeping downstairs to see what the parents were up to. I felt like we were a pair of naughty teenagers trying to get away with stealing liquor from the cabinet… without the fun sneaky sex thrown into the mix. Frustratingly. It didn’t matter what I wore or how suggestive I was, my bodyguard seemed determined to keep this strictly business. Which was so boring, I could scream. That little moment in the hallway had completely solidified my suspicions about Kael and his feelings for me. He totally wanted to bang me.
Only, he didn’t want to admit that to himself for some reason, so, he ignored me. I didn’t know what the big deal was. We were both adults, he was hot, I was smoking, and we were trapped together in an apartment. It seemed pretty cut-and-dried to me. But Kael apparently didn’t see it that way, and I’d stopped trying to hint after three days. My self-confidence was pretty hefty, but even I couldn’t take too many subtle rejections before calling it a lost cause.
Until he said things like that. It was those little dirty remarks that told me Kael was one sin away from selling his soul to the devil to get into my pants. What would happen if I turned you on, Kael? I wondered, sliding him another sideways look as we walked through the front door and to the stairs. I want to piss you off until you throw me down on the couch, rip up my skirt, and pull my hair…
“Matilda?” my mother’s voice asked.
The heat in my body cooled immediately, and I turned at the end of the stairs to find my mother coming in from the terrace. She had on a ridiculous-looking fur coat that was clearly overkill for mid-October. Then again, she probably had body temperature regulation issues after years of diet pills, bulimia, and bouts of starvation. She looked great, though. What a tradeoff.
I gave her a simpering smile. “Hey, Mom.”
“Oh, I’m so glad you’re back to yourself,” she smiled with relief etched into her features. “It’s good to see you out and shopping.”
The picture of health—an heiress who spends the gross national income of a small country in a day. “Me too,” I replied through my teeth.
“I wanted to know if you might email me some pictures of your… travels,” Alicia said with a stilted smile as she clicked across the floors in her heels to join us. She pushed an enormous pair of sunglasses off her face and onto her head. “You know, some of the things you’ve experienced these last two years.”
Like I’d been on a pampered world tour. The delusion ran deep with this woman. “Uh, why?” I asked. The only time I’d had a phone was when I’d done rideshare driving, and even then, I hadn’t taken pictures or posted them on social media.
“I’m making a slideshow,” my mother said, like that was obvious. “For you—to welcome you home. Naturally.”
Besides the fact that it wasn’t 2006 and no one made “slideshows” anymore, I had to wonder at my mother’s sanity in general. She really was acting like the prodigal daughter had returned home and this party was for me. “Oh, uh, I didn’t take any,” I replied honestly. “I was too busy.” Running from you.
“Oh.” She sniffed, pushing her blond hair away from her face like it wasn’t already in a meticulously crafted bob that stayed away from her airbrushed face. “I see. Well. Unfortunate.”
“Sorry,” I shrugged.
“Oh, Ghost, you can put those down,” Alicia said, waving at Kael. “We can have Marta take those up for her later.”
Kael unloaded the clothing and shoes on the floor next to the stairs, and I bounced an uncertain look from my mom to the stairs. “Well… I’ll see you.”
“Hold on,” Alicia said with a forced smile. “I wanted to run something by you.”
Oh boy. “Yeah?” I asked warily.
