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“So this whole arrangement is so you can gain the weight of my name?”
She nods.
I sigh. “Why couldn’t you have started there? In the morning? Over coffee?”
Youthful innocence shines in her clear blue eyes. Genuine, and sweet, she says, “I don’t like coffee.”
Forgetting I’m holding a knife, I nearly stab myself in the face. I untangle my hand from hers, put the knife away, and I scrub my fingers back through my hair. “You don’t like coffee,” I state.
Briar pins her arms behind her back, having the decency to look sheepish. “Is that a problem for our budding romance?”
“Just wondering where the—” I swear. “—we’d pretend to have a first date.” The moment the words are out of my mouth, I regret them.
Light as brilliant as the sun explodes in her. “So you’re agreeing to my plans?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t not say that.”
“Aren’t you kind of young for me?” I mumble.
She bats her lashes angelically. “Not on an emotional level.”
My eyes narrow.
“I’m saying you have the emotional maturity of a newborn.”
“I gathered that. Thanks.”
Giggling—outright giggling, in a manor full of criminals—she slips her hand back into mine and guides me forward, toward the stairs.
Chapter 4
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Get out of my house, budgie.
Briar
Rowan’s bedroom is smaller than mine, darker, less friendly. A large bed sits between two windows covered with blackout curtains. When he led me in, he didn’t bother with the overhead light, so only a dim lamp on the nightstand sends a glow across the furniture.
It’s very…mafia.
Black wood. Black bedding. Black tile and walls. Only the barest pure white outlines provide a chilling contrast in the décor. Impersonal. As though a ghost—or the Grim Reaper—lives here.
Smiling, I sit on his bed.
“Do you want to lose a finger—or a toe?”
My back straightens as the low voice threatens me from the corner.
Rowan crosses to the on-suite bathroom. “Ignore that.”
“Bugsy, Bugsy, Bugsy.” A chirp.
My lips form a small “o,” and I trot toward the corner I’m supposed to ignore. As my eyes adjust more to the shadows, the massive pyramid of a bird cage comes into view. I clap my hands to my mouth. “Are we soulmates?”
“What?” Rowan grumbles.
