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"I don't know. I shouldn't have brought it up. It's silly." She tried to pull her hand out of my grip, but I held it fast. "It's just that if I didn't want to be married to Gavin, I could just tell them it wasn't him who signed it, and the marriage would be null and void."
I made eye contact with Vander in the rearview. He looked away, a sign that he wasn't going to interfere.
With a quick twist of my hand, I gave her thigh a gentle squeeze as her hand landed on top of mine. I didn't know what to say. If she was making a point of telling me she wasn't married to Gavin, she was trying to tell me something else.
That I could kiss her.
And I wanted to.
Fuck. I wanted it more than anything.
"Wren." I let my hand drift higher on her thigh, my pinky almost touching her panties. Her chest heaved, and goosebumps rose on her skin. "You're still his girl." My words came out thick and strained.
She stared out the window, watching the palm trees and sidewalks of Los Angeles go by. "Am I?" she said softly as she turned to look at me.
The street lights cast a fleeting, diffused glow over her profile making her look like an ethereal angel.
I squeezed her thigh harder, digging my thumb into her supple skin.
Her breath hitched, and her fingers tightened over my hand.
We were almost at the event where we had to pretend to be married and I thought I'd have to hold back because she was really married to my brother, but now I knew this. She was giving me this.
I leaned in close to her ear and released the pressure on her leg. "We get through tonight first. Then we're gonna have a little talk."
She swallowed loudly and nodded curtly. Fear flashed in her pupils but also heat.
"Right now, we gotta face Kenny and Tommy, and I need to focus on keeping you safe."
"Okay," she choked out. Totally turned on and scared. Hot as fuck.
"Holy hell."
"I know. Me too."
Oh yeah, I knew. I could read her every breath after several days of sleeping next to her without touching her. I was tuned to her like a divining rod to water. And with that, we pulled up behind a row of cars at the turnabout drive in front of the mansion.
"It's a go," Vander said to the team through the comms, and adrenaline pumped harder through my veins. If no one else had been here, we wouldn't have risked going inunarmed, but with the crowd, it should be safe enough for Wren.
Vander stopped at the curb and waited. The valet approached, but I exited first and waved him off. He bowed and moved to the next car.
I offered her a hand to help her out. The black heels came first, followed by the unending thigh—which now held my fingerprints—and then the rest of her ensemble. She looked absolutely stunning and graceful, my Asian goddess.
I smiled at her and closed the door. Vander drove out of the lot. He would take up position with the rest of the team around the perimeter. Shadow and Locke would launch a video drone overhead.
"Here we go." I hooked her arm in my elbow and guided her to the covered entrance portico.
The place was more obnoxious than the photos I'd seen. Gilded curly crap everywhere, complete with castle turrets and conical roofs. It reminded me of the abandoned Six Flags in New Orleans with its fake stone and gaudy paper maché statues. The strobe lights up to the sky were total overkill, but it appeared Kenny wanted to be noticed. Congratulations, man. You're on my radar now, and you ain't gonna like it.
An older Chinese man in a tuxedo took our invitations—that were not blank because the stupid ink did not disappear as promised—and welcomed us inside. "Take a seat. The show will start in a few minutes," he said with a gentle smile. It reminded me not to overreact. It was a magic show. The magician was a creep, but there would be noaction with all these people around. Tonight was about the mind game with Kenny.
Wren moved woodenly as we walked into the place, her wide eyes frantically searching. The men in the room turned to look her over with predatory gazes, and I wanted to growl at them to back off. Tonight, I was playing a predator myself so I masked my reaction.
I kept my hand on her lower back to anchor her. "You're good. Take it easy."
I picked two seats near the back edge which placed us closest to the fastest exit route. She leaned forward in her seat, arching to see every corner of the stage. "Remember, you feel it inside, don't show it outside."
"Why? Am I not doing a good job?"
