“I’m not going to pretend to be someone I’m not.”
“How would you know you’re not?” I flinched at that truth. “Look,ma chère, you’re being afforded the best healthcare with around-the-clock care from doctors renowned the world over and a luxurious bedroom suite within a beautiful mansion. That bullet wound is on its way to being closed up. Your eyes set to be fixed. All because you’re here. You might even be able to see again. All you need to do is play along and give my brother a worthy distraction that’ll loosen him up a bit.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Well, let’s just say you’re healthy enough now to travel on foot and figure out your own path.”
Meaning I would be on my own—bandaged, injured, blind, and penniless.
“Even if you do know me?”
“Even then. You are not family, and Tessa and I were never friends.”
I bit my lip and twisted my hand over her wrist to press my fingers into her pulse points. Feeling that thump thump thump beat against my thumb soothed me. Her pulse was steady, a little accelerated, but nothing alarming. She meant what she said. Instinctively, I knew that. Follow her terms or else.
“Why?” I asked.
“I love my brother. Is there any better reason?”
“Can I think on it?”
“What is there to think on?”
I clenched my jaw, my teeth on full display.
She chuckled. “Fine, fine. I’ll give you a week. After that…”
“Yeah, I get it. You’ll give me the boot.”
“See that you do, and we will get along famously.”
They were all flipping nuts in this family. “And your brother?”
“Ten minutes alone with you and your hands were all over each other. I doubt it’ll be long before he’s wrapped around your finger. Call it sisterly intuition.”
“You do realize that if I’m not this Tessa, he’ll get pissed you conned him.”
“How adorable you are. However this plays out, it will not be me he blames. And my brother, when angry, is quick to deal out punishment. So my advice: best play your part well.”
Lips pressed against my cheek and then the other, just below my eye bandages. Then finally, she was pulling away. Heels clipped their way across the room.
“Don’t forget. Your first appointment with a physical therapist starts this afternoon after your photoshoot,” she said, her voice carrying across the room. “I like this new you, Tessa. If all goes well, you and I will be great friends.”
“Un-freaking-likely,” I muttered as the door clicked shut behind her. Rock, meet hard place.
Chapter 9
“Iwanteyesonher at all times,” I ordered Michel outside our guest’s suite.
“Yes, sir.”
I nodded yet hesitated to leave him to it. Something about that woman set an itch under my skin.
I balled my hands into fists and shoved my legs forward.
Ihad willingly chosen to touch her. The feel of her fingernails digging into my hand and the press of her fingers around my neck lingered. Yet my breaths were even. My temper was stable. The uninvited touches didn’t prick at me like usual, and that was the most infuriating part. She made me want to wring her little neck, then smooth my thumb down her pulse point just to get a rise out of her. There were equal portions of defiance and timidity in her that were intriguing me more than they should have.
The sooner I knew who she was and how she knew me, the sooner she became the perfect pincushion for target practice in the basement, and the kill contract with the Russians was fulfilled.
