I look around and settle back in bed. The space next to me is warm. He must’ve just left.
I get up and see a robe has been placed at the foot of the bed. It’s black. Silk. My size.
I put it on.
My bag is still in the living room with my phone. I need to call the shelter and tell them I won’t be coming in today. Can’t. I want to stay with Lucian.
I smile at the thought, blushing when I remember how he made me come last night.
I step out of the bedroom.
The apartment is quiet except for the faint hum of the fridge and Lucian’s low voice drifting in from the hallway. I follow the sound to the gym.
Then I hear my name and stop outside the door, not making my presence known.
“I’m going to protect her.”
Who’s he talking to?
“I know, but that’s not happening.”
Pause.
“Damn it, Adrian, get it into your thick head, I will not kill Calista Ferraro. And I don’t care if they’ve taken a contract out on me for reneging.”
Pause.
“I know I took the fucking contract. But I can’t.”
My blood turns to ice. My heart hammers loudly.
“Why? Damn it, Gideon, because she’s not like…she matters.”
Lucian’s voice is sharp, frayed at the edges. I put a hand on the wall to steady myself. My knees are buckling.
“Adrian, I’m not taking advice from you, considering you’ve recently fucked a woman who isn’t your wife.”
There’s a beat of silence.
“No,thisconversation is over. Lucian, out.”
Silence again.
I step away and numbly walk back into the bedroom. It feels like a stranger’s space now when a moment ago it had felt safe, like home.
I look at the bed with the rumpled black sheets, the bed that we shared last night, where we almost consummated us.
Now, it all feelsborrowed.
False.
Built on a lie.
“You’re up.” He comes inside the bedroom, walking to me.
He’s in joggers and nothing else. He looks good. Like a model on a billboard. Not mine.
“You were hired to kill me,” I say flatly, looking at the floor.
