I ignored the barb, and she thankfully let it drop, even though I deserved it after telling her I didn’t trust her. “Ready when you are.”
She shoved the red box in her pocket, slid her bag back on, and straightened her shoulders. Then she glanced back at me. “How are your acting skills? Any good at improvisation.”
I stiffened. “I think you know the answer to that.”
She pressed her hand to my chest, looking up at me, and my heart slammed against it. “Fine. You can play my strong and silent boy toy. Do you think you can handle that?”
“Boy toy?”
“My much younger, sexual plaything,” she said, and smiled sweetly.
“You just said you didn’t want that.” But hope throbbed through me. She rubbed at her temples again, something she’d done several times during our conversations recently. I assumed it was frustration she was feeling, that’s what my instincts told me. I didn’t understand why she was frustrated though. “What?”
“We’re just acting, remember? Also Drake knows I don’t need a guard. He’ll be suspicious of you anyway, which is why we need a decent cover story. The only logical reason I’d be traveling with a hound would be for your tracking abilities. So we need to make sure you’re here with me for another reason. Capisce?”
“And that reason is sex?” I said, my voice back to being rough as fuck.
“Yup.” She nodded. “A boy toy, since you’re my junior by a good number of years.”
When you were as old as us, that shit meant nothing. She was purposely trying to piss me off. “If you introduce me to that asshole as your boy toy, I won’t be happy.”
“What about sex puppet?”
I growled.
“Fuck buddy?” Her brows lifted, her blue eyes wide and innocent. “That’s a nicer one, right? I mean it’s all right there in the name.”
“Do not call me your fucking fuck buddy, Roxy. I’m warning you.”
She tapped her lower lip. “Manstress?”
I snarled a warning.
She threw up her hands. “Fine. What about paramour? Surely even you can’t be offended by that one.”
I hated it, but I guess it was the best of her suggestions so far. “Fine.”
“The moment we walk through those gates, you need to be on. They’ll be watching us,” she said, then tossing her long dark hair back, she transformed in front of my eyes, becoming the warrior she was. Roxy carried herself with the bearing of a general as she strode right through the iron gates and along the cobbled path, weaving through statues, and up to the front door.
Chapter
Fifteen
Lothar
* * *
I followed Roxy and did my best not to scowl. That was as far as my acting skills went. I sure as hell didn’t know how to play the part of besotted fool.
She turned to me, a frown creasing her brow. “Well, knock.”
In other words, she didn’t lift a finger, that’s what her paramour was for—besides other things, obviously. I pounded on the door and stood back, barely swallowing the growls building in my chest. I didn’t like going into situations blind. Every instinct I possessed told me this place was dangerous.
Someone approached at a fast clip on the other side of the door, and my arm snapped out like I was fucking possessed, and hooked around Roxy’s waist, pulling her back against me.
I had no idea what was coming, but I would be prepared. My other hand slid to the hilt of my knife.
Roxy’s gaze sliced up to mine, her eyes sharp, but she laughed, the sound musical and completely fake. “You need to chill, lover. You’ll have me all to yourself again soon enough.”
