The man was a damn good fuck.
Silas cuffed my wrist, his eyes wild. “When was the last time?”
“Silas, you’re really obnoxious when you’re jealous, but it’s kind of cute.” I pressed myself into his chest, slid my free hand over his dick, and stroked him until he was hard. “You don’t need to be jealous of Kai,” I whispered. “He and I fizzled out a couple of years ago. And it was never anything beyond sex.” Rising to my toes, I brushed my lips over his and closed my eyes as his beard tickled my face and sent tingles straight to my pussy.
He released my wrist and curled an arm around my waist, tugging me closer.
“If he was just sex, love, then what are you and I?”
“Convenient.” The word tasted bitter the moment it formed, but I couldn’t stop myself from voicing it. An emotion I didn’t recognize flared in his eyes. Those damn eyes. What was it about his dark gaze?
Silas’s hand came up around my throat, making my pussy clench with the need to be fucked like only this man knew how.
“Convenient, huh?” His mouth slammed into mine almost violently, teeth catching tender flesh as he devoured my lips without mercy. “I should bend you over this fucking bed, that bastard within earshot, and fuck you in that tight little asshole of yours until you cry and bleed on my cock, so he knows exactly who you belong to.”
Fuck me.
While there had never been a time when I didn’t want to see or be around Kai, I couldn’t say that was true at the moment. Arousal rocketed through me at the thought of Silas fucking me the way he’d described, making droplets of wetness slide down my inner thigh as I licked along my bottom lip.
“I belong to you?” I goaded, and he squeezed harder. A delicious lightheaded feeling caused my legs to wobble, and I clutched onto his t-shirt with both fists.
“Get dressed, Helena.” His low growl did nothing to ease my state, and I instantly missed his hand around my neck.
“I’m back to being Helena?”
“Why is he here?”
Just like that, his words robbed me of every ounce of desire. I’d contacted Kai last week and begged him to help me solve my father’s murder. The blood in my veins cooled as my mind drifted to that day at the restaurant—the look in his lifeless eyes. The image still haunted my dreams. No matter how deeply I pushed him into the pockets of my subconscious, the memory, the hurt of his death, gripped me, its claws slashing holes into the safe place I’d created.
Maybe it was my face or the way my breathing had accelerated. Silas held my shoulders, shaking me slightly until our eyes locked.
“Hey, stay with me. Is he here to help?” he asked, as if reading my thoughts. I nodded, suddenly feeling weak and pathetic. “I’m sorry,” he murmured, pulling me into a hug, his chin on my forehead.
I sucked in a breath and closed every painful door that had managed to crack open. And with a grin, I looked up at this beautiful, jealous man, thinking how I was already anticipating getting down on my knees for him later that night.
“I meant what I said.” Silas’s eyes searched mine, waiting for me to elaborate. “You don’t need to worry about Kai. And not on his part, either. We both know where the other stands.”
Silas cupped my face, thumb tilting my chin and rubbing circles on my skin. Every day, whatever this was between us, this game we played as if the outside world wasn’t waiting to tear us in different directions, felt more real, more invasive than the last.
Sadness crept over my heart when I thought about how we could end. If the hit on Silas was legit, I’d have to fulfill my contract, no matter what. I melted into him and closed my eyes.
Suddenly questioning my whole existence.
* * *
Laughter erupted from the living room as I prepared a snack tray, though it felt a bit too domestic for my liking. As I watched Kai pour Silas another drink, I wasn’t surprised. Kai possessed a charisma that was hard to resist. You either wanted to be him, fuck him, or become part of his inner circle. It’s why I never understood his deep connection with someone as soulless as Derek—or perhaps that was precisely why they’d been as close as brothers since they were boys. Kai was the moral compass Derek needed, and probably the only reason the man hadn’t ended up in prison or dead. How he managed to rope someone like Eva would remain one of life’s greatest mysteries.
“Look at you two getting along,” I teased, placing the tray on the coffee table. “One more, and I’d have my own harem.” That earned a laugh from Kai and a scowl from Silas. I tipped the side of his head with my fingers as I crossed in front of him. “Lighten up.”
As relaxed as he’d gotten around Kai, the pissing contest in his head was still a go, and he hauled me into his lap, leaned into my ear, and whispered, “Tonight, that ass is mine.”
“You promise?”
He squeezed my thigh, and I squirmed, looking up just in time to catch Kai’s amused side-eye.
“So how did you go from nearly killing each other to…whatever this is?” he asked, biting into a sandwich.
“You know the story—a common enemy. Someone put a bounty on our heads. Kidnapped us…” I dropped my gaze as images ofthe boxbegan to surface and steal my breath. Silas rubbed circles over the exposed skin of my abdomen where my cami had ridden up, pulling me back from the ledge a second time in one afternoon.
