Lilly
Iheard Cole rummaging in his room and bathroom, preparing for bed.
And the whole damn time, it felt like fate was daring me to do something about it.
He was handsome. That was undeniable. So, too, was the realization that the Reapers were not a bunch of thugs and rapists; maybe some of them were, but Cole struck me as perfectly balanced between empathetic and understanding and being direct and forceful when he needed to.
Maybe some of it was not having any freedom, but I…
I had to admit, I felt attracted to Cole.
No.
No, I couldn’t act on it. I couldn’t do anything about it. I just had to survive two days with him, and I would have a plane ticket to New York City. I would never see him, my father, or any of this motorcycle club nonsense ever again. I had made it my entire life without... well, without ever being intimate. What was two more days, most especially with someone I had never spoken to before?
Did I really want to have my first time be with the sworn enemy of my father? This most definitely was not “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” let alone my lover. My first time needed to be with someone who cared about me, not someone using me as an information source for a war with my only surviving family.
That didn’t mean, though, as the lights went out, the darkness took over, and my eyelids became heavy, that I didn’t go to sleep fantasizing just a bit about what it would be like to be as close to Cole in his bedroom as I had been on his bike.
* * *
I woke up to the sound of rustling.
At first, I had no idea what was going on. I was still coming to grips with the fact that I had woken up in a stranger’s apartment, on a strange man’s couch, and had done so entirely sober—and had not regretted what had happened. And in any case, I was never a morning person; I preferred to ease into the day.
But then questions started to pop up. Why was there the sound of rustling? Who was doing the rustling? And what were they going through?
I sat up as quietly as I could, a little fearful that a Fallen Saint had broken in and just not realized I was here yet. I slowly stood up, tiptoed over, and saw…
Cole, shirtless, his back to me, leaning over my bag.
He was so muscular and ripped. I had never seen a man like this before. It sounded crazy, but my father had sheltered me so much I was forced to imagine what it was like. I could see the individual muscles of his back popping up, the discs in his spine, the veins running across…
He looked like a superhero or villain from one of the movies, he had so much muscle on him.
And he was going through my bag.
“What are you doing?” I said.
Cole jumped in surprise, immediately whirling around as if to fight me. My words were questioning, but my tone was flat. I still had not yet fully woken up.
But the sight of Cole’s muscular chest, chiseled abs, and the V-shape leading down to his groin were starting to awaken me.
“You can’t be too cautious with Sartors,” he said. “I had to make sure that there wasn’t anything in here that could be used for spying on me.”
He was still hot and handsome.
But with my senses coming back to me, my awe and arousal were being replaced by annoyance and anger that he had gone through my stuff without asking me.
“Just because my father… look, that doesn’t mean that you get to go through my stuff,” I said. “I didn’t go rummaging through your apartment. I trusted you. Not that I had a choice.”
Cole sighed, looking disappointed with himself.
“And truth be told, I’d like to trust you too, especially after you let me remove your cell phone chip,” he said. “But I’ve lost too many friends and too many allies over issues of trust. I can’t... I can’t take any risks. I’m sorry. It’s Lucius. You’re a Sartor.”
“And you think that instantly makes me evil?”
I couldn’t believe I was about to defend my family name.
