“To keep a casino of my very own.”
My fingertips dig into the countertop. This all makes sense. “So…why…touch me? Why not just…” I trail off as he lifts his face again, his eyes meeting mine in the mirror once again.
“I think you know why, Sasha.”
My mouth goes dry. It’s the words I hoped to hear, but he doesn’t press further as he instead backs up. “There’s an extra toothbrush in the drawer. I’ll meet you in bed in five minutes.”
And then he softly closes the door.
But I can’t get my fingers to work. He said I could take as much time as I needed. Which may or may not be true.
Because in five minutes, apparently, we’re going to be in bed together.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Sasha
I dragmy feet as I get ready for bed, not ready to face the bedroom.
It’s only like nine o’clock, though my body feels like it’s midnight, I’m so exhausted.
But how am I going to be able to sleep?
The man who might scare me even more than my father is going to be sleeping next to me.
I don’t even have the illusion of privacy in this arrangement.
And then there is the attraction.
I shouldn’t feel it. It makes everything more complicated. But where he looks like a beast of a man, his touch feels…like the kiss of an angel.
“Coming?” he calls from the bedroom, and I spin around like he’s going to appear in the door.
He said we could take this at my pace, so maybe he’ll let me sleep in another room?
I draw in a ragged breath, and I slowly walk out of the bathroom and into the bedroom. He sits propped up on pillows,shirtless, the covers falling around his hips as he looks at his phone.
I stop to stare because, wow, he’s just…
Muscles, covered in tattoos, ripple down his body, washboard abs disappearing under the crisp white sheet.
“Ryker?” His name feels foreign on my tongue as I stop halfway between him and the bed.
His gaze lifts from the phone, dragging up my body, his nostrils flaring the slightest bit as he takes me in. “Princess.”
No one thinks I’m a princess. Katarina is royalty. I’m the jester. “I don’t…don’t have to sleep in here. I could go sleep on the couch or maybe another bed.” My hands twist together as I nip at my lip.
He pats the bed next to him. “I promised you safety. Next to me is the safest place for you to be.”
I forget myself and let out a soft snort.
His brows hitch up.
“You are the person I was most frightened of twenty-four hours ago,” I say by way of explanation.
A ghost of a smile touches his lips. “Scarier than your father?”
“Maybe. At least I know what he wants from me,” I mutter back.
