He freezes, not turning around, though I see his head tilt slightly back in my direction. Rolling his shoulders, he steps fully out into the hall, shutting the door behind him.
I sigh, finally alone.
A deal with the Devil? Sounds too good to be true. Won’t cost much… only my soul.
39
YOU’RE A BAD IDEA
BRIAR
Then…
Freshly tattooed, I hop on the back of Rí’s bike. I don’t ask where we’re going, just enjoying the spontaneity of it all. I don’t know what time it is, and I don’t care. He brings us underground into what looks to be an empty private parking garage. Pulling into a parking space, Rí kills the loud engine, and the sudden silence is a shock.
To break the tension, I decide to crack a joke as I dismount the bike, sliding the helmet off of my head. “So… is this the part where you kill me?” I laugh, but you can hear the nerves in it.
“Kill you?” He arches a brow, amusement on his face. “Oh, now, little Rose, why would I do that? I’m not nearly done with you yet.” He steps closer, one hand taking the helmet from me, the other tucking a lock of hair behind my ear. I swallow hard. “Still looking to gofar, love?”
I stare up into his eyes—his beautifully fractured, soulful eyes.
“Yes,” I breathe, almost inaudibly.
The corner of his mouth ticks up in a smirk, and he steps back, holding out his hand for me to take.
“C’mon.”
I stare at him—at his hand for another second before taking it, letting him lead me to a waiting elevator, the door held open by a man in a dark suit. “Rí,” the man says, nodding respectfully at the both of us.
That’s the second person to call him that tonight… I’d thought it was a fake name, but Jace, back at the tattoo shop, had also called my tattooed nightmareRí.
I have little time to think about it though, because Rí releases my hand, standing next to me as the man steps out, leaving the two of us in the elevator alone. And as the doors slowly inch closed, all I can think about ishimat my side. Feeling his eyes on me, I blush, biting my lip.
The door still has another couple of centimeters to go when he grabs my waist, spinning me, the two of us falling back against the far wall, his mouth on mine, his hands in my hair, tasting, consuming, exploring. I break the kiss with a whimper, looking to the sky when his palm finds my breast, cupping it over my shirt. His mouth drops to my throat.
I’m nearly breathless when I say, “You’re a bad idea.”
“The worst,” he whispers right up against my neck, his breath hot, soft lips trailing featherlight kisses all the way up and down my jaw before they stop, hovering just over mine. “But something tells me you’re tired of pretending to be thegood girl.”
I pull back to stare at him, cheeks growing hot. “I am not?—”
He smirks at me, his devil eyes seeing through to my soul. I stare at him—really stare—and something passes between us in that moment, something deep, indiscernible, and inescapable.
“Fuck it,” I breathe, and kiss him.
I’m aware of everything, yet it’s all a blur… his mouth is on mine, my fingers tangle in his hair. He picks me up, and I wrap my legs tight around his waist.
I barely hear the ping of the elevator when we reach our destination. It’s dark, but that doesn’t disguise the sheer size of the loft we walk into. The lights are off, but it’s lit up by the city surrounding it, the lights and moonlight shining through floor-to-ceiling windows.
Rí doesn’t set me down, doesn’t even lift his lips off mine as he carries me down a darkened hallway. Together we crash through a door and into a bedroom. He has me naked in seconds.
“So fucking beautiful,” he says, stealing a glance at my body.
His words, and the look in his eyes when he said them, gets past all of my defenses, burrowing down deep into my heart.
He pulls his shirt off and,holy fucking shit,I can’t stop my mouth from falling open.
I saw his chest back at Jace’s, the bandage just over his heart covering the new ink is proof, but here, the shadowed lighting highlights every curve, every ripple of muscle; the ink he has covering most of one arm and his chest appears even darker, nothing but black or gray, not a trace of color to be seen.
