And pleasurable. Can’t forget that.
Dahlia’s face heated as she dried off in the glittering bathroom. Even the towels were luxurious. They were the fluffy, perfectly soft and extra large kind one normally experienced in high end hotels. Not that she’d ever been to those, but she could imagine.
Out of all the catastrophes that had been thrown at her in the last two days, finally giving in to Felix — temporarily, at least — was the least of her worries. That didn’t make her pride smart any less. And it certainly didn’t mean she intended tostay.
Leaving would be hard, though, and not just because he didn’t let her keep the gun.
Exiting the bathroom, she padded into the bedroom, fully intending on pilfering some of Felix’s clothes. She couldn’t negotiate or sneak her way out if she was nude, which was probably why her bag had gone mysteriously missing.
Dahlia didn’t see the woman standing by the bed until she rounded the corner. Dressed in a killer crimson pantsuit and sky-high heels, the woman was bent over the bed organizing what appeared to be a dozen black shopping bags. Nearly jumping out of her skin, Dahlia had to grip the towel wrapped around her head to stop it from falling off.
“I’m sorry— What are you doing in here?”
The woman straightened and turned on one pencil-thin heel. She was voluptuous, with sensual curves and a mass of wavy black hair piled on top of her head. A streak of white curled down over her brow to touch one rounded cheek, giving her a disheveled, almost impish look that made her already stunning features a thousand times more dangerous.
Her full mouth quirked in a wide, fanged smile. “There you are! Took you long enough.”
Before Dahlia could even think to step back, the woman moved with surprising speed in her heels to barrel down on her. Soft hands cupped her cheeks, squeezing until her lips puckered. The woman sing-songed, “Oh, you’regorgeous.Just gorgeous! Felix doesn’t deserve you at all. That nasty little goblin. He has the best luck.”
Even if she could’ve spoken, Dahlia had no idea what she would’ve said to that. Other than perhaps agree. Felixwasa nasty little goblin.
That thought was promptly catapulted from her mind when, with absolutely no preamble, the woman yanked the tie of herrobe from around her waist. The robe parted instantly, revealing Dahlia’s freshly washed body beneath.
The woman let out a low, appreciative whistle. “Damn. That’s a great pair of tits. Not as good as mine, but great none the less. You’ve definitely got me beat on legs, though. And you smelldelicious.Congrats on that.”
Dahlia was so used to being naked with Cecilia that she only felt confusion as the woman inspected her with a critical eye, her fingers holding the lapels of the robe apart.
“Uh, who are you?”
“Oh, I’m Marietta,” she replied, dropping the sides of the robe to put her manicured hands on her round hips. “I’m Felix’s cousin. One of many you’ll meet, but definitely the best one. He told me to help you settle in, so here I am.”
Dahlia closed her robe. This woman couldn’t have been more different from the statuesque Yvanna, but the resemblance was there. Wiggling her finger in front of her face, she asked, “Does everyone in the Amauri family have the…”
Marietta crossed her eyes to look at the white curl hanging stylishly in front of her face. Giving it a blow, she chirped, “Almost! It’s rare that one of us is born without it, but it happens. Mostly it shows up by the forehead, though it varies. My cousin Nash has it in his eyebrow and the side of his head, and Luis got a little in his beard.”
“Makes you easy to pick out in a crowd, I guess,” Dahlia muttered.
“My mom calls it our red flag.” Marietta wrinkled her nose with amusement. “But enough about us. I can’t believe aBowanis joining the family. You’re going to have to tell me everything about how in Grim’s name my cousin pulled that kind of coup off.”
“There are a lot of things wrong with what you just said.” Dahlia ticked the reasons off on her fingers, her bare foottapping against the expensive rug. “I’m not a Bowan. I’m not joining the family. And Felix didn’t pull off anything other than a successful kidnapping.”
If she expected Marietta to argue or show any shock, Dahlia was sorely disappointed. The woman tilted her head back and laughed. “Of course he did! As if a woman like you would ever give him the time of day.”
Despite her best efforts, a snort escaped her. “That’s what I keep telling him.”
“I bet helovesthat. Amauris enjoy being told no,” Marietta said, head shaking. “We tend to take it more as a challenge than anything.”
“I’ve picked up on that, yeah.”
“Well, Bowan or not, I hope you don’t make anything easy on him. Can’t have his ego getting too big now that he’s finally head of the family.”
Since Marietta seemed like the chatty type, Dahlia dared to ask, “Why has it been so hard for him to become head of the family? He told me he’s been fighting a war for years.”
Marietta turned back to the bed. Pushing aside one of the heavy curtains, she began rifling through the sea of bags that hadn’t been there when Dahlia went into the bathroom to take a shower.
“He was Dora’s favorite, but he’s young. She knew that when she made him her heir, but I really don’t think she understood how against him some of the family was. Or how ambitious. The elders didn’t think he had the experience to lead the family, and with Julius and Yvanna around, they figured there were better options.” She shrugged as she began to extract clothing from the bags. Silk, velvet, fur — they spilled out across the bed in a rainbow of luxury.
Marietta didn’t sound bothered when she continued, “Luckily Julius was picked off early. He was a crazy old fuck andwould’ve driven the family into the ground, so it was great to hear he’d been poisoned by Bounds. Yvanna was a lot harder to handle. She was ice cold and smart to get some powerful people on her side early. The problem with her was that none of the cousins — mine and Felix’s generation — could stand her. She treated everyone like they were disposable. She would’ve sold any one of us for pocket change.”
