Orelia watched an oblivious dwarven couple cross the street cackling together. The shadows must have hidden Vade and Fargus well.
“Look, if this is about the whore—” Fargus moaned through what sounded like a punch to the face. “Fuck! Listen, I’ll pay good money for her. What do you want? My pockets run deep.”
“She is not for sale,” Vade snapped.
Fargus chuckled. “Everything is for the right price.”
“Is that your favorite motto?”
“Is her cunt really worth that much?”
Vade must have punched him again because there was a loud crack, then the sound of someone wheezing.
“She ismine.”
Orelia couldn’t help the smile blooming across her face.
A rush of footsteps came from their direction, and shouting erupted in the alley.
She ran back to the corner where Vade had told her to wait, and he came tearing around the corner a second later. “Go!”
Orelia ran as fast as her shoes would allow. She followed Vade as he zigged and zagged down a few streets, darting through groups of people. When she came around a corner, he grabbed her around the waist and pulled her into the shadows with him.
They pressed themselves to the alleyway’s brick wall, panting.
Vade cocked his head, listening for sounds of anyone following them. When only friendly chatter and laughter rang out, his shoulders relaxed. When he stepped into the light of a lantern, she saw flecks of blood peppering his neck and collar.
“Did you kill Fargus?” Orelia asked.
“No. His goons came calling before I could.” Vade released a breath. “Now to find a brothel.”
He started to walk away, but she grabbed his wrist. “I was thinking maybe you don’t have to go to one tonight.” The dress had already done its job of making him jealous, but maybe now it could sway him into a different emotion.
“Why wouldn’t I? You know I always celebrate my kills that way.”
She trailed her fingers up his arm and stepped into him. “I was thinking maybe you and I could go back to the cabin and . . .” Orelia looked up at him through her thick lashes.
“And what?”
He was going to make her work for it.
“I know you felt something in there,” she said.
He quirked a brow but didn’t say anything.
Orelia sighed. “Are you really going to make me spell it out?”
Vade let out a humorless laugh. “I should have known this would happen after Ricaboro.”
“What do you mean?”
“You didn’t know how to play your role then, and I stupidly trusted that you could separate yourself from the act this time. I told you,everythingin there wasn’t real. Yet here you are, practically begging me to fuck you.”
She stepped back, mouth agape at his audacity. “First of all, I’m not begging. And secondly, don’t even try to pass off like you didn’t feel something between us tonight. I saw the way you were looking at me.”
“Because I was playing a part. Convincingly, I might add.” He wiped his neck, smearing the specks of blood into thin lines.
She refused to accept his answer. “I know you were jealous watching me with Fargus. I could see it all over your face.”
