Chapter
Twelve
BEN
December 11 — 8:10 PM
I followedChrissy up the stairs like a predator pacing behind prey it already owned but wasn’t allowed to taste yet… not because I didn’t want to, though. No, because I needed the next time I touched her to be unforgettable. More than that, I needed it to rewrite her DNA in an irrevocable way.
If this was going to work, I had to make her want both sides of me: the man she’d only encounter blindfolded until the time was right, and the man she thought she knew on that goddamn roadside. I needed her to want me so badly she’d never be able to walk away once she realized where one ended and the other began.
Chrissy didn’t look back once. Her shoulders were tight, chin tucked. She was moving like survival was an art form she’d practiced her whole life.
She had no idea she was walking into the first real test. Our little encounter out on the road was just a primer, the situation in the foyer with the original Number Seven was a warmup, anddinner was a warning. Chrissy had no idea that, the next time I touched her, she’d be blindfolded and at the mercy of the real Ben Stonewood. My mouth watered as I pictured her on her knees in front of me, pulse fluttering at the base of her throat like a trapped bird.
Fuck. I need her so bad it’s killing me. I need her to win this Game. I need her addicted to the danger, to the mystery, and most of all to me.
She reached her door and stopped, breath shuddering out of her like she’d been holding it since Henry took Twelve’s head off with nothing but a polite tone.
“Miss Jones,” I said softly.
Her hand froze on the knob she didn’t have a key for. She must have forgotten that contestants aren’t free to come and go at will. Her spine went rigid.
I stepped in front of her and unlocked the door, the metal cool against my fingers while everything inside me burned white-hot with need.
The lock clicked open and my restraint damn near snapped.
I could still taste her kiss from earlier, still remember the sound she made when I let her pull me in instead of pushing her away. That tiny, broken gasp nearly made me forget who I was supposed to be and what we were here for.
“Your instructions from Mr. Stonewood are on the bed,” I said, voice even though my pulse hammered hard enough to shake my bones. “And a… gift.”
A silk blindfold. It would be a gift to us both, really. It would give me the gift of anonymity, and it would give Chrissy a kind offreedom she probably didn’t even realize she’d been craving for years. It would give her the freedom to let go of always having to be the responsible one, the one in control.
I’d also left a note with her number and instructions in my handwriting. Put on the blindfold, sit on the edge of the bed, and wait for me.
God, I was dying to see if she’d follow directions like a good girl, and how she’d handle the… interview if she did.
Her beautiful brown eyes flicked up, searching my face for some emotion or another.
They were so wide, curious, and unsure it was fucking intoxicating. I wanted to ruin her in every way a man could ruin someone… with truth, with deception, with desire so sharp it left scars.
But not here. Not yet. Not as Jacob. Not when I needed her to crave Mr. Stonewood so deeply she wouldn’t run once she realized they were one and the same man.
“I don’t know if I’m supposed to thank you or apologize,” she whispered.
Neither. Both. God, something.
“Just be ready for him,” I said. “Tonight matters more than you realize. How you respond could change the entire course of both our futures.”
She didn’t know how true that was as she wrung her hands and took a half-step closer to me.
“Jacob, I?—”
I held up a hand, warning her off.
“Whatever you’re about to say… just don’t. There are cameras everywhere and we’re both in way over our heads already. Be careful. The boss is a jealous man, and we’ve given him more than enough reason to worry already.”
She bit her lip and looked up at me through her lashes.
