Emmanuel’s fingers curl around a strand that slides into my face. “You are fucking beautiful. And, mi alma, you don’t ever have to apologize for jumping on me.” He smirks.
“What are you doing here?”
“I arrived last night. Paz said your friend threatened to stab him with a syringe filled with enough morphine to take out a horse when he asked to check on you.” Emmanuel raises a single brow. “I’m not sure about these dangerous people you’re surrounding yourself with.” The backs of his fingers brush over my cheek. Light, tender, almost reverently.
I lean into his touch. “No, what are you doing on the floor in the hallway?”
“The only way your friend would let me stay in her house is if I gave her my word that I wouldn’t cross the threshold into that room,” he explains.
“Yeah, Rachel can be scary.” I smile.
“The fact I’m sitting here wasn’t her doing,Evie,” Emmanuel says, his eyes connecting with mine.
“What was?”
“You. I want you to know that you can trust me. I want you to know that I wouldn’t do anything I knew made you feel uncomfortable.”
“Apart from kidnapping.” I smile.
“That was a necessary course of action. It’s behind us.” Emmanuel leans in and presses his lips to mine. “You still owe me a week.”
“We’ve been talking forthreeweeks. That deal has long since passed.”
“No, you owe me a week of living with me, of getting to know each other in person.” His hands move down to my hips, his fingers pressing into the flesh there. I’m dressed in only an old Taylor Swift shirt and a pair of panties. Charlotte isn’t a fan, but I am unapologetically in love with the woman’s music.
“I can’t just leave. I have a shop to run.” I sigh. “And bills to pay and… plants that need watering.”
“I can have someone water your plants and handle any bills you have to deal with. As for the shop, tell Amy you’ll pay her double to manage it for a week while you’re gone. I’m sure she won’t complain,” he counters.
“Ah, I can’t afford to pay her double, and you are nothandlingmy bills. And… well, I actually don’t have anything to say about the plants. Let me come back to you on that one.”
“Evie.” Emmanuel looks at me. “Just let go, say yes, and let us have this week.” As he says this, he forces my hips to grind down on his cock—his hard cock. “Getting to know each other in person is not the same as over the phone.”
No, it’s definitely not. Pleasure radiates through my core.
“Okay,” I say before I can find another reason to talk myself out of this insane idea. “But where are we going? Mexico?”
Chapter Sixteen
Iwould love to be able to take Evie to Mexico. She’d never be able to leave the country without me knowing.
“I will take you home one day, but not now. Now, we’re going back to Vegas,” I tell her, instead of voicing my intentions of keeping her with or without her permission to do so.
The smile on Evie’s face drops slightly.
“You don’t like Vegas?”I ask her.
She stands. “It’s okay. I’m starving. I feel like I haven’t eaten in days. I’m going to have a quick shower and get dressed. Do me a favor and see if Rach has anything edible in her kitchen?”
I push to my feet and follow her when she turns and walks back into the bedroom she just came out of. “Evie, stop. Why don’t you like Vegas?”
“I didn’t say that. It’s fine, Emmanuel. I need to shower,” she tells me without turning around. Then she strolls into the bathroom and closes the door.
I’m about to follow her in there too when I hear the lock click. I shake my head. Does she really think a shitty lock will keep me out? I could get in there before she had time to strip down. Instead, I give her the space she clearly needs. Whatever her hangup with Vegas is, I’d put money on it having to do with her past.
I pull out my phone and send Paz a message.
Me:
