She seemed to lose her gumption after that, and probably would have followed me back to the car, but I picked her up anyway, partly because she deserved being face down over my shoulder after this little stunt, and partly because I wanted to hold her.
In fact, this just gave me the excuse I needed. After I plopped her into the seat and slammed her back in the car door. I gave her a nice, long grin. Her eyes flew wide, and there were no more fun little arguments out of her.
Since we were only a few blocks from our original destination, I drove to the taco stand and ordered her the damn shrimp tacos with the secret, spicy sauce. I was in such high spirits that I got one for myself.
Once we were home, I carried her over my shoulder again, giving a glare to one of the guards who dared to snicker as I strode past him out of the garage. All the way upstairs, I couldn’t stop grinning, especially since Lilia was muttering curses at me under her breath.
She went still when I brought her to my room instead of hers. She was silent when I found a pair of handcuffs in a dresser drawer. They were always handy to keep around if you’re in my line of business.
“Don’t,” she breathed, backing away.
I had arranged my face into something fierce and pulled her to the bed, snapped one cuff around her wrist, and the other around the newel post at the end of the headboard.
“What are you doing?” She rattled the cuffs, her chest heaving, her eyes shooting fire.
She had to be the most gorgeous woman I had ever seen.
“You’ll have to earn back my trust,” I told her, then left before I took advantage of the much too tempting situation.
Chapter 17 - Lilia
Getting caught was so disappointing that I almost broke my teeth from gnashing them. The sight of Gavril’s car pulling into the parking lot where I cowered was a blow, but certainly not unexpected. I didn’t really think my escape attempt would work.
But I did it. I tried. It was exhilarating that I actually went through with it, and even when he caught me and hauled me back into his car, I felt alive. I took the long shot instead of sitting around waiting to see what happened to me next.
Well, now I had no choice but to sit and wait. In Gavril’s bed of all places. The brute actually handcuffed me to the bedpost. The terror that washed over me nearly made me pass out, but I stared him down as the cold metal clicked around my wrist.
I was getting stronger. Earning my last name at last and acting like one of them.
A few minutes after he left, Varvara returned with the greasy shrimp taco on a plate, garnished with her signature mint leaves. Gavril went the extra mile for some reason, actually stopping at the taco shack instead of immediately bringing me home for punishment.
And now the punishment was getting to eat one of my favorite meals? He even added fries to the order, and now they were placed in a heap next to the little silver dish the cook had scraped the spicy sauce into.
There was no reason to laugh at all, being cuffed to a bed with a monster loose in the house, but the fact that Varvara transferred the sauce from the paper cup to this fancy containermade me snicker at least. Gavril certainly liked nice things; that was for sure.
Hmph. To think he believed his watch collection could rival the value of the works of Shakespeare. He really was a brute.
There was no reason to ignore the meal; it would only spite myself, so I dug in, keeping an eye on the door between bites. He had left me alone, and I was grateful for a chance to calm down and regroup, but despite being tired to the bone, I remained jumpy. When would he return?
What would he do when he did?
And more pressing at the moment, would I stay handcuffed to the bed all day, or was he just making a point?
If this were happening to a character in a book, I would be laughing my head off at what the poor heroine got herself into, but I didn’t find it comical at all when it was happening to me in real life. Books were a crutch everyone in my life, including myself, believed I leaned on too much, but there was nothing I wanted more than to escape into the pages. Anything to pretend cold metal wasn’t cutting into my wrist, or that I was at Gavril’s mercy.
And the fact that he had to be pissed off beyond belief at my escape attempt.
Roiling nerves didn’t let me finish the fries, and I pushed the plate as far away as I could get it in my tethered state. Handcuffed. For that alone, I’d find a way to make him pay. I fought the creeping urge to sleep, but staying up all night was taking a toll. My eyes grew heavy, but as soon as I started to sink into a more comfortable position, my hand would jerk against the cuffs, the pain and rattling metal jolting me awake.
Finally, the door opened, and fear stole over me again, but I reminded myself of who I was and what I had done. Or tried to do. Didn’t matter. I was getting stronger. The look in Gavril’s dark eyes was fierce as he strode closer, and I closed my eyes, waiting for the worst. Let him try anything at all, and I’d use the one free hand I had to scar him for life.
There was a thump on the bed beside me, and I opened my eyes, shocked to find the book I had left face down on my bedside table. Did he think I would thank him?
It didn’t seem like he cared either way as he strode into the adjoining bathroom, and the sounds of the shower blasting a few moments later drifted out to me. What I wouldn’t give for a hot shower. Running full speed for at least ten blocks wasn’t something I normally did. I was a bit of a sedentary creature, preferring my comfy chair and, at most, easy strolls around Aleks’s grounds.
My back ached from jostling over the concrete, and that final attempt to scale a ten-foot-high fence and getting grabbed back down added to it. Gavril’s shower lasted only a few minutes, and when he came out of the bathroom in a puff of steam, I found myself staring.
How could I not? Enemy or no, the man was imposing enough in a suit. Wearing only a low-slung towel, with beads of moisture clinging to his carved abs and broad shoulders, he was jaw-dropping. I tried not to let my eyes eat him up as eagerly as I devoured the shrimp taco, but it was hard to keep them off his chiseled body.
