I wet my lips and shrugged. “Maybe both.”
“We’ll test that later. For now—Monty night.” She gestured to the tub and shower. “Take your pick.”
“Oh, uh, whatever. I’m fine with whatever,” I said.
“What?” she asked, raising her voice above the music.
“I don’t care!” I said louder.
“Arden,” she said sternly, “it’s okay to want something. In fact, I encourage it. Alex wants me to help you. Fine. It starts with you taking advantage us. Hell, you’remarriedto a guy with literal billions. Have you even spent a penny since you got here?”
“Alexander is not my husband,” I growled.
She rolled her eyes. “On paper he is and that’s good enough to raid his bank account. Now do you want a fucking shower or a fucking bath?”
I sucked in a deep breath. “I guess I’m partial to baths.”
“Great.” She moved to the tub and wrenched the faucet on. Then she proceeded to grab what looked like tiny rocks, dumping them into the water, followed by various soaps. I peered over her shoulder. It smeltamazing. Like flowers and vanilla. Monty turned, singing rather horribly to the pop song blaring, and whipping open a sink drawer. She grabbed a lighter, then snatched a candle from the windowsill above the tub,thrusting them both toward me. “Here,” she said. “To calm you down. Light and unlight it to your heart’s content, pyro.”
I sat the liquor down on the edge of the tub, taking the candle and lighter from her with a scowl. “I’m not a pyro.”
“Bitch, your day job is lighting men on fire,” Monty argued. “You’re a fucking pyro.”
I heaved another long, steadying breath as she turned on the shower, steam filling the room. My pulse faltered in surprise when she took off her robe without a care in the world, letting it dump to the floor. She was naked except for her fuzzy socks, yanking them off in quick succession and getting into the shower, the door banging shut.
Gently, I sat down the candle and lighter, turning off the tub faucet once it was filled. I hesitated, making sure Monty couldn’t see me. The shower was so fogged though, I’m not even sure howshemanaged to see anything in there. Shaking my head, I tugged out of my clothes and dipped into the water, my muscles melting as I did. I was so tense that the minute I lied back, it took everything in me not to moan in relief. I sunk deeper into the water, finding shampoo and rinsing my hair. My gaze drifted toward the lighter and candle, and I inwardly cursed myself. Maybe I was a pyro.
Monty shut the shower off after about an hour, and I dunked my head, rinsing conditioner as she stepped out. She looked over at me, her lips parting. “Jeez, girl, you have great boobs.” She lifted her hands up to cup her own, and heat flooded my face. “I really want to get mine done, but Delgado thinks they’re cute, so I guess they can stay awhile longer.”
“Delgado?” I asked, trying to submerge my body out of her line of sight. “Also didn’t Alexander say we only had thirty minutes?”
She yanked a couple towels from a basket and tossed one toward me. Thankfully, I reached up and caught it, only one bottom corner soaking into the water. “Mickey Delgado,Matthias’s brother,” she said. “You’ll meet him and Heath at dinner, and Alex knows better than to time me on anything. Trust me, he knows thirty minutes was a pipe dream, and he more than likely already left for the restaurant without us.”
I pulled the plug on the tub and shoved upward, wrapping in the towel quickly. “And Heath? Another of Alexander’s men?”
Monty scoffed. “Heath is short for Heather, so you can leave the sexism back at that shitty compound of yours, okay? Also, Alexander isn’t a keeper, a boss, a Buyer, or whatever the fuck you think he is. Ravens are like you and your friends. Creed.” She shrugged. “Family.”
I stepped out of the tub, trying to make sense of that. “But Alexanderdidbuy Creed. He’s a Buyer.”
“Well, sure, if you want to be technical about it, but he only bought you to get you out,” she explained, applying lip balm in the mirror and nodding toward her messy room. “Go find something that fits. Don’t even think about putting those oversized monstrosities back on.”
“I thought you said I couldn’t borrow anything,” I said, tiptoeing around piles.
“Yeah, well, I’ll make an exception until I can take you to get a proper wardrobe. Didn’t Alexander buy you clothes?”
“I got rid of them…Do you have anything that doesn’t sparkle?” I asked as I picked up a few items and tossed them to the side. “Or underwear?” I asked, embarrassed to have to do so.
“Do you know what size you are?”
“No,” I said, my cheeks heating further.
She was naked again as she moved to one of the more precarious-looking towers of clothes and pulled out some black items, her eyes flicking my direction. “Here. Try this dress. You’ll have to go commando, though. Sharing underwear is a no-go.”
I caught the dress when she threw it, shimmying it over my head and letting my towel drop as I got it on. It was a simpleblack mini dress, skin tight and hitting just past my crotch. If I bent over even slightly someone would get a show. “What about pants?” I asked, tugging at the hem.
“Mine would fall off you,” she explained and heaved an annoyed breath. “I’m fucking cursed with wide hips and tiny as fuck tiddies. I mean, why couldn’t some of this—” She slapped her ass—“be up here?” She cupped her boobs again. Then she grabbed another mini dress from the pile, a silver-sequined one, and threw it on. “Besides, we’re having dinner at a nice place. You shouldn’t wear pants, and honestly, I think most of the women there skip on the panties anyway in the hopes Mick will look their way, so really, you’re just following dress code.” She chucked a pair of heels toward my head and I barely caught them. “Put those on and I’ll find you a jacket.”
“I’ll wear mine. Thanks,” I said, shoving on my leather jacket.
