If I was taking a bath, then I was doing it properly. The last time I’d had a bath was at a college girlfriend’s wedding to which I took a motorcyclist I’d met at a Steak ’n Shake. I had paid him with a box of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. In hindsight, that had been a serious red flag, but he was hot, and I didn’t want to be the only one at the wedding without a plus-one. He’d ended up sleeping with one of the bridesmaids, clearing out the minibar, and sticking me with the bill.
The bedroom was, thankfully, empty, and I tiptoed out. Blade’s deep voice filtered from the study down the hall. I went in search of the rest of the cupcakes and one of the romance novels I’d stashed on Blade’s shelf next to his books on primitive technology and military history.
My hands were full with my snacks and entertainment, and as I walked down the hallway, my towel was starting to slip. I was hurrying into the master suite to make my way to the bathroom when Blade, wearing nothing but boxer briefs, appeared right in front of me, eyes down, texting furiously on his phone.
I squawked when I saw him, and he looked up and cursed.
“Shit, I thought you were in the bathroom.”
“I needed a snack,” I said, desperately trying to hold all my stuff, keep my towel from slipping, and not collapse in worship at the sight of his bare chest.
The book I had clutched to my chest was doing its best to fall to the floor and take my towel with it.
“You cannot eat in the bathroom. That’s unsanitary,” Blade lectured.
“That bathroom is cleaner than a lot of places I’ve lived in,” I protested, praying that this conversation would soon be over. The towel slipped another half an inch.
“I’m going to work out,” Blade said.
“Mmhm.” The towel slipped again, the book lurching in my sweaty palms.
“Close your eyes!” I shrieked as the book went down and the cupcake plate pitched. Blade did not heed my command. Instead, he grabbed the plate then a fistful of the towel. His hand was insanely close to my breast. Heat radiated from his fingers and shot a line straight down to my hoo-ha.
“Thanks,” I said faintly. It took some maneuvering, but I replaced my hand on the spot Blade was holding the towel together. He picked up my book and handed it to me along with the cupcake plate.
“Good thing I didn’t get a glass of wine,” I joked weakly, “though I think I need it.”
Blade wordlessly opened the bathroom door, and I darted past him. My arms brushed against his bare chest.
“Don’t choke on a cupcake,” he said as I slammed the door shut.
I wanted to choke on something else. I also wanted to open the door and pull Blade into the tub with me.
“We are having a wholesome bath experience,” I said to Cesario, who was nuzzling my bare ankle.
I tossed a bath bomb into the tub, lit some candles, and sank into the water. Then I stuffed half a cupcake into my mouth. As the warm water lapped at my body, all I could think about was Blade.
I think I’m going to have a very difficult time living here.
20
Blade
I’m going to have a difficult time living with Avery.
When her towel had slipped, I’d seen the barest crescent of pink on the swell of her breast.
“Who walks around a strange man’s apartment in just a towel?” I growled to myself as I turned on the lights in my home gym. It was, fortunately, at the other end of the condo. The building was long and skinny, and each floor only had one unit. I used to think it was a bit wasteful to have that much space for one person, but now I wanted as much distance as possible between me and Avery.
There was just a towel between you two.
I loaded weights onto the rack. The meditativeness of weight lifting always helped calm my mood. I looked forward to my daily workouts. As I moved through the various machines, my mind spun on how to rescue my sisters. There were about six or seven girls and two more young boys in the cult. My father had recently taken another wife, and I desperately wanted to end the cycle before there was another crop of Svenssons.
A large part of ThinkX’s fortune had come from financial forensics. That was what we were going to be doing for Harris & Schultz. In international banking, they had recently had a spate of transcontinental fraud issues. The governments had cracked down on them, and lawsuits had occurred. Now they needed to show shareholders and regulatory agencies that they had everything under control.
Garrett had had me monitor the cult’s finances as best we could. We had reported them for welfare fraud, but my father always sent his wives out of the state when the investigators came by. Even though it was clear the sister wives were stealing from taxpayers, I was sure my father was committing other types of fraud. I just needed to prove it. If the amount was large enough, he could go to jail for decades.
Just as I finished a set of bench presses, my phone went off.
