I clear my throat, realising she’s staring at me. “Been up to much today?”
She scoffs, pulls up her hands and starts counting fingers. “Let’s see… woke up this morning and had a gun held to my head, got finger-fucked on the kitchen island. I watched creepy men install cameras in here and in the bathroom. Then I did my job for the day while being gawked at by Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Then got handed a bike manual that makes me want to scratch my eyeballs out, but the alternative is recounting the cracks in this ceiling for the thousandth time. What about you?”
I scrub my face with my hands. For fuck’s sake. “Let me guess, Fiz instigated the finger-fucking.”
Her cheeks glow a bright red in an instant. She drops her head, staring down into her lap. “Wasn’t him. He held the gun while the other one did it though.”
I tilt my head. “Caden did it? What did you do?” She whips that scowl at me, so I tut. “He wouldn’t do it for no reason, Elodie, what did you do?”
Her hands fly to her face to mask her humiliation. Oh shit, she did somethingbad.
I almost have to bite my lip to hide my growing amusement. “What did the little, innocent princess do, hmmm?”
She moans behind her hands, the sound of complete embarrassment and shame. “I got off on Caden while he was unconscious.”
The bark of laughter that spurts out of me makes her jump, dropping her hands to look at me in outrage. “Oh, El, that’s fucking class.”
She stares at me while I laugh it off, the mental image of her using Caden while he’s in a fucking coma tickling my brain.
“You don’t think I’m disgusting?”
This makes my laughter fizzle out. “No, El, of course I don’t. If anything, I’ve finally got some respect for you. You saw the opportunity, and you took it. God knows your supposed fiancé isn’t giving you any pleasure while conscious, so why the fuck not?”
The red on her cheeks deepens but they pinch into a shy smile. “He made me feel pretty shitty about it.”
“Of course he did. He’s not going to thank you, is he? Tell me the dirty deets, girl.”
Her mouth twists up in bashful hesitation, but she eventually does.
“He was so close to coming. That turned into my objective in the end. It was no longer about me. I wanted to make him break this stupid abstinence beneath me. I would have got so much satisfaction from that.”
This sobers me a little. “As bold as that is, you should be grateful he cameroundbefore hecame. He probably would have topped you for that. The Cleanse and Hunt are the most sacred things to him.” Bar that book she’s currently clutching in her lap.
She picks at her fingernails. “Yeah, well, lucky me.”
I grab her foot and give it a squeeze. “You gotta treat these boys like their dogs. Don’t let them smell your fear, baby. Fighting back is good, but only if you can take the consequences too. Caden might not admit it to you, but he would definitely have been impressed by the size of your balls for that. That’s what he needs, really. He’ll deny it to the day he dies, but he probably got hard at the thought of meeting his match with you.”
“But he’s right,” her sweet voice drowns in defeat, “whatever I do to him, or Fiz, I’ll get it back tenfold. There’s no outdoing him. I’ll always come out worse.”
I bob my head side to side. “True. Well, you know the simple solution to that problem, right?”
She rolls her eyes. “Behave.”
I pat her shin. “Exactly.”
“Not going to happen. I’m out of here in three days.”
I admire her determination. And naivety. “That’s the spirit.” I give her leg another pat and get to my feet. “I need to eat. You need to sleep. I’ll see you in the morning.” I hand her the packet of biscuits, and she gives me a grateful smile.
“Alfie.”
I turn back. “Yes, baby?”
“Do you think I actually have a chance?”
I disguise my tired sigh with a smile. “He is wounded now. Could use that to your advantage.”
She frowns. “What do you mean?”
