Page 13 of Harvest Maze

Carefully, as though it were a living creature, I took the offering. “You can do anything you set your mind to—even poisoning.”

Her cheeks darkened with a beautiful blush.

I had the sudden desire to make the rest of her flush that prettily. My dick stirred in my pants at the idea of her thighs infused with a blush as I devoured what was in between them.

“Okay, well, I’ll see you around, neighbor,” she stammered and gave me a small wave.

I surged forward and grabbed her wrist. “Did he hurt you?”

“Who?” Ivry gasped, brown eyes blown wide.

“That man.” The rude one. The one I would kill before we left town. “Your cousin.”

Her nose scrunched in confusion, but then she laughed. “Oh, Gio? Nah, he’s all bark and no bite.”

I must not have looked convinced, because she added, “I used to watch him and his brother. I know all his dirty little secrets.”

Tipping my head to the side, I considered her. My thumb brushed over the skin of her wrist. Her pulse raced, so I continued to stroke it.

“Like what?” I urged, voice dropped to a low, coaxing rasp.

Ivry licked her lips, which made an ache pulse in my balls. “He wouldn’t poo in the toilet. It was easy to tell when he was about to do his business, but this one time, I was distracted cleaning up his sister’s Cheerios, and he pooped in the toy box.”

A startled, croaking laugh rumbled from my chest. The great and fearless underboss had potty issues. That was hysterical.

Ivry laughed too.

It took every fiber in my being not to draw her close, capture her in my arms, and taste that sound. If I hadn’t been holding the cake she’d made specifically for me, I would have.

“Hey, so I’m going out to dinner with some friends,” she said, smiling enticingly at me. “If you wanted to come—no pressure! But you’re welcome to join.”

I gave her delicate skin a final caress before I dropped my hold on her. “I can’t, kráska.”

For the briefest of seconds, her face fell. I had to bite my tongue not to change my mind. I wanted to give this girl the world, and if that meant joining her for food, that wasn’t too big an ask.

Except that I was supposed to be keeping a low profile.

And I’d already fucked that up with the interaction at the coffee shop earlier.

“No worries! But if you change your mind or want to hang out later, I can give you my number,” she offered, reaching into her back pocket for her phone.

I grabbed mine, and a moment later, I had her number. Openly this time. She didn’t need to know I already had it and that I’d put a tracking app secretly on her phone. It was the same kind I used to follow a mark, but this time it was for a much better purpose.

“Alright, talk to you later,” she said, waving goodbye.

The only reason I was able to bear letting her walk away was because I was going to follow. I forced my steps to be slow as I took the cake to the kitchen. When we married and she lived in the mansion I would buy her, I was going to get fat eating like this all the time.

But it was going to be worth every bite.

***

I stood over her sleeping form and refused to do anything about the stiff rod in my pants. There was a fine line between my usual watching and being a creep who jacked off to the beautiful slumbering form, and I wasn’t going to cross it. Not when the soon-to-be-reality of having her in my bed was something so real, so close, that I just needed to wait a few more nights to have it.

“Sleep well, kráska,” I whispered into the dark and turned away.

There was only so much torment a man could take. If I didn’t leave now, I would do something stupid. Like wake her with a kiss—and my fingers brushing between her legs.

Downstairs, I closed the door securely behind me but froze as the light in her bedroom flicked on in the window above. My heartbeat doubled as I watched her shadow race back and forth behind the curtain.