Page 34 of Twilight Sins

“Ha ha. You’re doing all of this to keep me safe. If you wanted me dead, I’d already be dead.”

She isn’t wrong. But I ignore her and push through the door to my room.

The maids came in today and made the bed, but I still smell Luna everywhere. Less than twenty-four hours in my house and she’s already leached into the fibers.

I have more than enough guest rooms. I could put her up in any one of those on the opposite side of the mansion, lock the door, and throw away the key. But I want to keep her close.

If only because I get the sense that Luna is going to be a lot more trouble than she looks.

“If you aren’t going to kill me, the least you can do is tell me who is after me.”

“The least I could do was leave you at the restaurant to fend off the wolves on your own. You don’t want to ask for the least from me, solnyshka.”

“Okay, there’s something. What wolves?” she asks. “Is this, like, a West Side Story kind of thing? Jets and Sharks and Wolves?”

I shake my head. “I have no clue what you’re talking about.”

She looks personally offended. “It’s a musical. You’ve definitely heard of it before. I can sing you some if you?—”

“If you’re trying to get answers out of me, you’re going to have to try harder than that. I was raised to endure torture.” I drop my watch on the dresser and turn to face her.

“I can never tell if you’re serious.” She narrows her eyes, thin slits of blue trying to read my every thought.

I give her nothing. I’m just starting to unbutton my shirt and see that the cuff is singed from gunpowder. I should have rolled up my sleeves before I killed that Gustev soldier. Then again, what else is a personal tailor for if not to keep me swimming in bespoke dress shirts? Giorgio will be thrilled to have something to work on.

I pull the ruined shirt off and drop it to the floor of the closet.

“Yakov!” Luna stamps her foot on the floor. “Talk to me. Please. I want to understand where you’re coming from, but if you don’t tell me anything, then I can’t?—”

The words die in her throat when I turn around. Her eyes go wide as they trail so, so slowly down my chest.

I planned to throw Luna off her axis. I was going to let her follow me as I went about my normal routine—undressing, showering. But one glimpse of skin and Luna is biting that full lower lip and staring like she’s searching for the most efficient way to climb me. If I’m not careful, we’ll both fall into the trap I’ve set.

“I don’t work with people who have nothing to offer.” I walk past her, close enough that our hands brush. She jerks back as I pass and wraps her arms around her chest.

“How do you know I have nothing to offer? What if I know these people who are after me? Maybe I could?—”

“You don’t.”

She huffs out a harsh breath. “But maybe I could figure out who they are and?—”

“You can’t.”

“But if you let me, then I could?—”

“I won’t.”

She lets out a sharp, frustrated scream. “Would you let me finish?”

I shake my head. “No.”

“You’re a real asshole, you know?” She drops down on the end of my bed, and I definitely don’t think about the last time she was there… legs spread, hands in my hair. “I should have picked up on it right away, but I was in denial. I was so desperate for a good date that I shoved aside all of my reservations and hoped for the best.”

I pull a dark gray t-shirt out of my drawer and shrug it on before I turn to face her. “Good point. I sensed all of your reservations. Especially during your third orgasm. You seemed so unbearably conflicted.”

She blushes again. I’m waiting for her to leave. To slouch out of here, embarrassed and teary-eyed. Instead, she stands up and jabs a finger into my chest. “I never said I had reservations about your dick. I assumed that would be satisfactory from the beginning.”

How did I randomly find myself on a date with the only woman who has ever surprised me? If she was anyone else, I’d snap her finger in half the moment she even thought about touching me. Actually, if she was anyone else, she would have been too afraid to even try.

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