Page 26 of King of Sinners

I already regret the thought. I didn’t want him to stop. But he’s backing away, loosening his grip on my hair.

My shoulders wilt as I pivot toward the bathroom but then I stop, twisting to look over my shoulder. “We could leave my hair a bit longer. Just below the shoulders.”

Mason stops too, straightening up to his full height as he looks down at me. “I didn’t scare you?”

I shake my head. “No. It was…” How do I tell him that he makes me want to push past every limit and try all the things because I know he’ll hold the line for me whenever I need to stop?

“So what changed? Why did you shrink away?”

My lips press together. “Morning breath,” I whisper.

For a moment his eyes widen and then he lets out a burst of laughter. “Take your shower, Charlotte. Breakfast will be waiting when you’re done.”

I rush into the bathroom, heading for the sink. Teeth first, shower second. It’s on the tip of my tongue to ask him to join me.

I’ve crossed some threshold and I’m tired of waiting. But the stylist is coming so I shower instead and put on a simple dress that was in the bag of clothes. It’s got a bit of stretch so even though it’s fitted, it’s also exceptionally comfortable. It’s a pale pink that compliments my skin and the square neck shows a bit of cleavage. Putting on a pair of strappy sandals, I make my way out for breakfast. I don’t bother to style my hair into its normal loose waves that frame my face, since I’m about to have them cut off.

Mason is dressed too, a suit today and he looks like the Mason I first met and yet… I’ve seen behind that veneer.

He’s still perfectly intimidating but it’s the kind I can’t get enough of.

Fruit and yogurt are set out along with granola and I have a small bowl as Mason’s phone rings.

He pushes a few buttons on the keypad and the elevator light comes on.

“The stylist, Hanya, and her entourage is here,” he says with a smile, helping himself to his own breakfast.

“Entourage?” I repeat, gulping down a bite.

“I’ll work from the table for a bit and then I might leave you to it.”

I nod. “All right.” But I’m not super thrilled being left with a gaggle of women who know each other. I have a few friends here, mostly just Kim, because I’ve never meshed with the Vegas crowd.

“If she asks about us?”

“Like I said…we’ve been dating for six months, living together for two, and things are getting serious.”

“We’re really telling people that?”

He nods. “That’s right. If people start making inquiries, they’ll go to people like the stylist to collect information. We sell this today. You’re graduating and I’m giving you a makeover for a gift that spares no expense.”

Mentally, I trip on that last bit. I’ve been living on a very tight budget. Not that Mason can’t afford a haircut for me but still. I’m going to have to think very differently if I’m going to sell myself as the woman who landed the billionaire boyfriend.

“In that case…” I lean forward, my voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper as I try her on, this new woman I’m to pretend to be. “I’ll tell her, he pulls my hair like no man I’ve ever met.”

“Charlotte,” he grits out through clenched teeth. “I’m a man of incredible patience.”

“I know.”

“But you are pushing me to the brink.”

Was I? Good.

The elevator opens and Hanya walks in with an army of women behind her. She is the exact sort of woman I would have expected to see on Mason’s arm. Statuesque, blonde, and classically beautiful, her slender body is perfectly draped in her couture dress.

She smiles at me, a cold assessment, as racks of clothes get wheeled into the kitchen behind her. She claps her hands, her lips pulling into the slightest sneer. “We are going to have so much fun,” she declares in an accent I don’t recognize. It sounds fake. “We start with her hair, no? What are we thinking?”

Mason tells her his plan, Hanya nodding along as I’m pulled into a chair in the kitchen. “You agree?” Hanya asks as she breaks out her scissors. She hasn’t looked at me since that first false smile, but her gaze does keep sliding to Mason. I can actually see the hunger in her gaze.

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