Page 15 of Exile and Embrace

Finn laughs, the sound warm and rich, sending a shiver down my spine. “You couldn’t have been more than nineteen back then. I was twenty-four. What the hell were you doing paying attention to me?”

“I wasn’t paying attention to you. On the rare nights I stayed over at that apartment you shared with Declan in Virginia, I stumbled into your many hookups. One of them had the audacity to drown themselves in my favorite perfume.”

He laughs and leans against the car. “You’ve seen my bloodwork, so you know I’m clean. But tell you what, as a special reward for putting up with my hookups back then, I'll buy you a new bottle of perfume.”

I roll my eyes and go to the back of the car to grab a duffel bag. Part of me wants to smile and laugh with him, but the larger part of me remembers who he is, but more than that, who he is connected to.

I can’t let my guard down.

Finn watches me, his arms crossed as I take the bag to the backseat and open the hidden compartment.

I pack the guns into the bag quickly before zipping it up and slinging it over my shoulder. There is no way that I’m leaving a bunch of guns in my car in this neighborhood.

Finn grabs the suitcases from the trunk before I lock the car. He crams the key into the lock, exhaling when it doesn’t turn the first time. Finn jiggles the key in the lock and twists the handle.

The lock finally turns.

As we stumble into the room, I’m met with the sight of a single bed.

My jaw drops to the ground, and my entire body feels like it’s on fire.

I may not want anything to do with Finn beyond what’s required of me with our deal, but I’m not stupid. I know that if I share that bed with him, I’m going to stop fighting the attraction between us that’s been burning since the first day he walked into the infirmary.

I might give into one of the countless fantasies I’ve had.

And I can’t afford to do that.

“They have to have a room with two beds.” I keep the bag of guns over my shoulder as I turn for the door. “I’ll head back to the office and see if there’s something else.”

Finn laughs and drops the suitcases in the corner before shutting the door and locking it behind him. He slides the deadbolt into place before going to pull the ugly floral curtains across the window.

“I don’t know why you’re laughing about this. There is a single bed which looks like it came straight from my grandmother’s house. The two of us are not going to be sleeping together.”

Finn sits in the cracked leather armchair and kicks his heels up on the coffee table. He’s only going to add to the scuffs and chips in the cheap wood, but he doesn’t seem to care. “Ava, this is a prostitute motel. Rooms with one bed are all they have.”

I run my hands down my face, groaning as I sit on the edge of the bed. I look around the room, trying not to let the peeling wallpaper bother me. As I take in the white bars of the headboard, I regret booking this motel.

We have to make the best of a horrible situation. It’s too late to find somewhere else for the night.

“How many people do you think have been handcuffed to those bars?” Finn asks, nodding to the headboard. “I’m betting that there’s been at least one a night since the motel opened.”

“Well, damn.” I put the bag of guns on the floor and tuck it under the bed. “It looks like we’re about to break that streak.”

The corner of his mouth tips up, and a small dimple appears in his right cheek. “Damn shame.”

“Not the handcuff type.” I shrug, taking my sunglasses off the top of my head where they were pushed hours ago and setting them down on the nightstand. “More of a silk restraints kind of girl.”

Finn coughs, his face going red. “Good to know, I guess. Do you tell all of your fake fiancés that?”

“Only the ones I’m never going to sleep with,” I say with a sweet smile as I get up and crouch near my suitcase.

Opening it, I rummage through it until I find a pair of linen shorts and an oversized black t-shirt. “So, tell me, jailbird, what did you miss the most while you were in prison?”

Finn shrugs and links his hands together behind his head, making his muscled torso press against the thin gray shirt he wears.

Heat floods my core as I stare at him for a couple of seconds too long.

“Come on, there has to be something that you missed more than anything else.”

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