Page 36 of Underground Prince

I persisted. “I was handling—”

“No.”

This time he faced me, a dark knight in the bedroom, his hands suspended at his sides as if itching for swords to draw.

“You don’t know when to back down, do you?” He remained at a standstill, and true to his statement, I didn’t back down.

“I wasn’t afraid,” I said.

“Then you’re even worse off than I thought.”

My shoulders rose. “I resent—”

He latched on to one of my arms with a lithe, deadly ease and pulled it to his jeans.

“Hey!” I resisted, but it did nothing to stop him.

Theo wove my arm around to his back so my nose was nearly buried in his neck, and his warmth, unlike Jake, was all-enveloping and everything. Adrenaline pumped through my veins from witnessing the showdown between Theo and Jake and I wanted to release it all at once, on top of him. It was a minuscule of a second, a quick thought that appeared the instant my chest hit his. Until my fingers touched upon cold metal.

“This is why,” he said, his breath tickling the hairs around my cheek as he held me against him, pressing my hand to gun at his back.

My mouth worked, for once rendered speechless. “That’s a…that’s…”

“A weapon. Yes.” He let go abruptly, and I lost my balance.

Angry at showing any sort of weakness in front of him, even a little stagger, I said, “You didn’t have that at our last scuffle.”

He thought for a moment before saying, “I had it. You just didn’t see it.”

I remembered him blocking me, pressing me against the wall during that throw-down on my very first day at work. I felt every inch of him then, his back, his thighs, so warm he warped my air and I breathed him. I was so attuned I would’ve felt the hard length of a gun digging into my stomach, and I didn’t then. But…

Was that because it was already in his hand?

“This is the world you’re in now, Scarlet,” he said. “This isn’t a job serving tables at restaurants. There’s no management, HR, or any corporate shield that could protect you. No law.”

“I know.” I shook my head, clearing my thoughts. “Verily—”

“Do you?” He drew the gun, laying it flat in his palm as he showed it to me. I had no clue what type of gun it was. All I knew was that it was black and shining. Lethal.

“I see it on your face,” he said in a near-whisper. “How you look at this piece in my hands. You’re tracking every part of it, calculating the weight, shape, the feel of it on my skin. You’re craving it, Scarlet.”

I forced my gaze up to his. “And that means what, exactly? I have a shitty poker face?”

Theo barked a laugh, and coming from his throat it sounded rough and untamed.

He spun the gun around in his hand and it disappeared behind his back as he slid it into his jeans and under his shirt. “It means you’re close to the breaking point.”

“You don’t know me.”

“I understand more about you than you think.”

“You have it wrong, Theo.” My voice went gravelly, but with practiced resistance I fought it back. “There won’t be any collapse for me.”

“Scarlet,” he said in a tone too old for his years. “I am the person standing between you and your downfall. Trust me on this.”

Theo could be exactly right. With one curl of a finger, he could draw me further into his world, never to return to mine. Or, I could ignore the lure and turn away. Turn back. To a step-by-step, paint by numbers life where everything looked normal and true, but wasn’t. My hand, always held onto by another before, was empty.

“Really?” I asked. “Because last I checked you were throwing me out on my ass.”

---