Page 46 of Underground Prince

“Not—” Damn it. “Nope.”

He let go of my hair, and as it fell I felt the tingles again. “You were asking for me.”

“I was?”

He indicated the bartender.

I set my beer down and wiped my hands on my jeans. “Does he have an earpiece that connects right to your headquarters or something?”

I almost, almost got the other side of his mouth to lift up. “When I’m asked for, certain people know how to find me.”

“I wasn’t asking after you or anything,” I said, scoffing for effect. “I was in the area”—not—“and found myself in this bar and suddenly remembered”—not—“that this was your regular place. And so I asked, offhand, where you were.”

“Scarlet.” His hand drifted across my jaw, his fingers warm and dry and electrifying. “You want me for something. What is it?”

This Theo, the one who seduced with scarcely a word, was who I was looking for. Not the furious Sax, the one who spit truth and warnings, concealed weapons and marked time and duty as his nights. This man wore two faces, but the mask he donned now was merely that—a cover. His contained, calculated self swam behind those eerie caramel eyes as he regarded me, and his facade depended on my answer.

“I can’t turn back.” My voice sounded hoarse, underused.

“I understood that as soon as you left,” he murmured, yet through the music surrounding us, I heard him.

“Were you hoping I’d make this decision?”

He dropped his hand, dragged his beer across the bar. “No.”

My hand hovered over his forearm, wanting to touch, but I chickened out. My eyes were more daring, searching his lower back, wondering if it was there. He was wearing a blazer, so I couldn't tell.

“But I’m not going to stop you,” he said.

“Well.” I mimicked his stance—elbows on bar, scanning bottles. “I wouldn’t listen to you anyway.”

“Tell me,” he said after a time. “If you had the choice between a cannonball into freezing waters or a dive, which would you choose?”

Turned out I was getting the Saxon Riddler today. “Either way I’d be going in,” I said.

“Yes.”

I smirked and lifted my beer to my lips. “You should know me by now, Theo Saxon.”

“Come with me.”

He was up and walking to the entrance before I could blink. I threw a few bills onto the bar, scattering them, before I followed. Theo was at the curb by the time I exited, though I could only have been a few seconds behind him.

A black, shiny car was waiting, but this time it wasn’t a town car. There was very little automobile knowledge in my mind, but even my novice encounters could pick this baby out.

I walked around to the hood. “Is this a…is this a Bentley?”

“Passenger door’s this way,” Theo said.

“You’re such a liar,” I said as I returned to him. “In your denim and your t-shirts.”

He opened the door as an answer, and I smiled ever so beatifically at him as I slid in. When he came in beside me, muttering something to the driver, I noticed that it wasn’t only a blazer he was wearing, but a suit without a tie. It hugged his shoulders and tapered down his body, and with those gorgeous lines, I wondered about the kind of chest it hid.

I burrowed into the soft, delicate leather which I couldn’t help but stroke, glancing all about me and convincing myself that yes, I was traveling in a luxurious car with a beautiful but peevish man and going to places unknown. Unknown was my favorite word.

“You’ll have to put your hair back,” Theo said, breaking me out of my eager daydreams.

“Hmm?”

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