Page 35 of Demons

“Yeah,” I agreed, then took a drink from my glass, keeping my gaze straight ahead.

Silence. I loved it, but I knew it made others nervous. It was making her question my mood. If I was angry. That was the point. She’d made a decision; now, she could deal with the consequences.

“The Big A is really nice,” she said nervously.

I took the cigarette from my lips. “You have low expectations.”

The sound of her shifting her feet was cute. Let her squirm.

“I, uh, guess compared to Churchill Downs, it pales in comparison.”

That it did. I said nothing. Seconds ticked by, and I was growing more amused with each one that passed.

“Well, I … okay, I just wanted to let you know I was back,” she said.

I took the last pull from my cigarette, then put it out in the ashtray beside me. “You did.”

It was difficult not to look at her. Check and make sure she was truly okay. I would do that later when she slept. For now, she needed to be punished.

Her footsteps faded as she walked back inside—I assumed to her room. She’d need dinner. I’d order that for her before I left for the evening. I hadn’t decided if I was going to go to Cressida or just join her brother for a few more hands of cards. I considered a movie. Something I could do alone.

I reached for my phone and sent a text to the concierge, letting them know exactly what to have brought up to the room for her dinner. There was a limit to the punishment I could give her. The part of me that wanted to protect her was stronger than the cruelty that always seemed to be the majority of what my soul had been forged from.

Perhaps a movie with Cressida. Something with nudity and sex. She could suck my cock while I watched. That sounded moderately appealing. In the dark, I could allow my imagination its free rein. The mouth I sank my dick into would belong on another face. A sweet one with very little makeup with big lips and pretty doe eyes. Fuck. I was getting hard. Had to stop thinking about her like that. I’d shatter her if I touched her, and I wouldn’t allow a soul to harm her. Even me.

“And they’re into the stretch! Bloodline is moving on the outside. Taze is coming up to the neck of Gold Strike and Bloodline! And Bloodline takes the lead as they come to the final furlong. Gold Strike is moving up into second, and Taze is falling back while Bilthard takes third. Bloodline shoots out ahead with a three-length lead! Bloodline is getting away! And then it’s Gold Strike and Bilthard and Long Stride, and Bloodline has a six-length lead! It is Bloodline to win the Belmont Derby Invitational! Under Capri Jewel, who picks up her first win at the Belmont here at The Big A.”

• Sixteen •

“You’ll have to get more creative, little doll.”

Capri

The whirlwind of excitement, adrenaline, and photos all seemed to sink in as I sat in the back of the limo that was taking Thatcher and me back to the hotel. The energy that had been pumping through me was now slowly escaping, and I began to feel the fatigue. Which was a good thing with the silence that had been going on with Thatcher and me since Thursday. I’d only seen him a handful of times and for brief moments. He hadn’t spoken to me, except when it was at the track and only about Bloodline.

I’d stopped trying to figure him out. It was impossible. He was the most difficult human I had ever met. If he wanted to ignore me, then so be it. I’d just won the Belmont Derby Invitational, and I wasn’t letting him ruin it for me.

“What do you want to eat?” he asked me, breaking the silence I’d started getting accustomed to with him.

I turned my head to look at him. Seeing him in the black-pearl snap, belt, and jeans today had taken my breath for a moment. He cleaned up too well. But then he’d not spoken to me the rest of the day, and I’d gotten over it.

“Doesn’t matter,” I replied, then looked back out the window again.

“Yeah, it does. You just won a race and made your biggest purse cut of seventy-five thousand dollars, and you haven’t had what you wanted to eat in weeks.”

I was still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I’d made so much money. He was right. This was the biggest purse I’d ever won. I felt guilty for taking ten percent because I was sure just about any jockey could have ridden Bloodline and won. He was a born winner.

“Honestly, I really do not care what I eat,” I told him.

“Nashville buffalo chicken pizza with extra sauce or baked lobster mac and cheese?”

I swung my head back around to look at him. How did he know my two favorite meals? He’d paid for our pizza and my salad, but that was very specific. The lobster mac and cheese was also from a local restaurant back home, and he’d never paid for my meal there. Was what I ate in my background check? Besides, we weren’t in Madison. I couldn’t order either of those items.

“I doubt they will be easy to find here,” I said instead of asking him how he knew my two cheat meals. Which was hard not to do because I wanted to know.

The corner of his lips twitched. “I can make either happen. Or both. You tell me, or I’ll have both delivered to the suite.”

I shook my head in confusion. “How?”

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