Page 66 of Vengeful Lies

She finds something and lifts it toward the camera, showing me what she has.

A condom.

“Guess you won’t be needing this,” she says, opening it and throwing it to the floor so it can’t be used again. Not that I ever bring women to my apartment. That condom has probably been sitting in there for years.

She rolls over with an exhausted sigh. “Where are my guns?” she asks, getting to her knees and eyeing the camera.

“Meet me at the dress shop, and I may give you one,” I tell her. She rolls her eyes, and I can’t help the smile that teases my lips.

Her apartment door opens, drawing me back to where I am, and her roommate is startled when she almost runs into me.

I drop my phone into my jacket pocket, aware of where I have to go next.

“Oh, she isn’t here,” she tells me before I can say a word.

“I know.”

“Okay, then.” She steps into the hallway, locks the door, double-checks that it’s locked, then walks around me.

She’s a strange one.

I pull my phone back out and check the cameras again. Jewel is lazily curled up on my bed, playing with the remote and trying to get the TV working.

“Jewel Diamond, we have an appointment today,” I remind her.

“I don’t give a fuck. I have my period. I hurt. And I still don’t like you, asshole.” She flips me off.

I crack my neck from side to side. It’s about time I teach her a lesson… in obedience.

When I arrive at my apartment, I find her right where I saw her last—on my bed. I go to speak, then notice she’s fallen asleep. I drop the plastic bag of chocolate, pads, tampons, and something called period undies, which I don’t entirely understand the need for, onto the dresser. As much as I want to punish her for being a brat, I still feel a pang of guilt—notsomething I’ve ever felt before—for how I spoke to her last night.

A soft snore leaves her.

Fucking hell.

I pull off one of her boots, and when I get to the second, she startles awake, kicks me in the chest, and basically crawls up the bed, ready for a fight.

“What the actual fuck?” I shout, rubbing my chest.

She lays her hand over her heart and starts breathing heavily. “You scared me.”

“Yeah, well, you broke into my house and fell asleep in my bed. What are you, Goldilocks or something?”

She slides back down the bed with a yawn. “I was tired. I didn’t sleep well, and your bed is comfy.”

My smile doesn’t meet my eyes as I continue to attempt to be… nice.

“Next time, take your fucking boots off,” I grumble. I pick up the plastic bag and dump it in front of her. I begin undoing the buttons of my shirt. There’s no mark from when she kicked me, but it doesn’t feel entirely clean now.

“What’s this?” she asks curiously.

I peel off my shirt as I say, “You said you had your period and you were tired, so I brought some snacks.”

“And tampons and pads and… are those period undies?” She looks up at me in shock. Her mouth falls open as her gaze scans over my body. I flex my muscles for her, and she looks away as if uninterested.

Smirking, I comment, “Well, I assumed by your pissy mood it must be bad.”

A ruthless smile appears on her face. “You’re just saying that to really piss me off, aren’t you?”

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