Page 41 of The Deal

“You have a gym here?” I ask, wrapping my arms around myself. I’m glad he told me to grab a coat. It’s unusually cold tonight.

“I do.”

I’ve only seen a handful of rooms since I’ve been here. I’m yet to get a full tour of his expansive home, and honestly, I doubt I ever will.

“How often do you use it?”

“Every day.”

“I haven’t seen you use it. You’re still beside me in bed when I wake.”

He clears his throat, his jaw tightening slightly. “That’s because I’ve been tied up the past few mornings, keeping guard over a certain pain in my arse.”

That makes me smile. I like that my presence here is putting him out. It’s retribution … a form of karma.

We reach the boundary of the property and turn to move along the back wall. “That’s the tree I climbed … the one that got me over the wall,” I say as we pass it.

He stops abruptly as his eyes slowly move from me to the towering tree before us. I catch the subtle tic in his jaw when he tilts his head slightly to assess its soaring height.

“I’ll be getting that cut down tomorrow.”

I gasp. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“Watch me,” he says, shoving his hands deep into the pockets of his trousers as he starts to walk again.

I quickly catch up to him. “It’s a beautiful tree. It didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I beg to differ. It aided and abetted your escape.”

Instead of waking up to his ginormous, erect penis digging into my back this morning, I have the tip of his finger lightly poking my shoulder. “Chloe,” he grumbles in that gravelly morning voice I don’t hate. “Wake up.”

“Go away,” I murmur, slapping his hand.

“I said get up.”

“And I said no!”

“Don’t push me,bella. I’m not in the mood for your sass this morning.”

“Poor baby,” I say, turning my face into the pillow to hide my smile. Annoying him is quickly becoming the highlight of my day.

“One,” he growls, and my smile grows. “Two.”

“Oh, you can count … would you like a gold star?”

“Three.”

I yelp when I’m suddenly hoisted into the air and thrown over his shoulder. “What are you doing?” I screech, my voice rising in panic.

“It appears someone needs help waking up, and I have just the thing.”

He strides into the bathroom, and when he leans in to turn the shower tap on full blast, I start thrashing my body around. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“Watch me,” he retorts, his voice low with amusement, as he sets me down on my feet under the ice-cold spray.

He quickly steps back, slamming the glass door shutbehind him with a finality that leaves me both soaked and fuming.

“You lowdown, dirty snake,” I shriek as I reach for the door handle and tug on it, but he’s still holding it from the other side. “Let me out of here or so help me …”

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