Page 135 of Deviant

“I’ll wear my own fucking clothes.”

I rummage through my bag and find a clean black t-shirt and jeans to wear.

“Are you angry at me or something?” she asks, her perfectly manicured brows joining at the center of her forehead.

“Why would I be angry at you?”

“I don’t know. You just sound like you are. You look like it too.”

“If I’m angry at anything, it’s the current situation we find ourselves in,” I lie. “I don’t like people ordering me around. Especially fuckers who want to kill me just for kicks,” I fume.

“Hey, hey, hey,” she says, quickly coming over to me and placing her palms over my bare chest, scorching it with her gentle touch.

“We’ll get through this. Together.”

Her face looks like a beautiful painting I’d like to tear up with my teeth. But as I breathe her in, all clean and showery fresh, my anger subsides long enough to take in her new appearance. In tight jeans and a fitted top, with her chestnut hair pulled up into a bun, she looks so different from the girl who used to wear summer dresses just to look all innocent and shit.

“You decided to wear their clothes?” I mutter as I continue to drink her in.

“While in Rome, I guess,” she replies with a shrug, her cheeks beginning to pink with the way I can’t seem to take my eyes off her.

She looks good.

Real good.

Too fucking good for the pricks waiting for us downstairs. However, since time is short, I can’t order her to change into something else, though I doubt she would comply to my demand, no matter how hard I insisted. Knowing Rowen, she would just march her sweet ass in those tight jeans downstairs, without sparing me a second thought.

“I thought you said we had somewhere to be?” I all but growl. “I can’t get dressed with your hands on me.”

“Oh, sorry,” she says, pulling her arms back to her side. When I drop the towel in front of her, she quickly turns around.

“Is all that modesty for your benefit or mine? Because, if I recall correctly, you weren’t so shy last night,” I remind with a chuckle, pulling my pants up, deciding on going commando tonight.

“Can you please just hurry? I don’t want to be late,” she says instead of responding to my taunt.

After I’ve pulled a black T-shirt over my head and put on my boots, I twirl her around to face me again.

“There. I’m dressed. Satisfied?”

After a quick scan of my clothes, her gaze returns to my face, lingering on my lips for longer than she should. If we’re on the clock, then she really shouldn’t be looking at me like she wants to kiss me. And by the way her tongue licks her parched lips, that’s exactly what’s on her mind right now.

Roe has a one-track mind, I’ll give her that.

But since now is not the time to indulge her fantasies—or mine for that matter—I take a step back away from her before I’m tempted to change my mind.

“If you’re quite done eye-fucking me, best we be on our way,” I state, grabbing her hand in mine and pulling her out of the room.

Five minutes later, Rowen is still blushing profusely when we find the dining room downstairs. Everyone is already in their seats around a large dining table that is filled to the brim with mouthwatering food.

“What do you think? Are they fattening us up before the slaughter?” Andy whispers as I settle down beside him, clearly sharing my distrust of the over-the-top meal.

There’s enough food here to feed a small country, let alone the twelve of us.

And as the seconds pass, I see that everyone is thinking the same thing, no one daring to place a speck of food on their plates, too afraid it might be poisoned.

I’m not sure how long we stay there, just silently staring at each other, before Henry finally makes an appearance. Though we’ve all established that he’s blind, somehow, he still knows that not one of us has touched our meal.

“Is the food not to your liking?” he asks, but when no one answers, he lets out a disappointed sigh. “Well then… let me remedy any misgivings you might have about the feats we have prepared in your honor this evening.” He then picks up a small bell from the table and starts ringing it until Five and Seven appear in the room. “It would seem that our guests do not trust us yet. Can you please assure them that the food was made with proper care and that no harm will come to them by our hand?”

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