Page 67 of Pay the Price

I don’t know why I’d said it, except that in that moment, it had felt true.

My phone buzzed from the nightstand and I picked it up to find a text from my dad.

This is childish, Daisy. You can’t ignore me forever.

Watch me, I thought, setting my phone back down.

He’d been texting and calling ever since the ground-breaking ceremony, but I had absolutely nothing to say to him.

I sighed and sat up slowly, then washed my face and brushed my teeth before heading downstairs.

I was happy to find the Beasts in the kitchen. It had been strange to wake up alone in Cassie’s apartment, Cassie already downstairs at the coffee shop. I’d only lived with the Beasts a couple of weeks before I’d been kidnapped, but it had been enough to reprogram my brain.

The truth was, I liked having them around. I could admit that now, even if I didn’t know what it meant.

“Morning, sunshine,” Wolf said. He was wearing jeans and one of his sleeveless T-shirts, and I was totally okay with the fact that he seemed to wear them like some kind of uniform. Who could be mad with all that ink on display, all those muscles, thesuper-sized package between his thighs? He handed me a cup of coffee. “Thought you might need this."

“And this,” Otis said, pointing to a glass of water and two Advil on the kitchen table with a bakery box from Cassie’s Cuppa.

“Ugh,” I said, taking the coffee and sliding into the chair across from Jace, “my heroes.”

I tried not to stare at Otis’ chest, bare over gray sweats, but it wasn’t easy. Apparently my body didn’t realize it was an unseemly hour for lust.

“Good morning,” I said.

Jace’s eye twitched. “Morning.”

I had no idea how he managed to make faded jeans and a slightly too-tight T-shirt look so good. Maybe it was the stubble that shadowed his brow? It was either that or the brooding.

Jace was always brooding. It was kind of his thing.

“How are you feeling?” Otis asked.

I felt my cheeks heat when I remembered the night before. Was he asking how I was feeling physically? Or was this about our sexcapades at the Velvet Rope?

“I have a headache,” I said. “And I’m dehydrated. So thanks for this.”

I downed the Advil and the entire glass of water, then leaned back in my chair with a sigh. I felt better already.

“Smoothie or pastries?” Wolf asked. He ran a hand through his hair and somehow managed to look sexy as fuck while also looking adorably nervous. “Or, you know, I could try to cook something, but no promises.”

I lifted the box on the pastries and eyed its delicious contents: an eclair with glossy black frosting, a bear claw, two raspberry-and-cheese pastries, a chocolate chocolate-chip muffin as big as my head, and a sticky bun with pecans and gooey caramel topping.

The smoothie would be better, healthier, and after all the alcohol I’d consumed last night, I could probably use the nutrients.

On the other hand, I’d just woken up after fucking two of my brother’s murderers in a sex club while the third one watched, so the “good for you” ship might have sailed.

I reached for the eclair. “Pastry.”

Jace stared as I bit into the chocolate-glazed dough. I didn’t think I was imagining the glint of triumph in his eyes.

He was corrupting me, in more ways than one.

They all were.

And it was getting harder and harder to fight it.

I sighed as the cream hit my tongue. The eclair had definitely been the right call.

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