Page 25 of Cruel Debts
Hey, it wasn’t like I asked for this shit to happen to me. I just wanted to find my brother, that’s all.
“Talk,” I demanded, arms crossed over my chest as he took the seat Asher had vacated, only a foot and a half from where I was.
“Your parents called me weeks ago,” he admitted, his eyes on the table, perhaps tracing the wood grain. “I told them I’d find you and get you home safe. So when the sun rises, I’m putting you on the first bus back home?—”
“Like hell you are.” I slid off the table, determination coursing through my veins. “I came here to find my brother, dammit, and I’m not leaving until I do. I told my father that, and now I’m telling you.”
I jammed a finger into his chest, still bare, and it must’ve woken up his awareness, because he was quick to throw that tee back on his torso and yank it over his perfectly sculpted abs.
Shame. It was a nice view while it lasted.
“Listen here, little girl, you’re?—”
I slid into his lap, something I’d wanted to do for years now, and threw my hands on his shoulders, forcing him to look at me, or look at my tits—either would get me the desired results, really. But I’d appreciate the attention on my face. “I need you to open your fucking ears and listen to me when I say this, Liam, but I’m not going anywhere. I told my dad that last time I called him, and I’ll tell you the same thing. You can call them and tell them you found me, but I’m not leaving.” I leaned in closer, our noses almost touching, and smiled when I heard him suck in a quick breath. “And I’m not a little girl anymore, big guy. I paint naked people in a sex club two nights a week for a living.”
“I’m aware,” he squeaked, clearing his throat to save face. “Don’t remind me. You shouldn’t be in a place like that, let alone work in one.” His hands settled on my waist and lifted me carefully from his lap, setting me on the table again. “Don’t go asking for more trouble, Trinity. Keehn is dead and gone, and no amount of stubborn bullshit you can pull out of your ass is going to change that.”
“Did you see a body? Because I didn’t.” Arguing my case with my parents wasn’t as hard as arguing it with a man who I nowknew had killed more than just wartime enemies. A man I knew was capable of killing again. Who made murder his profession.
And here I was, pushing his buttons.
Classic. Dangerous. Stupid.
Very, very stupid.
He glanced away, his tone and demeanor telling me he was very much done with this conversation. “Your parents called me. Do you know how worried they had to be to callme?”
He was right, of course. But it wasn’t my fault. I didn’t exactly have my parents’ numbers memorized, and when I lost my wallet and phone in the pickpocketing incident, I was too ashamed to reach out.
But now, the world had presented me with another option.
My grin widened.
“I have a counter-offer.” Sliding off the table, my feet barely made a sound as I walked around the back of his chair, hands sliding over his shoulders seductively, like I’d seen some of the girls in the club do to clients. “You agreed to find me, and you have. You also agreed to protect the girl from the club. You did not agree to take me home to my parents. My parents must trust you, or they wouldn’t have asked you to find me.” I gripped his chin and yanked his head back, the top of his scalp nestled between my tits as I stared down at his shocked face. “So I propose you keep me here, where I’ll be safe.”
His eyes widened as he stared up at me in abject horror. “Not a chance, Trinity McCoy. Put that bad idea out of your head right now.”
Well, it was worth a shot.I shrugged off his insistence and kept going, trying my damndest to slide back into his lap again.
I knew he wanted me. I’d seen the way all three of them had ogled me in the club.
They only wanted me until they knew I was their best friend’s sister. Then, all of a sudden, I was like poison?
Fuck that.
“Liam, I?—”
In a flash, he was standing, and my back was on the tabletop, hands pressed to the unyielding wood as he leaned over me and made himself as threatening as possible. “In this place, I’m the Sentry, Trinity. I’m dangerous.” He leaned closer, his hot breath fanning on my skin, igniting me in all the best ways, though I doubted that was his intention. “I’m the monster your parents worry you’ll run into in a dark alley.” Closer still, until his forehead was damn near against mine. “You’re not safe here, in this dorm, with people like us.”
I had nowhere else to go, nowhere to run.
Not that I wanted to.
“You’d never hurt me,” I whispered, jutting my chin out to show him just how little concern I had for my safety where he was concerned. “You promised my brother.”
And just like that, the magic words I had expected to turn the tide in my favor were like a bath in ice water on a hot summer day. He stiffened, pulling back like my nearness electrocuted him. The chill in the air was palpable now, thick and heavy and unwanted.
Of course I’d go and fuck it up.
