Page 74 of Ruthless Scoundrel
“Or I know how topretendto have manners,” I say.
She narrows her eyes. “It’s the same thing.”
“I beg to differ.”
She sighs, exasperated. “Oh?”
“Knowing what manners are and being able to fake them is very much different fromrespectingwhy those manners exist.”
“You’re right.” She looks off into the distance for a moment, then glances at me. “Fuck you.”
“What a filthy mouth.” I grin. “Maybe we will tonight.”
She growls in frustration as her scent shifts. “You’re so vulgar.”
“I think you secretly adore it,” I whisper.
Her cheeks flush with color. “You’re delusional.”
“Then why are you aroused?”
She glares at me and my smile grows. She can’t deny it, and we both know it.
Sailors lower the gangplank and Alejandra ushers us off her ship. Some of the Men wave goodbye to Reina and she—being the little brat that she is—smiles and waves back, sometimes blowing a kiss, too. I want to catch all the imaginary kisses and hoard them for myself.
What a stupid thought.
The streets of Alvara come back to me easily, despite some of the storefronts having changed in the last two years. No one pays any heed to the man escorting a prisoner, since bounty hunting is a common enough profession, especially in port towns.
We make it to Alejandra’s suggested stop, the Sly Sailor, and it is indeed reasonable to bed down. Just one silver for a room and a meal, breaking one of our gold down to nineteen silver.
The room is…barely acceptable. But it’s better than a hammock in a hold shared with thirty other sailors. Now I have Reina to myself again.
The meal in the dining room is fish soup and fresh bread, which Reina devours. I love seeing her eat well. She was so slight before, and even with our dietary restrictions while traveling, she’s putting on muscle and weight that is sorely needed. Her mother kept her much too thin.
And “much too” many other things. Much too secluded. Much too untrained.
Reina flops down on the single mattress bed after dinner and holds up her wrist as she stares at me. “I’m ready for bed.”
Those words have an unnecessary amount of heat pumping through my veins. I try to ignore it as I pull the key from its new hiding spot in my back pocket. She watches me with bated breath as I hold her wrists and insert the key. When the manacle comes free of her right wrist, I let my thumb smooth over her scarred skin. She shudders at the touch and blue fire flares in her gaze.
I tap the magus lamp and cut the flow of magic to the crystal, casting us into darkness. The window is boarded, and the only light is the sparse fire from the hearth beyond our door. Reina’s eyes dance with her magic, and mine shimmers across her skin.
“Are you going to tell me the truth now?” she asks.
The knot in my gut tightens. “Not tonight.”
“Why not? You said as soon as—”
“We’re too exposed. Do you want to be hunted?”
Her face hardens. “Perhaps.”
I clamp the other manacle on my left wrist and crawl over her onto the mattress. She tries to keep space between us, but I refuse to let her. She didn’t like my answer. I didn’t like hers.
She’s mine.
No one will hunt us. I’ll end anyone who tries.
