Page 51 of Savage Princess

“Sorry.” Levin sets the food down, glancing over at me as he sits down. “It’s the big one, Elena.”

That gets my attention fully. I set my book aside, sitting upright in the bed. “Like—the last one you’ll need to play in?”

“If I win.” He rubs a hand across his mouth. “There’s enough money in this to facilitate us getting out of here. But there’s going to be men there I’ll need to keep an eye out for. These are going to be high-rollers, Elena, men who might remember me. And even if not, they’re not going to fall for our tricks so easily. You need to be on your guard. I want you to come in later, not with me. We’re going to get a hotel room there, so that you can come downstairs a little while after I’m already playing. I want it to seem like your idea, not a setup. It’s possible that Vasquez will even have a player there—in fact, I’m almost certain of it. So we need to be very, very careful.”

I nod, my stomach knotting as I listen. I haven’t gotten tired of the thrill of the game we’ve been playing, but if Vasquez might have someone there, that’s an entirely different problem. If he were to get ahold of me, that would mean falling into the trap that Diego has set.

“I’ll be careful,” I tell him quietly. “You don’t need to worry about me.”

“I always worry about you,” Levin says shortly, flipping open his container of food. “It’s my job to worry about you, Elena.”

I suck in a breath, pressing my lips together to keep from firing anything back at him. I can’t count the number of times he’s said something about me being hisjobin the last several days, and it feels as if it’s fraying at the very edges of my nerves.

He can pretend that I’m just a job, but I think at this point, we both know very well that it’s more than that.

The night is the same. Levin keeps watch while I sleep alone, and if he sleeps, he does it in the chair across the room, far away from me. I sleep restlessly, full of anxious, fitful dreams, and when we leave for the hotel in the morning, I feel exhausted.

It’s by far the most luxurious place we’ve stayed. I don’t dare ask how much the room has cut into our winnings, but a part of me doesn’t care. I feel constantly torn between a desire for us to earn our way out of here more slowly, so that I have more time with him and a slowly building realization that it doesn’t matter. However long it takes, it won’t be enough, and Levin won’t ever let himself give in completely to how he feels.

In the end, I’m just causing myself more pain, the longer it goes on.

Levin goes downstairs to scout out where the game will be held while I take a long, hot bath, soaking away the aches of what now feels like endless nights in uncomfortable beds and cramped showers. There was a time when the kind of toiletries I found in the bathroom wouldn’t have meant anything to me, but now I’m seized with an almost giddy delight when I find vanilla bath oil and luxury lotion sitting on the counter, next to a tub twice the size of some of the showers in the motels we’ve stayed in.

I run the water as hot as I can stand it, pouring the oil in and sinking into the tub until I’m covered up to my chin. I stay there until my fingers start to wrinkle, and I hear Levin come into the room. Then I finally get out, toweling off and wrapping it around me as I step out into the room.

He stops in his tracks when he sees me in only the fluffy white towel, my hair piled atop my head, and I see his jaw tighten. It sends a small thrill through me, because I know he still wants me. He can pretend all he wants that he doesn’t, but I know him too well now. I can see from the way he turns away from me, the stiffness in his shoulders, that he’s fighting it.

I just wish he’d stop trying so hard.

“Come down about an hour after me,” Levin says, setting the room key on the dresser as he glances back at me. “You’ll make more of an entrance that way. Go straight to the bar and get a drink, don’t bring me one for a little while. Make them wonder who you are, who you belong to.”

The last words send a thrill through me, even though I know he doesn’t mean it in any real way—not in any way that matters to us. I don’tbelongto him in reality, but it still sends a shiver down my spine, one that I hope he doesn’t see.

“I can do that,” I tell him quietly, going to sit on the edge of the bed. It sinks under me, the mattress soft as a cloud, and I find myself wondering if I have time for a nap. “And then once I do bring you a drink?”

“Be attentive, but not too much. Let them wonder a little if they win, if they might have a chance with you. These are men who like having power. They’ll like the idea that they might be able to steal you away from me if they win. If any of them come to the bar, flirt with them a little. The more of a chance they think they might have, the more distracted they’ll be.”

I hate the idea of flirting with any of these men, especially if they’re the type that Levin is describing—the kind of men who had been at the auction, who think that with enough power and money, they can own any woman they want. But if Levin wins, it’ll be the last time we do this.

“I’ve got it,” I tell him, knotting my hands in my lap. “It’ll be fine.” I’m not entirely sure if I’m trying to convince him or myself.

Levin nods. “This one isn’t as much of a sure thing as I’ve felt like the others were. I know what I’m doing—but so will these players. There’s a lot of money on the line.” He pauses, looking at me a little more closely. “I think you should try to get some rest before you need to get ready. You look exhausted, and you need to be alert.”

He’s right, even though I don’t want to admit it. I want to tell him that I’d sleep better if he’d come lay down next to me, but I have some pride left. He might have been able to make me beg for him to do all sorts of things to me that night he tied me up, but I’m not going to beg him for affection.

As keyed up and frustrated as I am, there’s no denying how comfortable the bed is. I end up falling asleep in seconds, and it’s getting dark outside when I wake up. Levin is on the sofa in the adjoining room, and he looks up as he hears me start to move, his senses on high alert as always.

I slip out of the bed, wrapping the towel around me again, and go to where the purple dress is hanging in the closet in its garment bag. I start to take it into the bathroom, and then I look at where Levin is sitting with his back to me, and I decide I don’t care.

If he wants to fight his desire for me, he can try. Our time is almost up, and I don’t want to make it easy for him.

I let the towel fall, unzipping the garment bag as I reach for a thin, silky black thong that we’d bought specifically so it wouldn’t show under the dress, and slip it on, bending over so that if Levin happened to look towards me, he’d get quite a view.

I’m not sure if he does look. I don’t glance back towards him, going through the motions as casually as if I’ve forgotten he’s there, but my pulse is beating a quick flurry in my throat, hoping he is.

I step into the dress, sliding the thin straps up over my arms. It’s a deep eggplant purple silk, with a low scooped back and a reinforced v-neckline that keeps me from having to wear a bra even though I’d typically need one. The v comes down to the bottom of my breasts, showing the slight curve beneath them and at the sides. There’s a slit on one side of the skirt that comes nearly up to my hip, just short of where the silky black material of my panties sits. It’s the sexiest dress we purchased, more so than the black dress, and not quite as much as the red one, if only because the color isn’t as vibrant.

It will, without a doubt, draw the eye of every man in the room, just as it’s meant to.

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