Page 52 of Pretty Threats

I nod.

He rises all the way to a standing position and walks off the end of the bed.

“Killian? Is there tea?”

“I think so,” he says as he leaves the bedroom.

A few minutes later, he returns with a steaming cup.

I sit up and take a sip. There’s honey, liquor, and a splash of milk in it. It’s as delicious as my matcha latte from Espresso Yourself. “It’s great. Want some?” I extend the cup toward him.

He shakes his head. “I need to feed you. What do you want to eat?”

After another big swallow, I tilt my head. “I don’t know what you have.” I don’t suggest I’ll go out and see. For some reason, it’s important to him that he gets to keep me naked in his bed, and I want to see how things play out if I go along with it.

He yawns and stretches, then he turns and walks out again. I’m not the only one who’s naked, but somehow it’s different. Killian’s comfortable walking around with no clothes. I don’t know if that’s because he’s so confident or if it’s because he’s an athlete used to locker rooms. Maybe it’s even the sociopath part of him that makes him not care. He could feel no shame in being naked because he’s shameless. Again, I realize it must be liberating to be him.

I prop the pillows against the headboard and sit back, drinking my tea until it’s gone.

Killian returns, pulls on a pair of boxer-briefs and a t-shirt and then scoops me up in my sheet and carries me out to the seating area with the black couch. He’s pushed it back from the coffee table where there’s a world-class charcuterie board assembled.

Meats, cheeses, crackers, slices of brown bread, spicy mustard, fruit jams, assorted nuts, and grapes and dried apricots. He sets me on a cushion on the floor next to the table. Then he sits on a chair across from me.

I pull the sheet around my shoulders, but as soon as I reach for food, the sheet starts to slide down. “Aren’t you going to eat?”

“I did.”

After wrapping the bedsheet across my chest, I knot it on one side. That lasts for a few minutes as I dig into the amazing spread. “This is so good. You know what would be really cozy? If we had fairy lights and candles, so we could turn off the overhead lights.”

He rises. “We’ve got candles, I think. Not for light, but for… other things.” Killian goes to the kitchen and searches the pantry.

I watch with a small smile as he moves on to check the cabinets. Is he actually searching for candles right now? That’s sweet AF. What is going on with him?

He returns with several dark red soy pillar candles and matches. After he creates a half circle around the board, he turns off the lights. Even though the blood red candles make it seem like we’re about to do an occult ritual, the flickering flames create coziness. Give me twinkling lights in a dark room, and I’m gone.

I get tired of having to re-secure the sheet, so I let it pool around my waist. He’s seen me bare. What’s the point of fighting to cover up?

For a long time, I eat, the flames dance, and he watches me.

When I’m finished, I pull the sheet back around me like a little tent and rest back against the couch. “That was delicious. So what’s next in your “Raine is my sex slave” fantasy?”

There’s a brief smile on his face, but it disappears after a few moments. “You’ve been good, so you get to do whatever you want for a while.”

“I need to work.”

He nods. “Wait here.”

“Killian?”

He turns back toward me.

“In your fantasy, am I paralyzed?”

“No. Why?”

“Well, I can walk. But you carried me into your bedroom, dragged me around the bed like a rag doll, and then carried me out here.”

His broad shoulders rise and fall as he chuckles. “I never had a toy doll as a kid. It’s too bad because you sure are fun to play with.”

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