Page 55 of Pretty Threats

I’ve got shit to do myself but nothing that can’t wait. I want to initiate more touching outside the bedroom while we’re alone, so we can push forward. But in her position, I’d be pretty fucking irritated if I’d said I wanted to get a bunch of shit done, and someone interrupted me to touch me with no good end game of sex in sight.

My best option is to position myself strategically. That way I’m not intruding, but I’m close enough to make a move if the opportunity presents itself. I grab my laptop and notice I’ve got a secure message ordering me to call in using a burn phone.

After I grab one of the burners from upstairs, I get C when I make the call. He instructs me to get intel on an organization that’s sniffing around an area of Maryland the Crue uses as part of its route to Florida. My job is to clean up video footage and run recognition software to identify the players. Should be a couple of hours work at most.

23

KILLIAN

Raine spends an hour working on her schedule changes. She’s gotta make a couple of calls, too, so I grab her phone and give it to her. That’s the princess treatment, right? Another hour of this, and I’ll be ready to play the monarch with his slave girl again. That game was a lot more fun.

“Finished,” she says triumphantly. “That was easier than I thought. The program director had already made some calls, so easy peasy lemon squeezy.”

If anyone else said “easy peasy lemon squeezy,” I might punch them in the fucking mouth. But from her delicious lips, it sounds cute.

I still arch a skeptical brow, which makes her laugh.

“That’s from my favorite sports movie of all time,” she says with a wink as she turns on the barstool.

I turn too, so her knees are between mine. Then, I smooth her hair down in a made-to-look-casual move. It’s silky soft despite its wild state.

“We did a number on your hair last night.”

“Did we?” She holds up her phone and uses the camera to check herself out. “Oh, my God. Wow.” Then she laughs, sets her phone back on the counter, and finger combs her hair. “Good thing it’s just us.”

I’m working out my next move, but she’s apparently doing the same because she pushes down on my knee so she can swing hers around and hop down.

“I need a shower, and then I have to go to Columbus Tower to meet Owen.”

Owen. I don’t want her on a first-name basis with her fucking idol.

“I’ll come along.”

“Not this time,” she says. “It’s a closed meeting for Owen and the assistant director that I get to sit in on.”

“If he sees me, he might let me in. After all, I’ve got the exact face he’s looking for. And I’m your boyfriend.”

Halfway to the back hall, she freezes and turns around. “Yeah, about that…”

“Uh-huh?”

“Why did you lie?”

“So word will get around, and assholes won’t hit on you and end up on my hit list.”

Her brows furrow. “When you say end up on your hit list, that’s a figure of speech, right?”

I shake my head.

“Killian, don’t start this. This isn’t high school where being the toughest guy in school makes you cool, and you can get away with things because everyone knows who your family is. If you start behaving like a thug here, you’ll ruin both our futures. I’m not going to let that happen.”

Raine trying to set me straight on things is a good sign. Negotiations. Compromises. Futures being tied together. From what I’ve been forced to casually observe, that’s the bread and butter of intimate relationships.

Raine folds her arms across her chest. “Killian, you’re hearing me, right? No violence. That’s not happening.”

“Out of curiosity, how do you think you would stop me?”

“Don’t push me.”

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