Page 44 of King of Deception

“Where are you?” I smile nipping at my lip. After talking with Mason, it’s just nice to hear his voice.

“Outside your apartment door, but you’re not answering.”

I give a half sigh even as my smile grows. “Mrs. Gillette is going to have a fit.”

“Who’s that?”

“My next-door neighbor. People have started banging on my door several times a day.” I lean back in the chair. “She’s going to file a complaint for sure.”

“Now that is a problem I can take care of for you,” he rumbles into the phone. “And you still haven’t told me where you are.”

“Why do you want to know?” I know I’m being difficult. But it’s fun. I might like the way Gris chases me.

“Because I want to kiss you.”

“Good answer. I’m down by the pool.”

He hangs up without a word and I stare at my phone. That little game of cat and mouse ended quickly. But a minute later, Gris is striding across the pool deck.

I’m in a small white bikini, covered in sunblock, and sweaty from the sun. My hair is in a high ponytail and my feet are bare. I look nothing like the polished woman in heels and a silk gown, and I’m intimately aware that he is draped in an expensive Armani suit.

He looks every inch the powerful aristocrat as he strides toward me. I touch my messy ponytail, nipping at my lip. “I wasn’t expecting guests.”

He keeps moving toward me. “I noticed.”

Does he not like it? “I can…”

“You look hot as fuck, Bella. I’m just glad there aren’t any other men out here, I’d have to kill them.”

My teeth slip off my lip as I smile. “Oh.” Does he know what he does to me when he says stuff like that? Appreciates me like that? “Is that why you’re here? To kill random men?”

He chuckles. “No. I only came to run my hands over your skin. And the fact that you’re in a bathing suit makes that very easy.”

“Gris,” I lightly groan. He’s going to wreck me, talking like that. “This is so complicated…”

And I promised my brother I’d pretend at being engaged for a few more days at least. I can’t keep letting Gris in my bed. Can I?

Because while I didn’t feel that guilty about Preston, I kind of hate that I’m going behind my brother’s back. Or should I say brothers’ backs. I don’t think Luke would be very happy either if he knew what Gris and I have been doing.

“It’s not complicated, princess. Not for you.”

“Not for me?”

“You let me touch you all over. I get to listen to your sweet little moans and your begging cries and then…” His lips press into a firm line. “You let me be your soldier.”

I frown. That requires a certain level of trust we don’t have. I trust him with my body, I know that. But my life, I’m not so sure.

And the lives of my brothers, particularly Mason. I know for a fact that Gris is the last man I can trust. “You can’t be my soldier if the person you most want to fight is Mason.” I turn away to look at the pool.

He’s silent, but he sits on the edge of my chair, his hand running up my leg until it reaches the edge of my bikini bottom. He’s so close to my… I feel my body tense up, my muscles flexing in a way that makes me ache between my legs.

And then he slides his hand over my mound, the tips of his fingers just grazing my clit. “Are you trying to say I have to choose my family or yours?”

I shake my head, my hair brushing my shoulders. “I’d never ask you to do that. They’re your family.”

He leans in then, kissing that spot behind my ear that makes me shiver. “You wouldn’t?”

“They’re your partners, Gris. Your brothers. Family should stay together. Luke should…” I stop. I’m saying too much.

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