Page 59 of Point of No Return

I can’t help the smile that forms.She’s baiting me… and I’m more than tempted to bite.

“Deeper than you’ll ever be able to find the bottom of, Highness. But I’m happy to get you a black card if it’s money you desire.”

Charlotte’s hands tighten on my shoulder, and after spending most of the dance watching couples around us, she cranes her neck to look at me. Those green eyes are nearly emerald as they wander over me.

That’s it. Play with me.

“Josie already gave me one actually. This dress shouldn’t have made too much of a dent,” she taunts, and my attention drops to the tight red dress she has on tonight.

The fabric hugs her in all the right places, her slender hips and killer legs on perfect display. My eyes drift over the dark Prevyain tattoos decorating her arm and then finally down to my ring on her finger.

Something about the way it looks on her slender handdoessomething to me. Something it shouldn’t.Something it can’t.

I lean down, my hands smoothing her ringlets aside so my lips brush the side of her neck as I speak. “Spend my money all you want, Charlie. You’ll find there’s more than enough.”

Maybe for a second, she feels the tension too.

Her eyes drift closed, and her hand on my chest tightens. “You’re awfully confident, Benenati.”

I huff a laugh, and her eyes pop back open. Her gaze drags toward the Team brothers over my shoulder, and something in her demeanor shifts. Her eyes are cold, the fire gone, and the distance between us is growing by the second. She plasters on a smile, but I can see each stitch as she sews the image tight.

“You’d better get back before you’re missed.”

I don’t know how it happened. But somehow, I’m left even more confused by the end of the night than I was to begin with.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Charlotte

When 7:30 rolls around Monday morning, I’m still in bed. Normally, I wake as soon as I hear Skar come in for a change of clothes. If not earlier. But when sunlight streams in through the curtains and birds chirp loudly outside the window, my eyes finally flutter open.

Skar stands just inside the closet, yanking a white undershirt over his head. He’s freshly showered, his hair still damp and untamed. He casts a look my way, his frown just as deep-set as usual.

“Are you planning on sleeping through our visit to the office?”

I grumble, standing at attention as I quickly shuffle off the bed and calculate just how quickly I can get ready. “Why didn’t you wake me??”

He shrugs, running a hand through his wet hair and selecting a longer black coat today rather than a blazer. “First time I’ve seen you sleep through the night.”

I blink at him, startled as I stop at the edge of the bed: It’s true.

But how the hell does he know that?

“Fifteen minutes,” he tells me, tossing a clean towel my way, but I don’t miss the way his eyes linger on my bare legs. “Nice pjs.”

I’m only wearing a shirt, and it’s his-so it ought to be.Any clothes I had that weren’t buried in the deepest corners of my drawers are too small to sleep in. But his shirts? They come nearly to mid-thigh, showing just a sexy little tease of skin.

I cock a brow. “You like it? It’s vintage, I think.” I quip, grabbing the towel and strutting past him. And I can’t help the little extra sway I throw into my hips.

Showering and styling my hair takes less than ten minutes, and I quickly throw on a pair of clothes in order to catch Skar downstairs in time to take the car together. Unsurprisingly, Crew opens the car door for me, grinning when I beam at him.

“Good morning. I didn’t know you’d be joining us.”

Skar pries open the door on the other side with more force than necessary, getting in while Crew helps me up. “You forget you’re high profile now.”

The door shuts, and he climbs into the front seat. “Are all of your clients high-profile?” I ask through the partition as the car takes off.

“At the moment, I only work for you, Char,” he teases, but I can tell it’s all talk.

---