Page 86 of The Verdict

I stepped forward, slickness starting to coat my thighs. “Yes.”

He opened the door, and Dare’s lip twitched when he looked between us. They let me walk a few paces ahead of them down the hall, but I could still hear the low tones of their voices behind me.

“You smell like sex,” I heard Dare grumble.

“And you smell like jealousy.” I smiled at Rhys’s reply.

Chapter Eighteen

Merritt

The hotel was familiar. I peered out and up through the tinted windows, recognizing the white columns of the grand entrance. We’d come full circle, Rhys and me. Back to the place we’d met that first night.

“Ready?” Rhys met my gaze in the rearview and watched as I lowered my chin.

“I’ll be right behind you,” Dare said from the driver’s seat as Rhys got out. “Harm’s already inside.”

While we’d changed, Ty had set up the surveillance computers in the hotel room next to ours with Talon’s help. Meanwhile, Harm had immediately come here to case the building. Entrances. Exits. Parking. Layout.

Escapes.

The back door popped open, and Rhys’s hand appeared expectantly for mine. Our eyes met and formed a constellation of all the things that couldn’t be said. My fingers pressedto his, and even through the elbow-length silk gloves I wore to match my dress, I could still feel the heat of his touch.

Even though we had rooms set up in the hotel next door, we drove over for the appearance. Everything was for the appearance.

He tucked my hand into his elbow and escorted me inside. It seemed like nothing except the lack of Christmas decorations had changed, yet everything felt different. The last time I’d come here to meet Les, I’d been alone. Even with my job here and friends and a student’s father who wanted to date me… I was always alone because no oneknewme.

I wasn’t alone anymore.

We made our way up the staircase and were met at the top by one of the hotel’s employees, ready to take our coats. I slid my hand from Rhys’s arm, the coldness settling over my skin well before the thick fur began to slide off my shoulders.

I gripped the matching black clutch, inside was the flash drive.

When I turned, his elbow was already extended, his gaze holding mine with a heat that would warm me in the coldest of temperatures.

As we stepped into the ballroom, it hit me how similar this was to the night we’d met. The two of us pretending to be something we weren’t… but unable to deny what we felt.

We separated, each walking different paths around the room and taking in the crowd. Goose bumps signaled every time Rhys looked at me. Meanwhile, I searched for Mercury and his unmistakable evil. Elsewhere, Dare roamed discreetly, looking for the man who connected all of us:Ray Ivans.

We ended at the bar along the back wall, a perfect vantage point for the entrance. Rhys was supposed to stay at one end and I at the other. But he didn’t. He came to stand by me, andeven without a single touch, his gaze marked his claim on me like a swash of red paint.

“Everyone is looking at you,” he muttered.

I bit my lip, turning my head to obscure that I was talking to him. “How do you know?”

“Because I want to kill them all.”

My breath hitched, my heart hammering like the wings of a butterfly. “Real or fake?”

His head dipped, his low voice sending goose bumps cascading down my spine. “Try me.”

Our gazes snagged. Breaths collided.

“Rhys…”He’d never looked more like the man I loved.“You should go.”

He shouldn’t be near me; it could jeopardize everything.

“I will.” His chin dipped, but he angled toward me, giving his back to the room like he’d let anyone paint a target on it for one more moment with me. “After I tell you that I love you.”

---