Page 29 of Rubies and Revenge

She smacks my arm. “Shut up.”

“Zarina—”

“Seriously, Tamayo—shut up.” Zarina throws my handkerchief back at me, and it lands on my stomach. “Despite what you think, I’m not a damsel princess. I’ve fended off my fair share of handsy men.”

I crumple the fabric in my fist before throwing it down on the seat. “This isn’t some passerby in the club playing grab-ass.”

“I know.” She rolls her eyes, and it makes me want to shake her.

My voice drops low again, to the tone I use with capos who think they can cop an attitude on any given day. “This is the man who stands to lose all he was promised if he doesn’t find a way to marry you.”

“I know!” she snaps.

I stare at her until she meets my gaze, until she sees the heavy, frightening gravity of what I am saying, of the danger Marcus Accardi presents. He will not stop. He will not leave her alone. He will not accept the Council’s verdict today. And likely, he never will.

Marcus Accardi cannot be fended off. He must be destroyed.

Zarina swallows and casts her eyes down to my hand on her thigh, her face pinched with petulance. “I won’t be alone with him again.”

“Thank you.” I let it be at that. It’s not enough, not nearly, but my own anxiety to prevent something like this from ever happening again won’t help Zarina, either. I breathe it out as best I can and shift to better face her. She pulls in a shaky breath and squeezes her hands into fists over and over again. I don’t know what she’s thinking—whether she’s reliving what happened or imagining worse—but it’s not good.

“What do you need?” I rub my hands over her knee, across her thigh, trying to offer what little comfort I can.

Zarina follows my touch, lip between her teeth. Her eyes zero in, like she’s grounding herself in my touch rather than the swirl inside her head. “I want my power back.” She raises her gaze to mine, the gold streaks in her eyes shining in the passing streetlights. “I want to feel like I own myself, my body—not him. Not anyone.”

I pause my movements, unsure if she means for me to stop. “How can I help?”

She blinks at me, pursing her lips, and then she’s moving. I raise my hands, confused as she pulls herself across my lap, her legs parting to bracket my hips, her ass settling on my thighs. She grabs my wrists to place them around her waist.

“Help me erase him,” Zarina whispers as she drags her fingers up my arms, to my shoulders, around my neck. “Put your hands on me.”

ZARINA

For one, infinite moment, I think I misread the last few days.

Tamayo doesn’t find me attractive. Or she’s a born flirt who doesn’t actually want to bend me over her knee. Or worse, she’ll say no out of deference to my tarnished emotional state, as if I don’t know what I need in this moment. As if that wouldn’t be another choice ripped away from me in the long list of my life.

But then she flexes her hands on my waist.

“My hands are on you, princess,” Tamayo rumbles.

I arch into her fingers, but she doesn’t react. She’s wearing that infuriating smirk on her lips again, that unbothered air she’s had since she sat on her throne and raked her burnt-bark gaze down my naked thighs. I scratch through her undercut, down her neck, under the collar of her jacket and shirt. “Touch me.”

She chuckles, deep and raspy, the sound vibrating from her chest into mine. “I can’t read minds, princess.”

I huff and lean forward until my nose hovers over hers. I’ve been clear as day—erase him. Scrub away his touch with hers. What more do I need to say? My skirt rides up my thighs as herbreath fans my lips. The car is warm, but the air is still cooler than the heat pooling under her hands. I drag my nose across her cheek to her ear, my lips brushing the lobe?—

“Zarina.” Tamayo’s voice is hard as a whip. My whole body freezes on impact, a shudder rippling over me a second later. She cups my chin in a gentle hand, so opposite the grip that held it earlier, and guides me to sit straight again. She furrows her brows, searching my face. “What do you want?”

I roll my eyes, and she clucks her tongue. “I told you,” I say.

Tamayo studies my face, eyes catching on the smarting bruises bracketing my chin. “You want to own yourself, your body.”

“Yes.” I roll forward an inch.

Her grip on my waist tightens. “You want to erase him.”

“His touch, yes.” I’ll erase his presence from this Earth later. For now, this will do.

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