Page 52 of Rubies and Revenge

“Halloween weekend?” she asks.

I hadn’t even realized. “Why not? We’re playing dress up anyway.”

She checks her phone then locks the screen. “I’m free. What do we need for this?”

“I know someone.” I wave my hand. “You won’t have to plan a thing, but I’ll need your credit card.”

She squints at me, hand already reaching for her back pocket. “Are you trying to steal my identity, princess?”

“Please, you think I want to be anyone other than Zarina Gallo?” I waggle my fingers, palm up, as she pulls out her wallet.

“Fair point.” She holds out her card.

I snatch it from her hands and stuff it in the waistband of my shorts, lifting the shirt just enough to show a slip of skin. “You’ll need to pick a charity—it’s customary to accept donations rather than gifts.”

“Sounds fake, but okay.” She lifts my coffee and takes a sip before setting it back down.

I immediately pick it up and hold it against my chest. “Is that it, then?”

“Not quite.” Tamayo’s face morphs from amused skepticism into the smug, satisfied look she wears that I always try—and fail—to break into pieces. She stalks around the island toward me, and I can’t help but back away until I hit one of the stools. She stands in front of me, hands in her pockets and a foot of space between us. Even so, I feel as if I’m caged in, small.

Her voice drops an octave. “I heard you want me to fuck you.”

Heat warms my cheeks, but I don’t duck my head. Pat got me to basically yell it to the whole damn house, and last night, I was ready to let Tamayo shove my skirt over my hips in Casa Nostra’s only bathroom. It’s not a secret, as much I’d like it to be.

My chin juts out. “Depends.”

“On what?” She tilts her head, listening.

“What changed your mind?” I ask the same question I did last night.

Her eyes roam my cheeks, my lips, the collar of my shirt slung over my shoulder. “My mind never needed changing, princess.”

I frown. “You said?—”

“Do you want more,” she quotes herself.

“That it doesn’t affect our deal,” I argue.

She frowns, like that’s the part that’s the most clear. “It doesn’t. It won’t.”

“How can it not?” I scoff.

“Easy. We don’t let it.” Tamayo inches forward and raises her hand, achingly slow, to pinch the sleeve of my shirt and pull it back to center. Her gaze follows the line of my collarbone, my neck, up to my eyes. “Doyou want more?”

I wrinkle my nose. She asked this in the car, too, and I didn’t know how to answer. It was too abrupt then. But now? I’ve had a moment—several days of moments—to think about it, to watch Tamayo, to come to a decision. And even then, it was never a choice to be made or a conclusion to be reached.

Wanting Tamayo was a reckoning, simple as that.

I lick my lips, the buzzing under my skin pleasant and welcome. “You heard me earlier.”

“If I’m gonna fuck you…” She leans closer, only a few inches taller yet towering over me. My coffee is clasped to my chest and the edge of the counter digs into my back and her words do what they’ve always done, spark a fire that is cold heat—and all this without a single touch. She holds my gaze with dark brown eyes. “Truly fuck you, then I need you to speak up.”

I gulp and try to hide it with a snap. “I practically yelled it already.”

“Then it should be nothing to say it again.” She tilts her head, and this time, she’s so close her hair almost brushes my cheek.

“Tamayo.” I try to make it a warning, but it sounds more like begging.

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