Page 13 of The Contract

His deep chuckle vibrates against my back, a lit fuse licking down my spine.

“Beauty and petulance. It’s a shame to cover it all up.”

Wait—cover?

The second I spot the sack in his hand, instinct kicks in.

“Don’t—” I jerk in his arms. “Don’t you dare put that back on?—”

The more my body bucks wild against his frame, the tighter it becomes. A constrictor slipping into the cage to coil around the sparrow—bleeding all the fight from me until every last bit is gone.

“Eager for punishment?” he murmurs.

Embarrassed. Humiliated.

A shiver has nowhere to go but out through my voice.

“I’m afraid of the dark,” I force out. “Deathly. You might as well choke me out if that sack is going back on my head.”

Silence.

Cruel and curious, his breath dusts my neck. “Is that why it’s wet? From your tears?”

I swallow a fresh onslaught of them fighting to break free. “Yes.” Raw honesty, no shame left to chew on.

His grip eases—just enough to let me suck in a breath. But he doesn’t let go.

“I won’t tell anyone who you are,” I say, desperate to keep the sack off.

“Pinky swear?” he scowls.

“Yes.” And quickly add, “I haven’t even seen your face. And I have no idea who you or Andre D’Angelo are.”

He laps around the question, lets the face comment float past, and sharpens in on the bigger threat.

Something far more dangerous.

“You don’t know Andre?”

“No.” And by the sound of it, I really don’t want to.

A low hmm hums from his mouth, feathering my neck. Aimless and distracted in his own little world. “Well, he certainly knows you.”

“You can just let me go.”

“As much as I’d like to let you traipse off mindlessly to the next alley to get brutally raped and beaten, you seeing my face is not an option.”

“I won’t.” Hope lifts with each word. With both hands still bound, I manage to raise one pinky.

I can almost hear him mentally smirk as he thinks a moment longer. Then, growling, he caves.

“I don’t do favors. I trade.”

“Trade?” I blink. “I don’t have money. I’m barely scraping by on ramen and chewing gu?—”

“A kiss.”

My breath catches.

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