Page 64 of Faithless
Santos sat down so heavily next to me, he practically fell. “Damn, so you’re serious-serious.”
“I really am.” I grabbed one of his hands, wrapping my fingers around the warm, callused skin of his palm. “I have no idea what I’m doing, but yeah, Iwantyou to have a future where you’re not a gladiator. I want that for you really fucking badly.”
Santos blinked several times but said nothing. Then I felt his rough hand squeeze around mine just as his gaze fell to my lips.
A harsh banging sound tore through the moment, making me startle.
“Time’s up, your session is over,” the guard called through the door. “We’ll give you three minutes to get dressed.”
23
TORRANCE
“Hey, we need to talk.”
I finally found Rori at the cafe the next morning, seated next to the aviary with a cup of coffee, an everything bagel with all the seeds and seasoning scraped off, and her nose in a paperback novel.
She lifted her eyes, an icy blue color today, slowly over the top of her book, then licked her fingertip before she turned the page and dropped her eyes back down. “Do we?”
“Yeah, Ror. We do.” I looked around. She was relatively secluded over here by the giant cage filled with exotic birds, but there were still guests and staff milling about the cafe. I’d much rather talk to her in the privacy of our suite. “Like, right now. It’s important.”
“Huh. That’s interesting, considering we haven’t talked at all in the last four, oh no, five days.” She picked up her coffee, eyes never lifting once from her book. “Surely it can wait until I finish this chapter.”
Shit. I should have known that would have come back to bite me in the ass. “Look, I’m sorry. I’ve been a dick and a hardass about the whole gladiator thing.”
I’d been more than that. I’d been a fucking mess. In the moments where I’d seen her briefly, from a distance or passing by each other in the suite, she’d looked…radiant. And not just from the clothes and makeup. She was glowing like she was on top of the world, with confidence in her steps and a secret smile.
I knew it was because of that gladiator, and that fucking killed me. I couldn’t even pretend I was upset about the whole sexual slavery thing anymore. She was enjoying every moment of her time with that guy, and it clearly wasn’t all sexual. Rori didn’t just look well-fucked. She looked smitten, like she was in a new and highly satisfying relationship.
Fuck. Me.
“Hm,” was all she responded.
“Rori,” I hissed, eyes darting around again. “This is fucking dire. Like, we might have very limited time here. Hours, if that.”
“I’ll be done with this chapter in a few minutes. This is a great scene.” Her teeth peeked out with a small smile, biting her lower lip. “They’re about to have an orgy.”
Oh, great. We were on the verge of getting kicked out or killed, and she was reading smut.
“Rori!” I ground my teeth to keep myself from yelling. “I fucked up bad, okay? I got in a fight with some staff. So they’re most likely fucking onto us.”
That got her attention. She lifted her head, the book falling away from her chest as she stared at me. “What did you say?”
“If you would really like to hear me out, I suggest we go somewhere more private.”
She set the book down on the metal bistro table, moving slowly as if she were unsure. Then to my utter relief, she said, “Okay. Let’s go to the suite.”
“Thank you,” I sighed.
As she stood, she carefully picked up her napkin covered in the scraped off seeds that were on her bagel. She went to the giant bird cage, stuck her arm through one of the bars, and shook the napkin so its contents fell on the floor. A flurry of wings and bird calls descended on the discarded seeds like it was the first time they’d seen food in a week.
“I can’t save all of them,” Rori said, returning to my side. “But I can make life a little better for them.”
We walked to the suite in silence. I tried to keep my pace relaxed and not look like I was rushing anywhere. After an eternity, I opened our door for Rori and stepped in after her, locking it behind me.
“So, what happened?” she asked, leaning against the kitchen counter with her arms crossed. She was still closed off and angry at me. But I could handle that as long as she heard me.
“You know those armed guards that work the colosseum? I saw a group of them beating the shit out of a gladiator.”
