Page 58 of Too Cursed To Kiss
I dutifully waited in the car till Wald came back with the key, considering how good a shower was going to be and what dropping the towel options would be like. Maybe there was something black and sexy in those shopping bags.
Wald drove around the building to the back and parked in front of the unit marked143B. He thrust a plastic keycard at me. “Take those in, I’ll bring the rest,” he said, glancing over at the bags in the back. I didn’t question an order that sounded like a good plan.
With childish glee, I grabbed the shopping bags out of the back seat and had the door open about the time he arrived holding the gargantuan steel box that I had spent far too long in. The bags were heavier than I expected, which amped my anticipation.
I had to stand behind the door so he could get through it. One more trip and he had the suitcases. Technically, I didn’t know if the shopping bags were even for me, but I sat beside them, silently dying of curiosity as he shrugged his jacket off and threw it onto the bed. The simple act of shedding one layer was like rubbing warm chocolate into my skin.
“You might want to shower first,” he said as he pulled off his shirt.Firstechoed in my head, melting my insides. My eyes glued to his chiseled chest. Shower, right, shower. Yes, that’s what I wanted first. I left the bags behind, and with one longing look at Wald, I retreated to the bathroom.
By the time I was towel-dry and slid the bathroom door open, Wald had moved the box to one of the beds. The mannequin was sprawled out on the other bed but now wore a pair of dark purple pajamas with magenta piping. Both wrists were covered with pink fuzzy handcuffs, and the legs were bound with sex-toy style restraints linking them to the wrists. The black tissue was all over the floor, and the empty bags were lying on their sides. My heart sank. Apparently, the rest of the shopping wasn’t for a wardrobe change for me. What kind of kinky-sex with the mannequin did he have planned? I needed to search the internet for this.
I sashayed over to the bed. The fuzzy handcuff was lined with fur but heavy duty. “I must admit I’m curious, but I think he looked better almost-naked. What exactly do you have in mind?” I coyly batted my eyelashes.
“I’m getting Sert ready for his re-emergence.” Wald’s gaze licked me ankle to shoulder.
I did a double take as my brain caught up. “Sert? The flipping mannequin is Sert?” The body had some muscle definition and was about my height. With blond hair, Ken-doll bronzed skin, and cheekbones that could cut butter, Sert wasn’t bad looking—if you liked that type.
“This body form is a placeholder and an access point. It isn’t Sert until I release him.”
“Oh. Well it was nice of you to buy him PJs,” I said, but my disappointment came out as a snipe.
Wald’s one-sided grin turned my belly molten as he pulled down the sunglasses. “I hung your things up.”
Riding euphoria, I tore to the closet, slowing as I got there. What was I? A school girl with a prom dress? I was utterly ridiculous being excited that some random guy picked out clothing for me. Like that’s creepy territory at the best. But Wald wasn’t some random guy, and my other option was to wear Britannia’s clothes. Sedately, I slid the closet open, praying for anything but pink.
My heart soared into the stratosphere. It was full of black. No one had ever bought me clothes so beautifully dark and slinky all at once.
Black flouncy dress, black silk and lace bra, black lace panties, and a black leather jacket. Well, the black bra and panties had pink lace bows, but they weren’t the cheap big-box store quality. I could live with that. The hang tags on the outfit showed they cost more than last month’s rent I hadn’t paid.
I gathered the things off the hangers. While Wald closed the top of the velvet box, I slipped into the bathroom. By the time I was dressed, he’d loaded the car again.
My heart plummeted. “I thought we were staying,” I said, twirling in the dress that probably had made spiders sob.
His gaze flicked from my chest to my lips. “While that suits you, the issue with Sert needs to get resolved before Devlyn has a chance to make a better deal with his mother.”
“I thought his mother was your mother?”
“No, I told you, I’m adopted. Maverick is Devlyn’s father.”
“Sorry, it’s hard to keep up.” The cogs of the complex family dynamic knit slowly in my head. “So Maverick slept with an agent?”
“Devlyn’s mother slept with Maverick.”
“And Devlyn’s mother is?”
“Elizabeth, who was outside the warehouse.”
“That blonde chick with the black eyes?”
“Yes.”
Holy crap. His stepbrother’s mother was literally a monster, and a monster who’d attacked Wald. No wonder Devlyn was a cranky-puss. “What exactly happened between you and Devlyn’s mother? She can injure you? How?”
“Because she can get through the illusion, she can injure me on this plane.”
“Hang on, are you saying you aren’t really here then? What I see isn’t real?”
“I’m real. I’ve shown you what I look like. But like Agatha, I can travel to other places, other planes.”
