7
EMERY
No one else is on the roads. The buildings we pass are dark. Half the streetlights are flashing red, but the driver doesn't even tap the brakes.
"So where are we going?" I ask.
Adrik leans back, legs spread. I thought the car would feel less confined without Isabella’s wheelchair taking up a ton of room.
But I was wrong. He’s still so big, so close, so overwhelming. The whole interior smells like him. Dark leather and icy mint and musk. I shiver.
“We’re driving until we reach an agreement.”
I wrinkle my nose. “That feels pointless.”
“You’re the one who made this plan,” he reminds me.
“Well, yeah, but—”
“I assumed you knew where you wanted to hash out these ‘details.’” He says it like I’m being absurd. Like it isn’t a fake wedding we’re oh-so-casually planning. “You do have a plan, don’t you, princess?”
I grit my teeth. “It’s been a little hard to formulate a plan tonight. If you haven’t noticed, things have been kind of crazy.”
He shrugs. “This is a normal night for me.”
“You’re kidding.”
“No. It’s almost as if you should have left the details to me,” he snarls sarcastically. “Since I’m the one with experience in this world.”
“What does that mean, ‘this world’? What world?”
He ignores me and leans forward to speak to the driver. “Just keep driving. We won’t be making any more unscheduled stops.”
When he leans back, he turns towards me. Having all of Adrik’s attention is short-circuiting my brain. It’s like having too much oxygen. I feel lightheaded, twitchy, delirious.
“Now, listen closely, because this is the story you will tell if anyone ever asks you. We met at a function. A few weeks ago, let’s say. You were with Senator Waters, but you and I… we hit it off.” He smirks in a way that makes my insides feel squishy. “Now, we are engaged.”
“That’s a little fast, isn’t it?”
“I’d say it flatters you.”
“Oh, so it’s a compliment? I’m supposed to be the woman who tamed the brooding beast?”
Adrik laughs. “No, kiska,” he growls. “If you think you’ve tamed me, then you are very fucking mistaken.”
I roll my eyes. “So much for being the one to turn infamous playboy Adrik Tasarov onto the straight and narrow. I’m sure all your girlfriends will be devastated.”
“The women I sleep with neither know nor care that you exist,” he says icily.
I arch a brow. “Are you telling me that I’m signing on to be in an open relationship?”
“What does it matter? None of this is real.”
“But you want people to think it’s real, don’t you?” I ask. “I know I do. And as soon as word gets out that you’re still fucking any woman you dance with at some party, I’ll look pathetic. Plus, Malcolm will see through it. He’s scum, but he’s not an idiot.”
“He can be both,” Adrik says. Then he leans forward. “Tell me, Emery: are you worried about that?”
“About what?” I ask, even as my skin heats with the way he’s looking at me.
“About me fucking other women? Dancing with them the way I danced with you? Did you hope you were special?”
His words pierce the small, rotting remains of the romantic I once was.
In Adrik Tasarov, I’d seen an opportunity. To escape Malcolm. To help Isabella.
But I’m not blind. I also saw the entire package.
And I’m not dead inside. The lusty part of me wanted to tear it open with my teeth.
His words leave room for none of that, though. They skewer me right through the heart, right between the legs, and remind me of what I mean to him.
Absolutely nothing.
I lift my chin. “May I remind you that I insisted on this being a business arrangement? The only one here with hopes of this turning into something else is you. Which is why I have to make it clear that you and I won’t ever be having sex.”
“I’ll tell my lawyer to make a note of it,” he drawls.
It’d take an idiot not to realize that he has no intention of doing such things.
I can hear the dirty words he whispered in my ear earlier. When I’m inside you—and make no mistake, I will be inside you—it will be because you begged me for it.
I’ve never begged for a man in my life.
Then again…
I’ve never met a man like him.
“Oh, and one more thing,” he adds. “You are not to leave the house without me or one of my men with you. That goes for Isabella, too. I need to know where the both of you are at all times.”
I gawk at him, waiting for him to smile and tell me he was kidding.
He doesn’t.
“You’re serious.”
He sighs. “Let’s get this out of the way now: I don’t make jokes.”
“You… you actually want me to be monitored all the time?”
He nods. “Correct.”