Fraud (Antihero Inferno #2) - Lily White Page 0,91
“Oh? This bothers you?”
“Yes,” I bark and smack at her legs again.
Fuck. I shouldn’t have told her that. Ivy’s lips pull into an evil smirk.
“Would it bother you if I rubbed them over all the expensive leather and chrome?”
Sliding the bottom of her foot across half her portion of the dash, she watches me closely. My eye twitches in response, my lips pulling into a thin line.
Her foot stops.
“I might be willing to pull them down if you tell me how you made me think you were at the office.”
I shoot her a look. “Is that your game?”
Ivy nods, her foot sliding higher up the dash.
“Whatever. I’m not playing.”
Grinning at my refusal, Ivy stretches her body.
“That’s good to know. Because I just can’t get comfortable, and I need more room. Would be a shame if I pressed one of my dirty feet right up against the windshield -“
“Fine,” I growl as my hand clamps down on her knee. “Open the glove box.”
Quickly removing her feet from the dash, Ivy pulls the lever to open it.
I don’t keep much in there so it isn’t hard for her to find the small digital recorder. She straightens her posture and hits the button on the side, the general office sounds I’d recorded in prep for surprising her at the cabin blaring.
Swinging a left, the car dips as I drive down into the underground garage at my office.
“I’d already stolen my car back when you called. I was sitting in it while talking to you, with that playing in the background.”
I pull into my reserved spot and throw the car in park, her eyes meeting mine. Ivy has a funny smirk on her face, her head slightly shaking in disbelief.
“You planned the entire thing.”
“Of course, I did.”
Tossing the recorder back into the glove box, she shrugs. “As far as pranks go, that was weak. I expected better of you.”
“You weren’t saying that when you were hauling ass my direction in the woods.”
Another slight smirk and shrug. Her eyes scan the garage, as if noticing for the first time we’re no longer on the road.
“Where are we?”
“My office. I expect you to behave like a grownup while we’re here.”
I’m unbuckling my seatbelt when she asks, “Why are we here?”
“I have to check on a few things.”
“Like?”
A groan crawls up my throat. “Like whether Tanner is behaving like a grownup.”
Quickly, I let myself out of the car and round the front to open Ivy’s door for her. As soon as I offer a hand to help her out, her eyes lift to mine. That spark jumps the second she accepts my hand, the same one that has been there since we were children.
I wonder now if I’d misinterpreted it through the years. If the spark had become fire and I’d chosen to see the destruction instead of what it really is.
That’s the problem with fire, I guess. It’s duplicitous. And while it’s violent enough to raze the world around you, angry enough to burn everything you know to the ground, it’s also necessary to clear out what’s useless and dead so that something beautiful and new can be born among the ashes.
I saw the world burning, but I never recognized what sprang to life once the light from the flames went out and the ash cooled.
Seeing it now, my fingers curl over Ivy’s hand, and I tug her to her feet. A breath blows over her lips when I pull her against my body, close her door and then pin her to the side of the car.
Ivy laughs, her voice a rough whisper.
“You’d better be careful, Gabriel. The world doesn’t want us together. One wrong move and the building will collapse over our heads.”
I watch her lips move, my voice just as rough as hers. “Why do you think that is?”
When I look up into her eyes, all I see is truth.
“Maybe because we’re two opposing forces. We may have a ceasefire now, but will it last?”
I fucking hope so...
And at the same time, I don’t. Nobody has ever challenged me as much as Ivy.
Stepping away from her, I release her hand and walk to the private elevator that leads directly to the floor where our personal offices are.
Thankful for it, only because is means I won’t have to walk Ivy through the lobby, I tap the button and enter my code. The motor hums to life.
Ivy breaks the stiff silence. “Is my price to Tanner paid now? Am I done?”