do this again, do you?” Shawn stepped to the side of her and took a few more photographs. Then he crouched down. “This is the money shot. Try to look the deadest you’ve ever been.”
She held her breath, relaxing every muscle on her face.
“Perfect.” Shawn reached out to pull her hair off her face. “We’re done.”
Her body seemed to take that as permission to begin shivering. Her teeth started to chatter as her skin tightened with goose bumps.
Pierce grabbed her immediately, pulling her up from the snow melting into her ruined clothes and matting her already tangled hair. “Inside.”
He didn’t have to tell her twice. “I can’t believe you chose this place out of all the options in the world.” Her teeth clanged together as she ran, Pierce’s arm holding her close to him as he propelled her forward.
“There aren’t as many options as you would think for a company like this, Love.”
Zeke held the door open. They rushed past him into the heat of the building.
“Blanket.” Pierce held a hand out to Eva. She passed over a thick chenille throw. He whipped it around Mona, pulling it tight to her body. “Come on. Let’s go get you cleaned up.”
“How’d they come out?” Eva leaned into Shawn’s side as he flipped through the pictures. Her eyes widened. “You look good and dead, Monster.” She grinned. “Good job.”
Mona smiled back. “Thanks.”
Life was funny. A year ago she was tiptoeing around the world, trying not to make waves.
Now she was pretending to be murdered by the man hired to kill her by a billionaire trying to piss off her boss.
“You can talk about this more later.” Pierce held the front of the blanket, using it to drag her toward the hall leading to the rooming building. “Once that thing’s off your forehead.”
“It itches a little.” Mona reached up to gingerly feel around the sticky pile of smoosh. “Did it look okay?”
“I’m not sure okay is a word I would use to describe how it looked.” Pierce’s eyes went to the splotch. “Looks.”
“Is Heidi ready to send the photos out?” Mona went up the stairs beside Pierce.
“Vincent’s team is working with Intel to decide when will be the best time to show proof of death.”
“I’m part of Intel.” Mona tried to slow down, but Pierce’s hold on the blanket made it impossible. “Why am I not involved in that?”
Pierce punched the code into the pad on the door leading to the hall outside his rooms then pulled open the door, dragging her inside.
“Hey.” Mona planted her feet, the still-shoed one grabbing the floor much better than the socked one. “Why am I not involved in deciding when’s the best time to show proof of my death?”
Pierce stabbed his fingers into the keypad of the last door before swiping his badge and going in, yanking her along with him.
And he still wasn’t answering her.
“Pierce.” Mona used her arms to knock the blanket loose, stealing the grip he was using against her. “I should get to be a part of it. I’m the one who’s dead.”
He grabbed her, his hands rough as they pulled her close. His eyes were deadly and dark as they met hers. “Don’t fucking say that again.” He gripped her face with one hand, fingers holding it tight. “You are not dead and you will not be dead, understand?”
Mona lifted her eyes toward the sticky mass in the center of her forehead.
Pierce’s hand held her face still as the thumb of the other hand rubbed across the false wound Eva and Harlow spent two hours creating. “It’s gone.”
It definitely wasn’t gone. The concoction still stuck to her skin.
But Pierce wasn’t talking to her anyway.
“You are not dead.” He traced the tips of his fingers across her skin, his eyes taking on an odd look as they moved over her face. “You are fine.”
“I’m a little sticky.”
His gaze seemed to refocus as it met hers. He huffed out a breath that almost sounded like it could have turned to a laugh under different circumstances.
Then his mouth was on hers.
And this time she was ready for it. More than.
His kiss carried a desperation that hadn’t been there before.
A need she never would have expected or been brave enough to hope for.
But now that it was hers, she wanted more of it.
More of him.
More of his need.
He backed her to the closest wall, pinning her in place as his hands went to her body, pushing up the sweater he destroyed for the greater good.