Helpless (Steel Demons MC #5) - Crystal Ash Page 0,62

off as headache-induced squinting. Poor Kyrie. This territory was full of Grade-A Assholes, from the top all the way down.

“So what else is new?” I quipped with a playful smirk.

“See there?” He swatted Kyrie’s thigh, which could have been harmless, had she not jumped in her seat. “A woman who knows her place. Men have to spread their seed, you see. It’s in our nature.”

I wanted to hug her. To sit between her and him, anything to keep him from touching her. But I had to stall, had to just play along, until the guys figured something out.

I opened my clutch and dug through it, pretending to look through my makeup items when the soft pack of tissues gave me an idea. Twisting open the lipstick, I quickly wrote, 4C, here 2 help on the tissue. Heart pounding, I folded up the tissue and flipped open my compact. While I pretended to check my face, my eyes darted around again in search of the guys.

Come on. Where the fuck are you all?

Clicking my compact shut, I slid it back into my bag and turned my palm over with the tissue still in my hand. Turning to Kyrie, I gave her my best friendly smile.

“That’s a gorgeous engagement ring! May I?”

“Um, sure.”

While the men dismissed us as empty-headed vessels gawking at shiny objects, she allowed me to hold her hand for a closer look at her ring. I pressed the tissue into her palm as I inspected the rock, making a big show of admiring it. Without missing a beat, her thumb held the tissue in place, and my heart soared.

“That’s um, a pretty ring you have too,” she said, discreetly unfolding the tissue in her lap.

“Oh, it’s all right.” I tilted my hand with Reaper’s ring on it, a pang in my chest from missing him. The shifting colored stone covered me from catching her eye as she read my note. “It’s a starter ring, from before my husband had any money. He promised me an upgrade when he got his big oil contract.”

“If he does,” Blake corrected me from across the gazebo. “I’m very selective about who I offer contracts to.”

“As you should be, governor.”

“Your husband has not impressed me so far, and seems to have gotten lost,” he sneered. “Lucky for him, I enjoy looking at his wife very much.”

“I’m very flattered, sir.” My fingers clenched in my lap, but I forced my posture not to change. Next to him, Eva threw back a full glass of champagne, and I didn’t blame her. How could anyone stand to be around him sober?

“You should be. Do you know how many prospective contractors throw their wives at me? Nearly all of them. It’s standard procedure at this point. But your man wanted to drag you away.” His smug grin was infuriating. “Now, I couldn’t have that.”

“Isn’t that so typical of men?” I blurted out before I could stop myself. “Wanting what they can’t have.”

Oh fuck. Talk about the wrong fucking thing to say.

Governor Blake narrowed his stare at me while my pulse skyrocketed. This was it. I was found out and I’d never see my guys again.

“Of course we do,” Malcolm cut in with a snort and a tight grip on Kyrie’s thigh. “When you’re as rich and powerful as we are, everything comes so easily and life gets boring. But when you go after something forbidden,” his hand dragged up to her hip, “it’s much more exciting.”

“How did you two meet, then?” As long as I was still breathing, I wanted to find out if the sick men in this family would come out and admit to kidnapping and imprisoning people like pets.

“Our families are acquainted,” Malcolm deflected smoothly. “Ky’s the daughter of a much poorer governor. We did him a favor by agreeing to the match, after all his begging. An act of charity, really, when I had much better prospects in the northeastern territories.” He pinched her chin tightly. “Good thing she’s nice to look at.”

“Butterfly, do you object to men taking what they want?” Blake was still pinning me with a hard stare.

I stared back as aloofly as I could, not bothering to dart my eyes to the sudden motion going on outside the gazebo.

“Even if I had an opinion, it doesn’t fucking matter to you, does it?”

His lip curled as he jumped to his feet. “What a foul-mouthed little—”

I stood up and moved in front of Kyrie, my hand now wrapped around the handle of