Queen Takes Rose (Wicked Villains #6) - Katee Robert Page 0,48
won’t accept comfort from me. I’m not even sure how I’d go about offering it. Instead, I blurt out the first thing that crosses my mind. “Will you continue on at the club after your bargain’s time runs out?”
“Yes.” She says it with such surety, some of the pain fades from her voice. “I like my job, I like the perks and that each night is a little different. I like working as Meg’s second-in-command.”
For a moment, I let myself follow the temptation of thinking of a future that’s not for me. A future where Aurora becomes mine in truth. It’s all fantasy, though. Aurora is not for keeping, not for me, and I have no intention of settling down into anything resembling domesticity. I like my life, like the balance I’ve achieved. Throwing a wrench into my perfectly operating machine is a mistake I’d like to avoid.
Aurora’s watching me closely. “Why ask that?”
“Curiosity.” I shrug. “It’s as simple as that.”
“I’m beginning to think there’s nothing simple about you at all, Malone.”
Something buzzes beneath my skin, an increasing desire to put my mark on this woman while I still can. I push to my feet. “Let’s go.”
“No dessert?” Her lips curve as if she knows exactly where my head’s at, knows exactly how she affects me.
“You can order in.” I hold out my hand before I can think better of it, and the feeling of her palm sliding against mine is so damn right, it rocks me to my core.
Aurora isn’t for keeping. I have to remember that, have to hold that truth close. I’m not a woman who wastes time wishing on stars. I know the lay of the land with Aurora the same way I did as the second daughter of the Amazon queen. Some things can be changed and shifted and rearranged. Some things are simply truth.
I would never be queen, so I left to create my own queendom.
Aurora will never be mine, so I shall enjoy the time we have left and then move on with my life when she walks away at the end of these two weeks.
Simple. Easy. Tidy.
Unfortunately, I feel anything but simple, easy, and tidy as I all but drag Aurora out of the room. She digs in her heels before we get three steps. “The bill.”
“Is already taken care of.” No doubt I already have an invoice waiting for me. “Now, keep up, or I’m going to carry you.”
“If you carry me, I’m going to flash every single person we walk past.”
“Yes.” I resume walking, and this time she keeps up without effort. She’s a few inches shorter than I am, but Aurora has a lot of practice matching the longer strides of her taller clients. It’s fascinating how she manages to do so without seeming like she’s working hard.
Luna waits for us next to the car. From the satisfied smile on her face, someone ran her down food while we ate. I make a mental note to double the tip. The service at Spindle, as always, is beyond reproach. Luna opens the door, and we slip into the backseat.
I keep hold of Aurora’s hand. She tugs once, but when she realizes I have no intention of letting her go, she huffs out a sigh and sits back. For my part, I stare out the window and count down the minutes until we return to my building in an effort to keep from mauling her in the backseat.
I want to make her come again. More than that, though. I want to break Aurora into a thousand pieces and put her back together again, to be both creation and destruction, pain and pleasure. She a safe I don’t quite know the combination to, and I can’t shake the feeling that the only way to touch her is through dominance and submission. It’s the only way she’ll allow me to touch her.
It strikes me that I’ve never had someone hold out on me the way Aurora does. No matter what I do, she’s always managed to maintain a distance between us, and it couldn’t be clearer that she has no interest in crossing it.
Perversely, that makes me want to bridge the gap even more intensely. The feeling is disconcerting in the extreme. I pride myself on never losing control, but I’m dancing on the brink. I can’t shake the impression that Aurora is a fortress, all locked away with doors barred and a thorny barrier outside. It calls to the warrior inside me,