if I were to tell you, I think it would quite defeat the purpose of me wearing it.”
“You said you’d answer my questions,” I say, my tone accusing.
He chuckles again. He’s playful. “Indeed, I did. But only to make you happy, and the answer to that question would only achieve the opposite. Are you done?”
“I’m done.”
“Good. Then we have a deal?”
I pause before, feeling like this is too easy. A smart person would reiterate the terms before they made a deal with the devil. “They have to be female. And… and they have to live here.”
That covers him just going and fetching Ruby.
“Done. Cross my heart.”
I almost laugh at that, suspecting he likely doesn’t own a heart to cross. “Then we have a deal.”
“How wonderful,” he says, reaching over me and fiddling with the straps that bind my wrists. “Though it’s only fair I inform you that if you think to cheat me, if you so much as touch that blindfold, I will have your tongue. And perhaps your eyes, too—for I am not a man who likes to be fooled twice. Think how much easier our future trysts would be with those out of the way, hmm?”
“You make yourself quite clear,” I state dryly. There’s nothing like the threat of permanent disfigurement to get you right in the mood for passion.
He laughs while I rub my wrists and push my hair back from my face. And then he gets up from the bed.
“Where are you going?”
Silence.
“Baron?”
I hear him chuckling to himself, but I have no idea where it’s coming from. I didn’t even hear his footsteps. I try to slow my breathing and listen, and I hear a thud sound, like heavy metal against wood.
He must be taking his mask off before he comes back to me.
I wait patiently, my stomach doing somersaults.
But there are still no footsteps.
“What are you doing?”
“Oh, sweet girl. You thought it would be that easy?” He laughs. “If you want to kiss me, you shall have to find me.”
My heart sinks. This isn’t how it was supposed to be.
I’d prepared myself for him lying on top of me. I’d even tried to prepare myself for him going farther than a kiss.
What I hadn’t prepared myself for was fumbling around in the dark, looking like a complete fool, and having to chase him.
“This isn’t fair,” I tell him.
“Fair?” He sounds highly amused. “Fair in comparison with what, exactly? This is fair. I told you to kiss me like I was the air you needed to breathe. Now get off your back and prove it to me.”
There is truly no easy way to win with him. And yet again, I found myself naively thinking there would be. I slide my legs off the bed and settle them down on the cold wooden floor.
I try to steel myself before getting up.
This is my room. It is not too large, and there is not too much furniture to bash into. I just need to walk around the bed.
Standing up, I turn myself and take a few cautious steps. The drapes that hang around the corners will appear soon and then the bedpost. From there, it’s only perhaps three or four steps until I reach the dresser where he put his mask.
Easy.
Unless he moves.
Which, of course, he will.
Only a foolish girl wouldn’t anticipate that, and I’m trying desperately not to be that girl anymore.
My hand curves around the bedpost, and I feel silly and embarrassed. My movements are clumsy. I’ve spent my life being watched, being put into difficult situations for the entertainment of others, but this is… different.
Why is it so different with him?
I cut myself off before I can start down that trail of thought. This isn’t the time for musings. I need to be alert. He is stronger than me in every way a person can be, and now he has another advantage. He can see what I’m doing.
I take those three steps and hit the dresser on the fourth. I reach out, one way and then the other, feeling nothing each time.
He has moved.
I spin around, my hands behind me resting on the edge, unsure of where to go next. I can feel the warmth from the candles on the dresser, warming the bare skin on the backs of my arms. I could have easily burned myself if I hadn’t been paying attention.
I could have burned myself.
Would a man who takes such care in the way I dress, the way I paint my face, have