attempt to have sex with you tonight. I just need to rest and it would be stupid for us not to share the bed.”
And he would not sleep with her awake. Sleep he desperately needed to gain his strength.
Her lids fluttered, but soon she was kicking off her shoes and pulling the dress above her head. Once done, she stood before him in a short white shift with thin straps. The bottom skimmed the top of her thighs. It did a decent enough job of covering her though her silhouette revealed more of her shape than he thought she knew. She snatched up the blankets before he could get a good look, opening them with a brisk snap and threw them over him and the bed before climbing in.
Garik fought the inappropriate urge to laugh. Laughter was a pleasure he hadn’t experienced in years. Yet, he found himself wanting to do it for the second time this evening and all because of her.
She scooted about and pulled the covers up to her chin and eyed him across the short expanse of the bed. “You’re not what I expected.”
Garik had just folded his arm down and laid his head on the synthetic material of the mattress when she made that announcement. “What did you expect?”
“A ruthless killer who would slit my throat the first chance he got.”
Air froze in his lungs. Needing to breathe, he released the breath on a rough exhalation and pounded the mattress with the flat of his palm. Saedra jumped but it wasn’t enough. Garik rolled to his back and cursed a blue streak to relieve his anger. When he ran out of words, he attempted to calm his temper. When that didn’t work either, he rolled back toward her and lashed out in a vicious tone. “Why in heppetti did you come into my cell if you thought that?!”
How she’d risked her life made him furious, because that was something Garik or any other assassin from the Guild would do without hesitation if their life depended on it. If there had been a weapon at hand and she seemed the least bit dangerous, he would have killed her on the spot. The only reason she was alive boiled down to her ridiculous deal demanding he bond to her.
She was his mate for life now and Garik had to grit his teeth to keep from reaching out to shake her for the chance she’d taken.
***
Garik’s anger was a living flare between them. Saedra swallowed. For a moment, she considered leaping from the bed and running but if she knew her father, and she did, he’d have patrols out looking for them until the early morning hours. It was best they stay hunkered here in this hidden shed for shelter. Her contact promised it would be safe for a day or two.
The heat of Garik’s stare burned the side of her head, but she refused to turn, keeping her gaze stubbornly aimed at the ceiling. She didn’t need to see the condemnation in his gaze to know her actions had been stupid and dangerous. Her lips firmed. She’d had no choice.
“I did it because I had no other option.” The words blurted out on their own.
It was easy to hear his heavy exhale and Saedra was smothered in humiliation. Her actions had been rash. But the alternative would have been her death when, not if, her father decided her existence no longer served a purpose. That didn’t even include what would happen if Hritham, the man he planned to give her to, got a hold of her.
After a heavy silence, Garik asked, “What does Maurin have on you? Are you his wife, lover?”
At his harsh questions, Saedra flinched and dug her nails into the blanket. “No! I told you that. I’m not the type of person who would have asked for marriage while legally connected to another. I was merely a reluctant member in his household.”
She stuck to the simplest lie. Saedra had been a member of his household. She was also his daughter, but that wasn’t anything she wanted to share while lying in bed next to a known assassin who had been locked up and tortured by her father.
“A member of his household?” Garik repeated, raising his voice on the end to make it a question.
Saedra nodded, fully committed to her tale as she gave the shadowy ceiling her complete attention.
“Let’s say I believe you.”
Saedra recoiled because his very tone indicated he didn’t.
“What next? At least