Page 43 of Beguiled

“Yes, I can do that. There’s no reason for her to know and like I already said, I have no intention of going back.”

“Excellent. Then enjoy your wine so we can go. I have one last question.”

“What’s that?”

“Who is your friend?”

“No, I’m not going to tell you anything about her. She has nothing to do with this. She didn’t force or coerce me into accepting the job tonight. She thought it would be cool and get me out of the house. Make a little money. You thinking she has something to do with those monsters attacking just isn’t fair. She has nothing to do with what happened. You’ll need to punish me instead if you’re so insistent on doing so.”

She had no idea how tempting the thought was. She also couldn’t possibly understand how her conviction, while completely unwise, was honorable and something I coveted almost as much as loyalty.

How very protective of her and the reaction was very natural. She wasn’t doing anything but defending a friend. I would find out another way instead of her betraying the woman. “Very well.” I leaned forward until I was able to gather a more powerful hint of her perfume. “Just keep in mind what I said. The person behind those soldiers will stop at nothing to get what they want.”

When she crowded the airspace between us, leaning so far forward I could almost kiss her soft lips, my cock stirred as it had done before. “And exactly who is this person, so I can make certain and keep a distance.”

The thought of kissing her was delightful but as reckless as everything else about the evening. “That’s what I intend on finding out.”

“You mean the big bad wolf doesn’t know?”

What I’d learned from the Christmas party was that she enjoyed provoking me. Not only mentally. Perhaps until now she hadn’t understood she was poking the beast in his cave. As well as during his slumber. “Skol’ko volka ni kormi, on vso ravno v les smotrit.”

After I harshly whispered the words of my grandmother, my companion shuddered visibly, which turned me the fuck on. “What did you say?”

“An old Russian proverb. No matter how much you feed the wolf, he still stares into the forest.”

“What does that mean?”

“That means a creature’s true, wild, and very dangerous nature cannot be changed no matter how much time or money is spent to domesticate it.”

Her breath skipped just a couple of beats, but to her credit, she didn’t move. Other than darting the tip of her tongue to a plump spot in the center of her bottom lip. I had the urge to suck on her tongue, using quite a bit of control to keep from doing so. “I’d say you were speaking more about yourself than any enemy who might cross your path.”

With a deep breath, I sat back hard in the chair, able to laugh more easily than normal. “Touché, Saige. You are correct.”

“Now that we’ve established you really are a wolf in sheep’s clothing, answer me this. Is it true what I’ve heard that to live with wolves you need to act like one?”

How fascinating that she had an understanding of Russian proverbs. My grandmother would be proud. “Very true.” What was she suggesting? More important, why? It would take some time determining the reasoning behind her question, and I knew there was a point. Very little she’d done with me was casual, always directed by her strong personality.

There was much I could say otherwise, but I chose not to, lifting my glass instead.

I could see a spark in her eyes that hadn’t been there before. While she might not be a true adversary, she was enjoying the dangerous game being played. I both admired and was concerned for her.

Yet there was no reason to stop the progression of a new page in our relationship.

At this point.

CHAPTER 10

Stash

“You’re taking me home.”

My companion’s words no longer held the same defiance. They were soft and full of concern. Perhaps the adrenaline had finally washed away, leaving only exhaustion in its place.

Saige was certainly enticing the wolf more than she likely wanted.

With a slight tip of my head, I noticed the way her right hand was gripping the dashboard and she was leaning forward, scanning the road. Was she expecting the boogeyman jumping from the shadows? I’d become convinced my appearance at the club had nothing to do with the attack, other than I’d successfully stopped one of two people from being killed.

Hopefully, Sean was intelligent enough to check his security cameras and cross reference his guest list to weed out any potential snitches. If there’d been more involved with theassassination party, they’d leave the premises telling stories that neither Sean nor I wanted anyone to hear.