Page 70 of The Viper's Wife

“Yes.”

“Lacey.” He says her name like he’s committing it to memory.

I snap my head toward him. “Leave her alone. She didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Alright.”

He doesn’t say anything else, but he doesn’t seem as tense as before. Eventually, I lean my head against the cold window and close my eyes.

When I open them again, Nico’s turning off the engine. He opens his door, and I startle awake like an air horn’s gone off next to my ear.

He’s heading for the trunk.

I can’t let him grab my bag of cash. I stumble out, making my way to the trunk.

A car drives past us in the parking deck, and I tighten his coat around myself. Nico’s gaze coasts down my body before flicking back to my face with a look of frustration.

Or lust.

I shiver in a way that has nothing to do with the cold.

Nico steps away from the car, all of my bags in hand. “Let’s go.”

I flinch at every sound as we walk from the parking garage to the apartment lobby. This late, there’s no one around, but I’m mortified at the thought of a group of nuns or school kids turning the corner.

The elevator doors open, and I dash inside. Nico steps in behind me.

“Nervous?” he asks. There’s a hint of teasing in his voice.

“You would be too if your whole ass was hanging out.”

The bags shift in his arms as he leans back to catch a lingering glance at my backside. “Not your whole ass.”

The elevator arrives at Nico’s floor. He carries my things down the hall to his empty apartment.

Unsure of what else to do, I follow him.

His apartment door clicks shut behind us. “Come on.”

My nerves twist and fray as I take off my heels and trail him to his bedroom. This time, I can focus on what the restof his room looks like. A huge bed on a solid wood frame eats up most of the space, but it’s tiny in comparison to a painting in abstract splashes of red that hangs off the wall.

A gift from his sister, maybe.

It looks like the inside of a monster’s bloody mouth.

He drops my bags at the foot of his bed. I look anywhere but at my pink duffel bag.

“You’re sleeping here.”

I glance around. “Where are you sleeping?”

Nico watches me intentionally as he strips off his shirt. “I’m sleeping with you.”

My body flushes hot. “That’s a bad idea. We need to be sleeping in separate beds.”

“Why? Worried about your virginity?”

His shirt hits the floor. The ink covering his muscled physique is temptation incarnate.