Page 48 of The Rook’s Obsession

She glances toward the windows, where the city sprawls out in front of us. It’s dark now, lights glittering after we spent the rest of the day going from store to store, picking up clothes and essentials we’ve been going without for a while. “I was wondering what it took for the kid who grew up in that house with the blue door to build all of this.”

It hits me in a way I wouldn’t have expected. Not because it’s sentimental, she doesn’t do sentimental, but because it means she’s thinking about Liam as a person. Not as a stranger who claims to be her brother. Not a name attached to a story she can’t verify. He’s a person now, with a beginning she can picture, because she stood on the sidewalk today and saw where it all started.

“A lot,” I tell her quietly. “It took a lot. And you were part of it.”

“Me?”

“And your parents.” I didn’t mean for the conversation to move in this direction. Not now, not so soon. But standing here, surrounded by the results of Liam’s obsession… what better time is there? “You were the reason for all of this. He worked tirelessly; we both did. He built an empire brick by brick, and the goal was always to take down the man responsible for the explosion.”

I pause, glancing toward the room Liam and Aurora disappeared into when we first got here with a dozen shopping bags between us. “Aurora’s father.”

Her brows draw together. “Now I get it.” Her shoulders rise and fall in a sigh. “If this is all partly because of me, why did he practically run away as soon as we got here?”

“To give you space, probably. The only way he can do that is to keep himself away from you,” I add, when she gives me a curious look. “Nobody had to tell me. I know him. The way he thinks.”

She nods slowly, then moves down the hallway. I follow at a comfortable distance until she comes to a stop at an open doorway. She looks over one shoulder, and I nod. “Yes, we’ll stay in this room.”

It’s more like a suite, complete with an attached bathroom. I could weep at the sight of what I know is going to be a comfortable bed with enough pillows to keep me from getting a crick in my neck overnight. “I’ve missed comfort,” I admit, sitting on the corner of the bed and sighing at the firm mattress.

Ivy gives me an arched eyebrow over her shoulder before going back to gazing out the window. “You’ve gone soft. You realize that, right?”

“Did I go soft when I jabbed a hypodermic into your neck?” I counter. “Was that soft of me? Because from where I’m sitting, I outmaneuvered a trained assassin.”

She rolls her eyes, but I catch sight of the tiny grin she’s wearing when she turns back to the window. “This is very nice. And I won’t pretend I didn’t get used to a certain level of comfort over the years.”

“I guess your work paid well.”

The smallest shudder ripples through her, and she folds her arms, holding her elbows in her palms. “Yes, it paid well.”

She eyes the shopping bags lined up next to the bed. “I wouldn’t have blinked at spending this much money back in Europe. It was a drop in the bucket.”

I sense her pulling further away. Today is supposed to be about getting closer, but she’s slipping through my fingers. “If this is all too much for you, we can stay somewhere else. I know Liam wouldn’t…” The rest of the statement dies in my throat, because of course, he would mind. He would have to get over it, but I can’t pretend he’d be all right with it.

And she knows it. “No, this makes the most sense. We’re secure here.” Then she gets busy unpacking her new clothes, hanging them in the closet, and tucking things into drawers. She needs something to do. Something that will get her out of her own head for a little while.

When the time comes to settle in for the night, it’s obvious she has ideas about how to make that happen. “I’ve noticed something.”

I hear the difference in her voice. The playful note. Paired with the way she sits on the bed and leans back on her palms, she has something in mind that has nothing to do with the security system or anything else we’ve discussed since we got here.

“What’s that?” I ask, leaning against the doorframe after unpacking in the walk-in closet.

“There’s no way to tie me up in here.” She eyes the padded headboard. “What are we going to do?”

With a snicker, I ask, “Do I still need to do that?”

Something dark flashes in her eyes. The corners of her mouth quirk upward. “Who said anything about need?”

I look around the room, and my eyes land on the robes hanging in the closet. Perfect.

I cross the room and pull the two silk ties hanging from them, turning back to find her watching me with dark, hungry eyes. She knows what’s coming. And she wants it.

“Stand up,” I tell her.

She does, slow and deliberate, her gaze never leaving mine. I walk around her and take her wrists in my hands. I cross them behind her back, binding them together with the first tie, pulling it tight enough that she can’t get free but not so tight that it hurts. At least not yet.

Then I kneel, taking her ankle, lifting it. I bind her ankles together with the second tie—the silk smooth against her skin. When I stand, she’s completely at my mercy, arms trapped behind her, feet together, throwing her balance slightly off.

I push her gently, and she falls onto the bed, landing on her side. Her hair spills across the pillow, her eyes wide. I climb onto the bed behind her, positioning myself, lifting her legs and folding them toward her chest with her knees pressed against her tits, leaving her open and exposed, pussy already glistening with need.