Page 31 of Asher Black (The Five Syndicates)
“She made sense, because she was someone I’d been fucking regularly.” He says it so casually, I don’t even blink. “We’ve attended events together a few times, she’s pretty, and she has a clean record. It was believable. But you’re the jackpot. You won’t just not make me look bad. You’ll actually make me look good.”
I almost don’t register the compliment. The way he says it isn’t flattery. It just is.
I’m silent for a moment. “So, tell me. Why should I go along with this fake engagement?”
“Easy. You have no choice.”
And just when I am starting to get comfortable around him, he says something like that. I’m almost thankful for the much needed reminder of the looming threat to my life. I was letting myself relax, which could have been the death of me.
I turn to him and give him a serious look, recognizing that I should nip the threat to my life in the bud if I can. “That’s not true. At any moment, at any second, I have the power to give you up. What’s stopping me from doing that?”
“I’m a dangerous man.”
“That may be true, but I don’t think you’ll hurt me.”
“No?” He’s amused. It’s written all over his face.
“No.”
I remember his words from earlier today.
You’re an innocent. You stepped wrong, but you’re still an innocent.
After spending more time with him, I believe him now more than ever before. Maybe there actually is a line he draws, a moral code of conduct he possesses. Am I really willing to risk my life on a maybe?
I deliberate my next words carefully. “You won’t hurt me. Not when there are better alternatives. You’re a business man, so sell this to me. Convince me to willingly agree.”
Since I owe him and the deed has already been done, I’ve mentally committed myself to pretending to be his fiancée, but he doesn’t need to know that. I figure if I’m going to be his fake fiancée anyway, I might as well get something out of it. I recognize an opportunity when I see one.
He stops the car at a red light and turns to stare at me, his eyes appraising. I don’t understand what I’m seeing in them. Is that… admiration?
“Are you trying to renegotiate our terms, Ms. Ives?” There’s amusement in his icy blue eyes.
I nod and clear my face, taking a lesson from one of Aimee’s textbooks—you don’t go into a business meeting with emotions. “As far as I’m concerned, we haven’t even begun to negotiate.”
The light turns green, and I watch as Asher turns right. We pull into the garage of a building. I catch a glance at the street name before we’re driving underground. I am pleasantly surprised to learn that we’re only a block from Wilton, perfectly within walking range.
Hell, Asher’s place is even closer to the main campus than Vaserley Hall is. I’ll be able to wake up later in the morning an—… I catch myself before I finish my sentence. I haven’t even agreed to move in, yet I’m already making plans.
I’m silent as Asher drives the bat mobile deeper into the garage. I see another garage door, and when he presses a button, the door lifts. My brows lift, too. He has a private garage within the garage. Of course, he does. He parks beside a line of empty cars and kills the engine. Instead of exiting the vehicle, he leans his seat a little further back and looks at me.
“You’re flipping the tables on me,” he says, his eyes sparking with interest and something akin to appreciation.
I hold my ground, stomping out the stupid butterflies that jitter at his unspoken praise. “I’m just trying to make this a fair deal.”
I study him, waiting for him to speak, to tell me whether I made a wrong move or the right one. As I watch a myriad of emotions flit through his face, I’m shocked to realize they’re there. I thought he was cold, a killer, but since I stepped into Rogue today, he hasn’t been the ruthless killer the city paints him as.
“Have you actually killed someone?” The words slip out of my lips before I can stop them. I cover my mouth, horrified by my lack of filter. “I-I d-didn’t mean t-that.”
He stares at me, studying the fear on my face. When he finally speaks, I’m dumbfounded by his words.
“Not in a while.”
He reaches out for my trembling hands, causing my heart to still as he removes them from their position over my mouth and returns them to my lap. He lets go immediately after, but his eyes remain on mine.
“Don’t do that,” he says. “Don’t be this meek, little girl. Be the woman that challenges me. That’s the one I want to be engaged to. I have no use for the cowering little girl that shakes at the mere sight of me. I need the strong woman I know you are. The one that sees an opportunity and takes it. The one that just flipped the tables on me, demanding a fair trade… The one clever enough to test me when all she wanted was for me to slide my cock deep inside her tight walls.”
I suck in a sharp breath, unable to exhale until I absolutely have to.
