by Katee Robert
Words rose, words she had no intention of voicing. “You know, if things were different, I would be bending over backwards to seduce you into being my boyfriend.”
His fingers flexed against her hips, ever so slightly. “If things were different, I would do my own bending for you.”
“But they’re not different.”
“No. They’re not.”
Their breath mingled, their lips the barest hint of distance apart. She could kiss him now. It didn’t have to be for a reason, or a plot, or some greater sacrifice. She could do it because she wanted to.
Because she wanted him.
Ryu’s hands slid down to her bare thighs and then back up again, this time under her over-sized sleep shirt. His breath caught when he encountered no panties, and she almost smiled. She’d spent all her adult life creating fantasies for strangers, weaving the illusion of seducing them so they would throw money at her, and this man threatened to be undone by the least sexy thing she owned.
If things were different, she could love him.
If they weren’t balancing on opposite ends of a conflict neither of them could compromise on.
The moment took on a dreamlike quality. She reached for him, withdrawing his cock and giving him a slow stroke. He dug into the side table and came up with a condom. Delilah took it from him, tore open the package, and rolled it over his length. A small movement, a tiny adjustment, and he was inside her. Even though neither of them spoke, this moment felt like a communion. A meeting of minds.
Pleasure built in slow waves, lapping against her resolve. She was so tired of standing alone. So tired of holding everything in and letting no one close. “Ryu …”
“Not yet.” He smoothed his hands down her hips and around to palm her ass, guiding her movements, urging her closer and closer to the edge. “Trust me, Delilah. I’ve got you.”
Words she wanted to hear more than anything in the world.
Delilah came in Ryu’s arms with a soft cry. She kept riding him, kept drawing out the pleasure as he followed her to his own orgasm. And then he just … held her. Demanding nothing. Asking nothing. Just offering her comfort she most definitely didn’t deserve.
She had to tell him the truth.
She had to.
CHAPTER 14
“I got a call a little over three weeks ago from a phone that appeared in my bedroom.”
Ryu stopped breathing. This morning he woke up with Delilah in his arms again and had vowed to find a way to make this work—to pave the way for many more mornings like the two he’d had here in this villa. He hadn’t dared hope that she’d actually trust him enough to tell him the truth.
She shifted closer to him, her head tucked against his shoulder, her dark eyes hidden from him. “The man on the other end wanted me to spy on the Horsemen for him. I thought it was a joke or something. I mean, it was all very over the top. I told him to fuck off.” Tension worked its way into her body. “The next day, I got a series of pictures of my little sister. They know where she goes to school, where she hangs out, where she sleeps.”
He couldn’t imagine the horror she felt upon seeing those pictures. The feeling would only be worse because she had no one to share it with. She’d been well and truly isolated.
No longer.
He pulled her closer and rested his chin on the top of her head. “So you agreed.”
“So I agreed.” She shivered. “Sleeping with you wasn’t part of the plan. I thought I could dance for you and lift the phone, follow their instructions, and replace it.”
An impossible task. Even as distracted as he was when she danced, he would have noticed. Maybe not right away, but it took at least a couple seconds to send and receive a text. “I would have caught you.”
“You caught me either way.” She sighed. “I was never much of a pickpocket.”
“I could teach you a thing or two.”
She lifted her head. “What?”
“We’re hardly on the straight and narrow right now, but it still took a really rambling path for me and my siblings to get to this island. We stole, cheated, and played anyone we got close to for a few years there when we lived on the streets.” Years during which Amarante had somehow managed to get her hands on a computer and a starting point for Ryu to learn.
Delilah frowned. “I tell you that I’ve been spying on you and your response is to offer to teach me to pick pockets better?”
“I already knew you were behind my phone being hacked. This isn’t a revelation, Delilah.” He smoothed her dark hair back from her face. “What I need to know is what happens next? He wasn’t satisfied with the phone hack alone, was he?”
“No.” She shook her head slowly. “He said I had seven days before he gave me my next instructions.”
Time enough to ensure the phone hack worked, but the enemy would be a fool to pass up the opportunity Delilah offered. She’d gotten close enough to Ryu to be a threat. If circumstances were different, if they were different people, he might have been led around by his nose … right into the kind of trap a person didn’t bounce back from.
“Do you know how he’s monitoring you?”
“No. The phone showing up had to be left by someone, right? But he’s known things that no one should be able to, stuff that happened when we were alone.” She made a face. “At least I thought we were alone.”
That was bad. Really bad. If it was simply the camera system they had access to, Ryu could find and eradicate them. A mole on the inside, though? That would be harder to determine, would take time they didn’t have.
He set aside planning how to figure that out for a moment and cupped her face with both hands. “Thank you for trusting me.”
“My sister’s life is hanging in the balance. I … Please don’t make telling you the truth be a mistake, Ryu.” She worried her bottom lip. “He said if I so much as board transport off the island, they’ll kill her.”
“We’ll find a way.” He realized how ineffectual the words were the second he voiced them. Ryu cleared his throat. “You can’t tell anyone what you just told me. Not a single one of my siblings.” They wouldn’t have the same restraints Ryu would when it came to dealing with Delilah’s betrayal. “In the meantime, we play along.”
She blinked. “What?”
“As far as anyone knows, we’re here fucking each other’s brains out.”
That brought a small smile to her lips. “That is what we spent last night doing.”
“We go back today. We act like nothing’s changed. We keep up appearances.” He took a deep breath. “With one exception. I have to tell Amarante.”
“You just said you didn’t want to tell anyone. Now you want to tell Death?” Real fear lurked in her eyes.
He wished he could expel it without lying. “If I don’t give my sister a reason to hold off on her plans, then she’ll be in serious danger. She might actually die. She’ll do it for a noble cause, but that won’t make her any less dead.” Ryu took a slow breath. “I have absolutely no right to ask you to trust me further, but I need you to trust me to handle her and the situation.”
Delilah pulled back, and he released her. She sat up and looked away. “And what about my sister?”
“I’ll send Kenzie—War—to retrieve her.”
She turned and stared. “Ryu, you said we’d keep it between ourselves and you just listed two out of three of your siblings as needing to be let in on the plan. I don’t think secret means what you think it means when you put it like that.”
Damn it, but she was right. And if Kenzie and Amarante knew, then Luca would have to be told as well. Ryu scrubbed his hands over his face. “You’re right. Okay, change of plans.”
“Uh huh.”
“We’ll go back. You’ll go to your room. I’ll deal with my siblings. Once I have them calmed down and reasonable, I’ll get you and we’ll keep up the charade for the rest of the public.” At her skeptical look, he amended. “Public and private.”
“We don’t know ho
w this guy is keeping track of me. Who’s to say he won’t have a way to monitor you, too.” She shook her head. “Wait a minute, that doesn’t make sense. If he could monitor you, he wouldn’t need me. Forget I said anything.”
Ryu carefully took her hands. He braced himself for the instinctive response to her palms against his, but …it didn’t come. There was nothing but the steady warmth and the calluses from her work on the pole. He let loose a breath he hadn’t even been aware he held. “I will do my best not to endanger you or your sister while I see this through. I promise.”
She hesitated. “I suppose that’s the best I can hope for.”
“I’d be lying if I say there are any guarantees. There aren’t. I suspect this person has some connection to my father, but I don’t know for certain. Even if he doesn’t, I’ll make sure you and Esther are safe.” It was the absolutely least he could do considering she was in this situation because of him.
“Ryu …” She stared at their linked hands. “I really, really want to trust you.”
Easy enough to read between the lines. She’d had only herself and her sister to rely on for her whole life. It stood to reason that adding another person to the mix wasn’t comfortable in the least. He brought their hands up and kissed her knuckles. “I will do my damnedest to be worthy of your trust, Delilah.”
“Okay,” she whispered.
“I need to make a few calls.” He had to prep his siblings before he got back to the hub. With emotions running so high, he couldn’t accurately anticipate how they’d react.
But it was a chance they had to take.
Delilah walked to the doorway, gave him one last searching look, and disappeared deeper into the house. He let out a slow breath, the weight of what he’d just agreed to threatening to grind him to dust. He couldn’t guarantee her sister’s safety. He couldn’t guarantee anyone’s safety.
Focus.
He headed into his office and made the hardest of the three calls. Amarante answered quicker than he expected. “Taking time out from your honeymoon?”
“Do you trust me, Te?”
She paused, as if he’d surprised her. “Of course I trust you.”
“No, not like that. Do you trust me to make the right call? Do you trust me enough to give me the benefit of the doubt?”
This time, the pause lasted longer. “Why are you asking me this?”
Answer enough in that. He turned to look out the window. This place was supposed to be paradise—it was paradise—but sometimes he wondered it was all worth it. If they really needed to create a whole new sandbox to play in when they could have just as easily slid through the shadows surrounding their enemies. “I’m asking you this because I have information that potentially connects to our father, but it’s sensitive and thorny.”
“Thorny,” she repeated. “This has to do with your woman.”
No use denying it. “Do you trust me?” he asked again.
“Damn it, yes. Yes, I trust you.” Real frustration leaked into her tone. “Do you think I want to go through with this risky of a plan, Ryu? I’m not so hellbent on this course that I’ll turn away from an actual option.”
He didn’t really know if it was an option. Not yet. It would take most of the remaining seven days to hack his way through to figure out the person’s identity. If they weren’t connected with his father … It didn’t matter.
He’d promised Delilah that he’d take care of it, and he would. Regardless of the identity of their enemy. It wouldn’t solve his fears for his sister, though. He pinched the bridge of his nose, fighting against the fear clawing through him. No matter which way he turned, he had no guarantees. None. If he didn’t try something then Amarante would be in danger, and likely Esther as well. It didn’t matter if they were connected or not.
“Ryu?”
He took a deep breath. “Someone is blackmailing Delilah to try to get information on us. I don’t think they intend to stop there, and I’m going after them.”
“She told you this and you just …believed her.” A world of censorship in her tone.
“Te,” he warned.
“Do you really think that she’s being truthful? Or is she simply angling for a permanent place at your side and she’s using this fabricated danger to do so?” She laughed harshly. “This is what you wanted time for? I never realized you were so foolish when it came to women.”
“Amarante, that’s enough.” He hated that she thought so little of him, but despite what she believed, his sister didn’t actually know everything. “I have evidence that her claims are truth, not that I need to provide them to you. Even if I didn’t, you acting like I’m a fumbling teenager who can’t think past my hormones is bullshit. I’m bringing Delilah back to Pleasure. You will be kind and courteous and will refrain from threatening her. I need my main system, and once I have the identity of the man threatening her, we will launch a combination attack and rescue mission. And then we will decide how to handle the meeting at the Warren.”
“It certainly sounds like you have it all planned out already.”
“Either you trust me or you don’t.”
She sighed. “As you wish. Your woman will face no danger from me. You don’t need my permission to allocate resources.”
It wasn’t quite the agreement he wanted, but it would have to do. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me. My timeline hasn’t changed.”
“Te—”
“I’ll see you later today.” She hung up before he could get another word out. His sister always had possessed a dramatic flair, though she kept it locked down most of the time. The ability to resist getting the last word was beyond her, though.
He ran his hand through his hair and braced himself for the next call. Kenzie was both more reasonable and more explosive than Amarante, and if she thought Ryu was being manipulated, she’d charge over here and handle Delilah herself.
In fact, maybe he shouldn’t call her at all …
His phone rang.
Ryu looked at it in horror. Damn it, he’d made a mistake, and he couldn’t even dodge it because if he didn’t answer, she would be out here inside of an hour. He bit back a curse and answered. “Good morning, Kenzie.”
“You know, normally when someone seduces you just to spy on you, you don’t bend over backwards to play into their hands.” He wasn’t fooled by Kenzie’s teasing tone. She rarely telegraphed her intentions before she struck. “Honestly, Ryu, you’re making us look bad. You’re supposed to be the unflappable one and here you are, determined to get yourself killed. What is with you two?”
He strove for patience. “I see that you’ve talked to Amarante.” In the last sixty seconds.
“Correction—I was standing next to her during that disastrous call. If your goal was to rile her up and make her even more determined to martyr herself … Good job, you accomplished it.”
Fuck. “I’m heading back to Pleasure shortly. I need you and the others to act like nothing is wrong.”
She snorted. “Right. Like that’s going to happen.”
“Kenzie.”
“Ryu.” She mimicked his severe tone.
“I need you with me on this. Not just because of Amarante. I need you and your Irishman to take care of something off the island.”
That perked her right up. “You always give me the best gifts.”
“This one is a doozy. I’ll tell you all about it—after you agree not to do anything rash when we get back to the casino.”
She huffed out a breath. “Fine. I’ll play nice with your little traitor. For now.”
He wouldn’t get any better offer than that. “See you soon.” Ryu hung up and called Luca because if he didn’t, then Luca would have to try to kick his ass on principle. He shook his head as his brother rasped out a hello. “I’m bringing Delilah back to the casino. Don’t cause problems. Our sisters are doing enough of that for all four of us.”
Luca was silent for a beat. Two. “Is there direct danger to us?”
“Not actively. I’m trying to deal with it before it escalates.”
“Then I’ll follow your lead. For now.”
“Thank you.” He set his phone down and exhaled the tension from his body. All in all, it had gone better than he expected.
Ryu went in search of Delilah. She didn’t make it hard to find her. She sat on her bed, her packed bag next to her. Sitting like this, she looked …small. Breakable. It made him want to gather her up and stand between her and whatever sucker punches the world was determined to deliver. Ryu knew better. There were too many things he couldn’t protect her from—couldn’t protect himself from. “We’ll get through this.”
“You sound particularly confident of that.” ‘
“We’ll get through this,” he repeated. Ryu held out his hand. “Come on. It’s time to go home.”
Delilah set her hand in his and allowed him to tug her to her feet. She looked at their clasped hands and frowned. “I forgot.”
It took him half a second to catch up. He tensed and then slowly relaxed, letting the truth wash over him. She could touch him. He couldn’t guarantee his reaction if she surprised him, but … She could touch him. He ran his free hand over hers, marveling at the strength and beauty there. “It’s okay. You stopped being a stranger days ago.”
“Thank you for your trust.” She gave a bittersweet smile. “I really wish things were different. That I was just a dancer and you were just a guy. Maybe we could have made a go of things if there wasn’t so much stacked against us. I really like you.”
“I really like you, too.” He gave her hand a squeeze and reached past her for her bag. This time, she let him take it without an argument. “There’s no reason we can’t make a go of it.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“Why not?” He liked Delilah. A lot. Fuck, he might actually love her, though he’d be damned before he faced that emotion at this juncture. Not when they had so much in the air, so much that could go wrong. Those kinds of talk and commitments were better left for once the dust had settled. Once they were surer of each other.
