by Katee Robert
Maybe he’d actually believe that, given enough time.
Maybe.
Chapter 8
After a day spent kicking herself for acting like the worst kind of fool, the fact that Ryu was apparently going to stand her up was just salt in Delilah’s wound. She had one chance to get close enough to gain access to his phone, and she’d screwed it up.
She had to find a way to fix this before her sister paid the price.
She couldn’t fix it if Ryu decided not to give her the time of day. Why would he? After all, she’d let him come on her chest and then left him with a whole hell of a lot of confusion. Most people didn’t respond to mind-blowing orgasms by fleeing the room immediately after.
Delilah really, really hadn’t wanted to flee the room. No, she’d wanted to follow through on the fantasy they’d spun around each other, to straddle him on that chair and ride his cock until he lost his damn mind.
More, some foolhardy part of herself had wanted to tell him the truth. About the threats against her and Esther. About what the man on the phone wanted.
She knew better than to take that risk, though. No matter how he looked at her in the midst of fooling around, he was Pestilence. Maybe he hadn’t hurt her on purpose, but there were others who weren’t so lucky. The Horsemen might not hurt people indiscriminately, but they did hurt people. Like the guy who’d tried to cheat at blackjack. Or the male stripper who attempted to run a side business of fucking customers without doing it the sanctioned way—and giving the Horsemen their cut. Or … The list went on. Every single person who crossed the Horsemen was made an example of, guest and employee alike.
Those people were just trying to mess with the business side of things. She didn’t know what would happen to someone who actually went after the Horsemen directly like she was supposed to. They might not make an example of her. They might just disappear her completely.
Her phone rang and she startled. “Damn it, I need to stop doing that.” It wasn’t the secret phone. It was the landline to the room. Could it be Ryu? Her heartbeat picked up as she answered. “Hello?”
“He’s in Pain. Wear something appropriate.”
Click.
Delilah blinked. She knew that voice, even after only a handful of interactions. Why in the hell had Death decided to meddle with Ryu’s affairs? Or, more accurately, why had Death decided that throwing Delilah at him was a legit course of action?
She knew better than to look a gift horse in the mouth, but Delilah couldn’t guarantee that’s what this was.
Maybe it’s a set up. If that wasn’t a thought to send her to her knees, she didn’t know what was.
No.
Stop it.
Reason it through.
If Death had any idea what Delilah was up to, she’d deal with it herself. She wouldn’t lay some trap and wait for Delilah to walk into it. Not at the risk that Delilah might succeed. No, if this was a set up, it was a set up. As in she wanted to set Delilah and Ryu up.
She could sit here all night and wonder what the hell the other woman was thinking, wasting yet another of the days she didn’t have … Or she could do something about it.
In the end, her priorities came down to the same thing they’d almost always come down to—Esther’s safety. Delilah would lie, cheat, and steal for her sister. She had before. She’d hoped that part of her life was behind her, but she didn’t have the time or energy to worry about hopes and wishes.
In the end, there was only her reality. And her reality demanded she find a way to get access to Ryu’s phone.
She dressed carefully for Pain. The other casino held a very different flavor to Pleasure, and though she’d been over there a time or two, it held too many temptations for Delilah to make a habit of it. Her priorities didn’t include losing her annual income to a high stakes poker table, and she wasn’t overly interested in fucking her customers, so she kept away from the play rooms. It wouldn’t do to give someone the wrong idea. She’d just end up with a whole bunch of assholes thinking they were the exception to the rule.
They weren’t.
No one ever was.
Until Ryu.
She finally settled on a tight high-waisted black skirt that was indecently short and a faux corset lacy crop top in cream. She mussed her hair a little and left it to fall in waves around her shoulders and touched up her red lipstick. There. That would do.
After a few seconds of contemplation, she took off the wrist brace and replaced it with a thick leather cuff that effectively covered the bruise and gave her a little support. Black heels finished the look.
Thirty minutes later, she walked through the doors of Pain with her game face in place. She barely made it three steps before a black man melted out of the crowded tables and gave her a brief smile. “How’re you doing, Delilah?”
“I’m doing good.” She nodded at Damien, the man who seemed to run a whole hell of a lot of the island. He answered to the Horsemen alone, and though she and he would never be friends—he was too professional for that—she had a healthy respect for him. “I’m eager to be back to work.”
“No reason to rush healing.” He nodded at the hallway leading deeper into the building. “He’s in the private viewing rooms. Number four.”
No doubt Death instructed him to tell her that.
Delilah opened her mouth to ask what Damien thought of this whole thing, but stopped the words before they fell from her lips. Damien might be a decent guy, but like every other employee on the island, he owed his complete allegiance to the Horsemen. If he knew what she planned, no amount of liking her would stop him from turning her in.
She just smiled. “Thanks.”
“Delilah.”
She stopped a step away. “Yeah?”
“No doubt you know what you’re about, but … be careful.” He turned and disappeared back into the crowd around the blackjack table before she could formulate a response. Really, what was there to say? In another life, maybe she would be letting herself fall into whatever this was with Ryu. After all, she lived by the motto, the bigger the risk, the bigger the reward.
Ryu had risk written all over him.
She headed back toward the viewing rooms. They were set up similarly to the private dancing rooms in her club, but they were peppered throughout the halls. They gave her the rundown over what each room covered when she first arrived here, and what the payments would be if she decided to participate in anything that went down at Pain. She was on the Island of Ys to dance, though, so she hadn’t taken them up on it.
Delilah stopped in front of a black door with a stylized four on it. She had absolutely no idea what she was walking into. Probably not an orgy—this was one of the smaller rooms, after all, and Ryu had his thing about being touched. Lots of touching in an orgy. She swallowed hard to keep a borderline hysterical giggle inside. No use in waiting out here longer. She wouldn’t know what she was walking into until she crossed the threshold.
Taking one last deep breath, she turned the handle and entered the room.
It was smaller than she expected, just large enough to house a curved couch and a tiny bar in the corner. The couch was deep and large enough to fit a handful of people, but the only one occupying it was Ryu. He sprawled in the middle, his gaze on the massive framed window that looked into a second room. This one was better lit and held a huge bed. On the bed, there was a woman and two men. They hadn’t gotten to fucking yet, but they were well on their way. All were naked and one of the men had the woman pinned against his chest while the other went down on her.
Delilah watched his head move, watched the way the second man clasped her to his chest to keep her thrashing still, watched him cup her breasts with two big hands. Oh wow. Her body went hot, and then cold, and then hot again. This was what got Ryu off?
She couldn’t say that she blamed him.
Ryu turned and froze. “Delilah?”
This whole time, she’d been focused on getting to him, ensuring that she didn’t miss
another chance to gain access to his phone. She hadn’t really thought about how she’d play it once she was in his presence. Standing here in this dim room with an insanely sexy scene going down on the other side of the glass … She didn’t know what she was supposed to do. “Hi.”
“Hi,” he echoed. Ryu narrowed his eyes. “How did you find me?” He didn’t seem particularly happy to see her. That should scare her, probably. It did scare her, but not because she thought he’d hurt her. He wouldn’t, not without reason. No, the fear taking flight in her chest was at the thought of what would happen to Esther if she failed. She couldn’t stand here and stare at him until he got fed up and kicked her out. This was her last chance. Her only chance, really.
Delilah set her shit aside. It didn’t matter how scared and uncertain she felt. Those emotions were nothing new. She’d been feeling them her entire life. She shoved them down into a little box deep inside her and clicked the lock shut. A mental trick she’d learned a long time ago, one to keep her from losing her mind while she lived in her father’s house. Ryu and her father might be nothing alike, but her helplessness in her current situation felt identical. It didn’t matter. She’d gotten out before, and she’d find a way out now.
Delilah forced herself to stop worrying her bottom lip and speak. “You’re avoiding me.”
Ryu didn’t blink. “Usually when someone is avoiding you, you don’t seek them out like this.”
A fair point, but she didn’t let that dampen her momentum. “You’re feeling guilty and out of control, and you’re blaming me for it. That’s not fair.”
His glare intensified. “Am I feeling guilty, Delilah? Or am I getting mixed messages that I won’t want anything to do with?”
Guilty. She had no ready response to that. Even without the clock ticking down in her head, she would have dodged spending more time with Ryu. He was dangerous, for one. Maybe not dangerous to her, but she couldn’t guarantee that. Not really. His first priority would always be the island and the other Horsemen. Even if he didn’t rule the same way her father did, she’d had enough of being attached to powerful men in one way or another. It always worked out well for them.
Not so well for her.
Walking away wasn’t an option, no matter how much she might prefer it. Something like relief flicked through her. She didn’t have to walk away. She had no choice, so it was okay to take a step closer to this man. If only for a little while.
“You’re punishing me for no reason.” Brazen to challenge him like this, but she had to do something to ensure he let her stay.
He studied her for a long moment with a look on her face like he’d never seen her before. “You’re acting like I went out of my way to hurt you by coming here. The last time we were alone, you ran from me. Most would call this respecting your wishes.”
Now was the time when she’d spin some convincing lie to put him at ease, to weave the spell around them the same way she did when she danced. But when Delilah spoke, it wasn’t a lie that spilled from her lips.
It was the truth.
“I don’t do this.” She motioned between them, encompassing more than just a stray orgasm in the pool. “I don’t hook up with people I dance for, and my control doesn’t slip, and I definitely don’t put myself in positions that might negatively affect my livelihood. And what happened in the pool did all three of those things.” He didn’t speak, didn’t move, didn’t do anything but watch her with dark eyes, so she kept going. “I wanted what we did, Ryu. I wanted more than what we did. But it scared me, too.” So many things scared her these days, the fear more deadly than water closing over her head, dragging her down to the deep.
He finally seemed to come to a decision and rose. “Do you want a drink?”
She wanted about ten drinks. “White wine would be great.”
Several minutes later, she perched on the couch next to him. Close enough that he could touch her if he reached over, but nowhere near close enough to be seen as an invitation.
Liar. You being here at all is an invitation.
She still hadn’t managed to look through the glass at the scene playing out on the bed. Delilah took a cautious sip of the wine. Expensive. It was dry and crisp and she could probably drink an entire bottle of it if she wasn’t careful. She set the glass on the table near the couch. “I’m sorry.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for.”
If he only knew. She smoothed a hand down the soft fabric of the couch. “I’m the one who escalated things in the pool.”
Ryu snorted. “We both seem determined to take the blame for the situation.” He twisted a little and stretched his arm out over the back of the couch. An inch and he could brush his fingers along the bare skin on her shoulder. “There are a thousand reasons why I shouldn’t touch you.”
“Probably more than that why getting involved with you is a terrible idea.” The way he pulled at her defied explanation. She caught herself leaning forward as if she was a flower seeking his sun.
“Getting involved,” he said the words as if tasting them. “Delilah’s a biblical name. The woman who seduced Samson and cut his hair.”
A fact her father had reminded her of time and time again as she grew up. As if he’d known the second her mother birthed her that she’d cause him nothing but trouble and decided to slap a name on her to justify his shitty treatment of her.
Temptress.
Heathen.
Sinner.
If he only knew.
She wanted to reach up and ruffle Ryu’s hair, but touching him was out of the question. “I’m pretty sure Samson wasn’t an innocent when he went into that relationship.”
“No doubt.” He gifted her with a grin, quick and wicked. The expression disappeared far too soon. “But I’m no Samson. I have responsibilities and, whether it feels like it or not, I ultimately hold power over your job. Over you. Losing control like we did before is it out of the question.”
“Seems we both are coming up short on the self-control spectrum.”
“Seems so.” Something in him relaxed for the first time since she walked into the room. It left him seeming less like the forbidding Pestilence and more like a man. He went from dangerously attractive to something so much more. Ryu shook his head slowly. “What am I going to do with you, Delilah?”
She hadn’t had a clear plan when she came into this room, but in that moment all Delilah wanted was have his hands on her again. To let him stop her circling thoughts in their tracks and—
That is not what I’m here for. Remember what I’m here for.
The phone.
Nothing more.
She took him in, telling herself she was searching for evidence of his phone. It wasn’t the complete truth. Being able to drink her fill of this man was a reward all on its own. He always looked so perfectly put together in his black suits and white button-downs. Not a stray hair out of place. Not a button done up wrong. Even his shoes shone in the low light.
Except the closer she looked, the more she saw. He’d unbuttoned the top few buttons of his shirt, revealing a delicious slice of skin. The tiniest indication that he was here to relax, rather than to work. For all that, there was a tightness around his jawline and dark smudges beneath his eyes. He wasn’t sleeping, and she had no idea if she was the cause or not. The thought that she might be made her a little sick to her stomach.
The knowledge that it would get worse if she was successful almost had her standing and leaving the room.
“Delilah.” Ryu wound a strand of her hair around his finger. “I don’t deserve your trust at this point, but I promise I’ll do my damnedest to make sure this doesn’t blow up in our faces.”
If only it was that easy. Ryu might be one of the most powerful people in this little corner of the world, but the writing was already on the wall. He might like the way she looked, he might want to fuck her, but in the end she was disposable as far as he was concerned. Another one of the many employees that populated the island. She’d had her c
hance to come clean the second the phone showed up in her room. She hadn’t then, and now she was complicit.
Getting banished from the Island of Ys was the very best case scenario, and that would mean the worst for Esther. And if Ryu or the others decided that her betrayal required a more permanent punishment?
Delilah couldn’t guarantee that the man on the other end of the phone wouldn’t hurt Esther out of sheer annoyance. No, she couldn’t trust Ryu. Not with this. She couldn’t let something as simple as guilt stop her from keeping her sister from harm. Delilah was a liar and, before this night was over, she’d be a thief, too.
The smart thing to do would be to turn the conversation elsewhere, or maybe to direct his focus to the threesome currently going on in the room on the other side of the glass. Distract him without letting herself become distracted in the process. But Ryu chose that moment to stroke his thumb across her cheekbone, the touch so light, she could almost convince herself she’d imagined it. She closed her eyes and leaned into the touch, willing to be swept away.
“You are so beautiful, it takes my breath away.” The words came out low, as if he spoke to himself. “You quiet my demons, Delilah.”
She opened her eyes. “Ryu.” It was all there on the tip of her tongue. The truth. A confession. A plea for help, any help. But he was right. He hadn’t earned her trust.
Not when Esther’s safety hung in the balance.
She couldn’t trust herself not to blurt it all out despite that, so she took the only avenue available to her. Delilah leaned forward and kissed him.
Chapter 9
Now was the time to stop it.
To explain what Ryu meant when he said Delilah was beautiful, how he hadn’t actually intended to seduce her. The second her lips touched his, however, all his good intentions went up in flames. He swore he could actually feel them turning to ash inside him. She tasted like cinnamon and something unknowable, as if he could spend the next ten years kissing her and never truly reach understanding of this woman. That, more than anything else, tipped Ryu over the edge.
