4. Avery
AVERY
I keep stroking the rose petals with my fingers all the way home. The red is the most intense I’ve seen, and the texture is like the finest velvet, or silk.
My brain knows Kill gave it to me because his mother would have insisted I left otherwise, but my stupid heart is clinging to the symbolism and his kiss.
Also probably calculated.
There was no chance we weren’t going to be caught. He was doing exactly what he paid me for. I was running interference.
I sneak into the house. It’s completely quiet. My parents are asleep. But although I lock the door behind me and undress in the dark, as silently as I can so I don’t wake anyone, and get into bed in my long pyjamas, I can’t sleep.
My lips still tingle from Kill’s kiss.
My body has shudders of pleasure from just the memory.
In the morning, I wake to find a message from something called Paddington Station, saying I have a money deposit from Archway for an eye-watering amount of money.
It feels too good to be true. A scam. But a quick search online reveals this is a way for mafias to discreetly pay their contractors.
I have to go in person to Padding Station to pick it up.
There’s also a job contract in my email, for a more modest, starting salary type number, and a note that my bonuses will be paid externally.
I get both? That’s insane.
My job title is completely innocent. I’m a junior legal assistant. My direct manager is Mr K. Farrell.
I drift downstairs to grab coffee and breakfast, still in shock, I think. I might be for a while. Like the flu, Kill is difficult to get over.
He kissed me. He’s employed me.
I want to talk to him, but if I do, I’ll forfeit everything.
“Did you manage to find a job yesterday?” My mum asks as she’s wiping the counters at top speed as I enter the kitchen.
She clearly thinks it’s unlikely. She doesn’t even look at me, and the places she’s cleaning are already perfectly clean, but that doesn’t stop her.
My mum is a whirlwind. She almost never sits down and is happiest doing three things at once.
“Were they impressed by your degree?” The scepticism bleeds into her tone.
She’s of the opinion that school is overrated, and education a waste of time.
Almost as much as reading.
“They were, actually.” I can’t help but smile a bit as I remember Kill’s reaction to my CV.
“Didn’t give you a job, though?” My mum’s expression could be mistaken for sympathy, were her words not barbed.
“No, they did?” My voice goes up at the end. I really need coffee before this conversation, but my mum was awake at dawn and has no respect for anyone else’s schedule.
“Oh!” She pauses her cleaning to smile at me. “That’s great! What are you doing? When are you starting? Do you want breakfast beforehand?”
Oh nooo… I can’t go there, because Kill’s mother, Sue, was very clear. No contact outside of the competition.
“It’s mainly remote working,” I blurt out.
“Just a day or two a week I need to be in the office.” But as soon as I say that, my mind is whirring, because with the amount that Kill has given me already, I could move out from home, and not have to face these questions.
I won’t do that yet, because who knows when this ends.
Though, I could at least afford to go to a coffee shop for a few hours to leave the house while I’m pretending to work.
“I’ll go in to sign some things later,” I add, thinking of Paddington Station and the money that might be waiting there.
“Yes, get them pinned down. No zero hours contracts. Make sure…” I nod as she goes on, not needing much from me.
That day, I relive the kiss a thousand times. Every sexy, filthy, forbidden detail, until I’m crazy with wanting to know what would have happened next if we hadn’t been interrupted.
Probably nothing. He was probably just doing it to prove a point. Whereas it was the first time I’ve had a kiss that felt like something. Made me feel.
I want to contact Kill. I talk myself in and out of emailing him back about the job, or the money via Paddington Station.
His generosity is so kind. But much as I’d like to say thank you, and can we meet, and I’d like to see you—not that last one, I wouldn’t admit that—the words of his mother echo in my head.
She’d happily find an excuse to kick me off the competition, and contacting Kill outside of it would definitely count.
So I spend the week learning about Archway, and the other girls competing to be Kill’s bride, and make myself a little crazy wondering what the next “date” will be.
Because Kill’s one instruction was that I have to win.
And I can’t stop thinking how I want another kiss.