CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
Davien
MY KNEE BOUNCED up and down as I sat hunched over the small table, in our latest new location. The scattered files Marlette had sent in front of me did little to settle the unease building beneath my skin.
There’d been a murder by the thing we’d been hunting suspiciously close to where we had stayed our first week together. Far too close to be a coincidence and now I was worried that that thing appearing was somehow linked to Ailsa.
I dragged a hand over my mouth, eyes scanning the details again, slower this time. The same signs. The same absence where there should have been something. It was like this thing erased all signs of everything just with its presence.
My fingers tapped against the page before I reached for the next file, flipping it open with a quiet snap.
I leaned back slightly, dragging my gaze over the photographs again, forcing myself to look past the obvious.
But all I got was nothing.
Abso-fucking-lutely nothing.
There was so much inconsistency, but at the same time it was untraceable.
It didn’t make sense.
It didn’t follow the rules, and with that thought at the forefront of my mind, my gaze flicked across the room.
To her.
Ailsa sat curled into the worn armchair by the window, one leg tucked beneath her, a book in her hands—the one that Marlette had insisted on sending over with the files. Something to ‘keep her occupied’.
She looked so… normal.
My grip tightened around my pen.
Why did it feel like everything was tied to her?
What if they’d been tracking her? Not me… but her?
Valerius hadn’t made much sense that day in his office.
And this thing too… was it looking for her?
A quiet voice broke my thoughts. "I'm going for a shower.”
It took me a minute to register her words. “Don’t take too long,” I said finally, my voice absent as my attention drifted back to the files.
I faintly heard the soft rustling of falling clothing, and that’s when I realised she hadn’t closed the door to the bathroom.
I knew I shouldn't have, but I turned my head just slightly, catching sight of her.
My gaze snagged on a rather interesting looking tattoo on the back of her calf.
I wanted to ask about it, know its story.
And before I could stop myself, my eyes travelled the path from her calves up her deliciously soft looking thighs and higher still to the black material in the space between her thighs.
Fucking hell.
I looked away sharply, swallowing down the dryness in my mouth.
Why did I have to be so infatuated with her—her of all women.
Her blood was long out of my system now, so I couldn’t blame it on that.
This woman I knew I could never have.
I was already risking everything as it was, I didn’t need to add my heart to that.
Still, my eyes found her again, only this time she was pulling her t-shirt over her head, and fuck my life because she wasn’t wearing anything beneath it.
“Stop gawking would you?” She said without turning to face me. How the hell did she even know I was looking? “You’re acting like you’ve never seen a woman.”
Was she doing this deliberately?
Trying to fuck with me?
I cleared my throat, looking down at the papers in front of me once more. “I wasn’t.”
And I knew as soon as I said the words that I’d fucked up.
She’d baited me and I, like the fool I was, fell straight for it.
She chuckled under her breath, the sound far too fucking seductive. I shifted in my seat, spreading my legs further. “Maybe close the door then.”
She turned around and I practically bolted from the chair to face the opposite direction. I did not need to get a good eyeful of her tits. The mere flash of bare skin I’d just seen had been enough.
How far was she going to take this?
What was her end game?
“If I make you uncomfortable, maybe you could consider a hideout with separate bedrooms for us…”
And there it was. She was doing it deliberately.
I sucked my teeth before turning around, because fuck it, if she wanted me to see her, then I fucking would. I met her gaze, then. There was a captivating glint in her blue eyes—a dare. One I couldn’t back away from.
I studied her in a way I hadn't before, taking note of every one of her piercings—a nose ring, a medusa and several on her ears. From a lone freckle near her temple to her full lips, and the way her dark curls framed her face so perfectly.
And then, under her watchful eyes, I allowed my attention to drop to her bare chest, down and further still until I slowly raked them back up.
She was beyond gorgeous and I was hard as a rock, but I wasn’t going to let her know that. “Lovely,” I said, acting bored. “You can put them away now. I’m not going to change my mind. I don’t trust you, therefore you need to be watched. So no, no privacy.”
She hummed, cocking her head, eyes darting to the bulge that was apparently not as hidden as I would have liked to believe. “Does that mean you’ll be ‘watching’ me in the shower?”
What the hell had gotten into her tonight? She really needed to stop this game, or I would do it for her. My self-control was excellent, but she was pushing real hard on that boundary.
I demolished the space between us in five easy strides, standing at the threshold to the tiny bathroom in which she stood, still in only a pair of black cotton panties. Panties that I wanted to rip off of her to discover if she was as turned on as I was.
But I wouldn’t.
Couldn't.
I looked into her eyes, those shining blue orbs filled with sparks and defiance as I closed the door for her.
“I’ll take that as a no,” she said all too cheerfully through the door, and a moment later, I heard the water from the shower.
Which didn’t really help, because now I was picturing her in that shower, without the panties, wet, with her hands roaming her skin.
No.
Fucking stop it.
I clenched my fists.
I needed space. A moment without her tormenting me.
I grabbed my phone and made for the door. “I need to make a call. Don’t get any ideas. I’ll be right back. And don’t even think about running.”
I stuck the phone in my pocket along with the key I’d used to lock the door and breathed a sigh of relief as soon as I’d stepped out of the cramped space.
I knew that if she really wanted to, she could break through the door and make a run for it, but I hoped that she had more sense than that by now.