Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 60768 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 304(@200wpm)___ 243(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60768 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 304(@200wpm)___ 243(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
“No, you don’t understand,” Marlo cuts in, harsher than I’ve ever heard her. “You can’t afford to mess this up now. Not when you’re so close. Everything you’ve worked for, every sacrifice, every night you stayed quiet and played the perfect little enforcer, every time you smiled when you wanted to scream, it’s almost within reach. Falling for Poe will only complicate things. It’ll ruin everything. You let him in and he will use it against you. He will use you to save his sister and then walk away without a second thought, leaving you with nothing but the ashes of what you built. And if Serafina were to find out. She’d fucking kill you.”
Her words land like stones in my stomach, heavy and bruising.
She’s right.
She takes a deep breath in, and lets it out slowly. “There’s more. Poe’s friends… they’re closing in on your location. Somehow they found you. I think he must have contacted them. I don’t know how, but they’re coming.”
“What do we do? Should we leave?”
Marlo curses softly under her breath. “No, stay put for now. But, Orchid, you need to keep Poe in line. You make sure he finishes that hack before they get there. Do not let feelings get in the way. Not now. Not when you’re this close to the endgame. You’ve sacrificed too much to let a man with dark eyes and a talented tongue derail you.”
I nod even though she can’t see me. My throat feels raw, like I’ve been screaming. “I will. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”
“See that it doesn’t.” Her voice softens just a fraction at the end. “You’ve come too far to lose it all over pretty words and a good orgasm. Lock it down, Orchid. Lock it down tight.”
The line goes dead.
I drop the phone onto the bed and bury my face in my hands, shoulders shaking.
She’s right. I can’t afford this. Not the wanting. Not the softness. Not the stupid, dangerous hope that Poe might actually see me as more than the enemy holding the key to his sister’s cage.
He only cares about freeing Enley. That’s all he’s ever cared about. The kiss in the car, the way he dropped to his knees in the entryway, the filthy things he whispered while his tongue was inside me… it was all a performance. A tool. Just like I’m a tool to Serafina.
I curl up on the bed, still tasting him on my lips, still feeling the ghost of his tongue between my legs, the memory of his fingers curling inside me, and let the humiliation settle deep in my bones like poison.
Tomorrow I’ll be colder.
I’ll be the enforcer again, the one who never lets anyone close.
And I’ll make sure Poe finishes that hack, no matter what it costs me or how much it hurts.
Because I’ve worked too hard, sacrificed too much, bled in silence for too long, to let one man with dark eyes and dirty words ruin everything I have left.
SEVENTEEN
POE
The second the words left my mouth, I knew I fucked up.
“I think I deserve a call to my sister now.”
They hung there between us like smoke after a gunshot, thick and choking. I watched Orchid’s face change in real time, and it gutted me. The soft flush coloring her cheeks, the dazed, heavy-lidded look in her eyes from the way she had just come apart on my tongue, it all vanished in a heartbeat. Her expression shuttered completely. That cold, perfect mask she wears like second skin slid right back into place, smooth and impenetrable. Her shoulders straightened. Her chin lifted a fraction. The woman who had been trembling, gasping, and gripping my hair like I was the only thing keeping her upright was gone. In her place stood the enforcer again, distant and untouchable.
I feel like absolute shit. Stomach-turning, chest-aching, can’t-look-at-myself-in-the-mirror shit.
Because I didn’t say it to be cruel. I was still half out of my mind from the taste of her, from the way her thighs had shaken around my head, from the broken little sounds she made when she came. My body was still screaming for more, cock so hard it hurt, and the words just slipped out in a haze. But the second they left my lips I realized how they sounded. Like I dropped to my knees and ate her out until she shattered just so I could cash in a favor. Like the whole thing had been nothing but a transaction.
It wasn’t. Not for me.
I genuinely care about her. I know how insane that sounds. She works for Serafina. She’s the one keeping me locked in this cage, the one holding the leash that keeps Enley’s life dangling by a thread. But there’s more to Orchid than the fake badge and the sharp orders and the way she barks at me to obey. I’ve seen it in flashes that keep replaying in my head. The way her eyes went soft when I talked to Enley on the phone. The hesitation in the office when I refused to hack Maddox, like part of her didn’t want me to cross that line either. The way she looked at me during that ridiculous pool party, fighting the same pull I’ve felt every time I touch her in front of the neighbors.