They bid us goodnight and step inside.
Felix turns to me with a horrified expression. “Did they know? Because it seems like they knew.”
I grin at him. “I think Nancy approves.”
He laughs and shakes his head at me. “I need to get you into bed before we get arrested.”
“Your bed?” I ask.
“My bed.”
“I’m going to stop in my room and change first,” I say.
“Don’t take too long,” he says. “The bed and I have plans for you.”
I take a shower and slip into pajamas, then pad over to Felix’s room and knock on the door.
He answers shirtless, with a towel wrapped around his waist.
He gives me a lopsided grin. “Hey.”
I give him one back. Not that I have a choice. My face just smiles when it sees him. “Hey.”
“I’m finishing up,” he says. “Warm up the bed?”
I walk into the bedroom. The bed is pristinely made, but there’s a piece of paper over the pillow on the side I’ve been sleeping on.
It’s a sketch—a line drawing in the same style as Felix’s tattoos.
In it, a woman in robes sits on a throne, holding a wand up into the sky. Below it the wordEMPRESSis scrawled in all caps.
The woman has my face.
My heart throbs. Donotcry, I instruct myself. Whatever you do,do not cry.
Felix emerges from the bathroom.
“Hey,” I say, holding up the sketch. “Did you draw this for me?”
He sits down next to me and kisses my cheek. “You deserve to have everything you want,” he says.
I lean into him, still damp and warm from the shower.
“You’re who I want.”
I didn’t mean to say that. I meant to say “what I want.” “Who I want” sounds too personal.
It sounds long-term.
His eyes go dark, possessive.
He puts his hand flat to my chest, above my breasts, and pushes me down onto the mattress. “You’re who I want too,” he rumbles.
I gasp as he parts my legs with his knee. The drawing I’m still holding flutters to the floor. I make a mental note not to forget it, and then my brain is unable to focus on anything except his hands, gripped on my wrists, lifting them above my head and pinning them in place.
I arch up to him, because our interlude al fresco left me very ready to go and I want to speed this along.
But he doesn’t let me.
