I can’t believe people willingly drink this stuff. What did Kade say one of its benefits was? Forgetting your problems? I like the sound of that. Still pinching my nose, I open my mouth and swallow a big mouthful of the drink that eerily resembles water.
But tastes nothing like it!
I swallow and clench my teeth with a hiss as fire burns at my throat.
“Uck.”
I shudder violently and inhale, desperate for air to soothe the pain. The burn subsides quickly and I take another swig. And another. And another. I keep going until the glass is finished and my head is spinning. The alcohol makes quick work of me, loosening my muscles until I can no longer hold myself still. Concrete slabs hang from my eyelids and I giggle as I slip off my stool.
Now I get why Fortunates are obsessed with the stuff. It makes everything seem okay. It sucks the stress out and replaces it with nothing.
There is absolutely nothing in this world that can hurt me.
And I love it.
Chapter Fourteen
Kade
“Walk faster,” he snapped at Portia as she lagged behind him, her jaw clenching whenever she put her weight onto her feet.
She cast her gaze to the ground and nodded her head without complaint. “Yes, Master Kade.”
Underneath his shoes, rocks crumbled and twigs snapped. Kade remembered she wasn’t wearing shoes like he was. Exhaling, he slowed his pace so she could take her time as they marched across the sharp rocks.
It wasn’t Portia’s fault he was in such a mood. It’d been three hours since he left Nine in her room and that made him uneasy. Vince’s presence at the Sario house instead of the Milanos’ eased him a little, but the worry of someone hurting her when Kade wasn’t there to protect her still lingered. He hated that he had to baby her, to treat her like a weak female when she was anything but, but that was the way it had to be. It was a dangerous world and she was in the spotlight.
“I have something important to tell you, but I’m waiting for the opportune time,” Kade told Portia, slipping his hands into the pockets of his slacks and glancing over his shoulder.
“Yes, Master Kade.”
Kade couldn’t help it. A smile tugged at his lips. Nine would have demanded he tell her. She rarely made anything easy. Always snooping. Always curious.
“Make sure that envelope I gave you goes straight to Oliver Crow,” he ordered as he ducked under a low hanging tree branch at the back of the Milano residence. “It’s an order from the City.”
“Yes, sir.”
Portia stepped around him and he glanced at her feet. She lifted her heel off of a dry, pale leaf and a light smear of blood printed clearly against its smooth texture. The sight of it stabbed right through his heart and impaled his soul. All the bacteria it must be accumulating…all of the dirt and muck.
“When you’re done…” He scratched the back of his head. “Go back to my room, lock the door, and soak your feet in the bathtub. There’s a bottle in the cupboard on the top shelf. Put a few drops into the water. It’ll clean your wound and decrease your chances of an infection.”
Portia frowned. She frowned the way Nine did whenever he told her to do something she knew she shouldn’t.
“There are a few gems in the bottom drawer of my cupboard.” Kade added, retrieving his order coin from the pocket of his slacks. “Take them into town and purchase a pair of slippers from the Unfortunate store.” He handed her the coin with the Sario lion head on it. “If anyone approaches you, show them this. They’ll leave you alone.”
Portia reached out for the coin with her slender hand, but Kade pulled it back and clenched it in his fist.
“Do your best to keep these shoes from getting damaged. You’re only allowed three pairs in your lifetime and these will be your fourth.”
“I am grateful for your kindness, Master Kade.”
He flinched. Grateful for a pair of shoes to protect her beaten feet. She was worthy of more than that. He knew, Unfortunate or not, Portia was a woman of great integrity. She was a leader, a woman that could change the world if she was given the chance.
And she would be. It was only a matter of time before she had the freedom she deserved.
Kade handed Portia the coin and she turned around and stalked toward the Milano mansion, moving with purpose, her head held high.
There was a war coming and it finally made sense. He had to do it for Nine…
For their children…
For secret friends, like Portia, that he didn’t even know he’d made.
∞ Nine ∞
The door swings open and it takes me a second to register the shadow lingering in my peripheral vison. Blinking, I turn my head in his direction, only to end up with my cheek against the cool stone bar. I’m tired. My eyelids flutter and threaten to close but I fight to keep them open.
Space and time vanish for a moment, a chunk of time disappearing right in front of my eyes, and Kade ends up right behind me, his body brushing against my back.
“What’s the time?” I mutter, closing my eyes as he runs his fingers through my hair.
“Barely lunch.”
I groan.
“Don’t worry. I’m sure its evening somewhere.”
Is that amusement I hear in his tone? I straighten my spine and lift my head, not bothering to pull the locks of hair that stick to my sweaty face.
“You shouldn’t drink on an empty stomach,” he points out, pulling my hair into a ponytail.
I focus on the pads of his fingers as he drags them across my scalp. No one has ever done my hair before. Not like this. I close my eyes and my brain tumbles, pushing me off balance. Gasping, I rest against Kade and stabilise myself. Chuckling under his breath, he piles my hair on top of my head and I sigh as cool air kisses the back of my neck.
“I like drinking,” I murmur, a grin pulling at my lips. “No wonder you people rely on it so much and ban the rest of us from having it.”
Kade grunts at my reply and I sit forward as he walks around to the other side of the bar. Somehow, my hair stays bunched on the top of my head and I watch, tiredly, as he shrugs out of his jacket and drops it against the bar.
I grab my cup and glance down at its red contents. Why did I open so many bottles? Why was I hell-bent on finding a flavour I like? My stomach groans. They’re not mixing well.
I rest my face in the palm of my hand as Kade reaches out, his fingers gliding along the surface of the bar, and takes the cup. He glances at all the bottles I’ve opened.
“Find one you like?”
I shake my head.
Smiling, he pushes the glass to the side and plucks a fresh one from the rack. “These particular spirits are supposed to be mixed or taken as a shot. You’re not supposed to fill a standard glass with them.”
Says who? I scowl and sway on my stool. “You think you know everything. Don’t you?”
“Well, maybe not everything…” Kade snags a golden bottle by its neck and twists off its cap. “…but pretty close.”
He tips his choice of poison into the glass, stopping just underneath the quarter mark. I watch, curiously, as he sets the bottle down and raises his glass. Kade swirls it in his large hand before lifting it to his lips and tipping it into his mouth. He swallows it without a grimace or a shudder and pins me with an arrogant stare.
I smile. “You didn’t fill it. That’s a waste of a glass.”
“Quality, not quantity. The better the booze, the less you have to drink.” He places his glass on the bar and moves toward me. “Fact.”
I turn on my stool as he rounds the corner, closing the distance between us. There’s an aching in my bones that wants him closer—that needs him closer.
I tip my head as his black eyes study me in delight.
“Is there a problem? Is my dress on backwards?” I tease, swallowing a giggle.
“A hard question to answer. Where is your dress, by the way?”
Frowning, I glance down and—oh. Heat rushes up my thro
at and pools in my cheeks. The only things covering me are thin, black scraps of lace. I peer up at him.
“Is this considered weird? Drinking in my underwear?”
Kade chuckles and the sound is more than I can handle. This whole time I was worried he’d come back as angry as he was when he left, but his steps are light and his tone is friendly. I like it when he’s like this. I like it when I’m like this. Confident—albeit alcohol-induced confidence, but still. It feels good not to be so worried all the time.
“Believe it or not, alcohol can make you do stranger things.” He extends his large, beautiful hand to me. “I’d say it’s about time we hose you off.”
A shower would be good. I take his hand and he eases me from the stool.
“Make the water hot. I need something to burn away the toxins seeping from my pores.”
Agreeing, Kade escorts me to the bathroom, turns on the shower, and peels the lace from my body. He joins me under the scalding jets of water and scrubs us both from head to toe. The shower offers me some mental clarity, a temporary relief of my spinning nightmare.
I try not to stare at Kaden as he runs the sponge over his shoulders and down his arms, but here’s nothing else to look at. So I lean against the cold, wet tiles and watch as he cleans his body.
“You should take a picture,” he says, running his fingers through his hair. “It lasts longer.”
I drop the back of my head against the titles and chuckle. “And what would I do with a photo of you?”
My lungs tighten as he steps around the stream of water and swallows the distance between us. His full lips pull at the corners, curving into a smug smile as he plants the palms of his hands on the tiles beside my head.
“What wouldn’t you do with a photo of me?”
Is he teasing me? I press my hands against his stomach and his lips part, his muscles clenching underneath my palms. My heart pounds in my chest and echoes in my ears, drowning out the sound of the jets of water as they crash into the tiles. Despite that, despite the nervousness that dances in the pit of my stomach, I slip my hands lower. As the tips of my fingers brush against his tidy pubic area, he grabs my wrists in one hand, stopping me from stirring his penis from its slumber.
Not that I even have to touch it to rouse it. The thought of me wanting to, the feel of my skin so close to it, seems to be enough. In seconds, it eagerly presses against my arm.
“Some might say taking advantage of a woman under the influence is inappropriate,” he murmurs, bending the arm he holds beside my head at the elbow.
His mouth is close…so close I could flick my tongue out and lick it. My brain whirls in my skull and I have never felt so confident—so empowered.
“What do you say?”
He glances at my mouth. “I’m contemplating your vulnerability at the moment.”
The steam in the air is heavy in my lungs and it’s hard to breathe.
“And do I look vulnerable to you?” I ask, licking a rogue drop of water as it rolls over my top lip. “Am I too intoxicated for you to play with?”
God, I hope not.
“I…” His words evaporate on his tongue, leaving him speechless. Maybe I’m not the vulnerable one. Maybe, for once, I am the wolf and he is the sheep.
I push off the wall and he frees my wrists. He tries to pull back, but I snag his thumb and tug his hand forward, planting it on my lower back. I hold him in place, slipping my arm around his neck. Kade clenches his jaw on and off, on and off, and his display of uncertainty makes my blood hum. I lift myself on the tips of my toes and his body tightens, turning to stone. I close my eyes.
“Twenty-seven,” he mutters as our lips graze.
My head feels as though it’s too big for my body and every tumble my brain takes threatens to throw it off balance. “Twenty-seven what?”
“I’ve killed twenty-seven people in total.”
My stomach sinks and I open my eyes. In his stare, I’m not sure what I see. It’s not pride, but it’s certainly not remorse either.
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I want you to know the kind of person you’re marrying.”
“I know what kind of person you are.”
“Then you should also know that number isn’t going to stay dormant. It’ll go up. It’ll double. It’ll triple.”
With a war just on the horizon, I don’t doubt it. However, something deep down in my soul tells me he’s not talking about war. I ignore it.
“And so will mine,” I admit, gliding my hand across his forearm and up his bicep. The light, careless feeling floating around my body becomes dense. Less floating, more sinking. “But we do what we have to do…for the greater good.”
Kade grimaces. “The greater good? What does that mean anymore?”
“I don’t know.” I shrug. “But it’s all I’ve got.”
Silence falls. Only the sound of the water as it blasts the tiles fills the room. I don’t know how long we look at each other. Maybe lunch has passed? Maybe it’s time for dinner?
“Why did you agree to marry me?” he asks, pulling me from meaningless thoughts with a question I’ve never contemplated.
“Why did I agree to marry you?”
“Yes.”
If I’m being honest, I agreed to marry him so he’d let me continue my thing with Oliver. I was raised an Unfortunate; marriage doesn’t have the same effect on me like it does Kade. It’s meaningless. It’s something I never built up in my mind, but he has…and I guess I exploited that.
I am dedicated to him, though. I’ll gladly spend the rest of my life with him and if marriage makes him feel secure then I am all for it. On a deeper level, I agreed to marry him because…well…
“You’re the only thing in this world that is truly mine,” I tell him. “Everything I own now I was given, but you? I worked hard for your affection.”
Without warning, he kisses me.
Hard.
So hard I lose my footing.
Catching me, he takes a powerful step forward and crushes me between the cold, wet tiles and his warm, hard body.
Where I belong.
Chapter Fifteen
Kade
Kade didn’t mean to be rough with her, but he couldn’t help it. His body, his passion, was propelled by a desire he couldn’t ignore. How could he? She was so persistent, so charismatic in her own unique way. He didn’t know how to describe it. She’s had confidence, but not the predatory arrogance of a Fortunate. She knew fear, but didn’t let it paralyse her Unfortunate mind. She was refreshingly different, but familiar at the same time.
Nine raked her hands through his wet hair and squeezed as much as she could in her fists. She wanted more, but he was stuck in a persistent train of thought. What did he hear circulating while she was locked in her cell? What did they call her? It was right on the tip of his tongue. A word so similar to—a Misfortunate. That’s what they called her.
Much to his amusement, some believed touching Nine brought bad luck. They saw her as a bad omen—a promise of death for anyone that crossed her path. To some she was cursed—and in a way he guessed she was. She was cursed with him and as long as there was breath in his body, nothing could stop the pain he’d rain down on those who hurt her.
His Unfortunate…
His Fortunate…
His Misfortunate…
Kade was pulled from his thoughts by the feel of her hands. They were everywhere and nowhere all at once. Did that make sense? Probably not. Wherever her hands were, they felt good. Her touch transported him to another dimension—an alternate reality populated only by them.
Nine’s soft body melted against his as he slipped his thigh between her legs. A gush of air rushed from her mouth and into Kade’s as his thigh slipped firmly into place. She was warm, the air was warm, and although it was the middle of the day, all he wanted to do was crawl into bed with her and stay there until other duties called for his attention.
Sighing, Nine ended his crushing k
iss. She raked her teeth over his bottom lip and then soothed it with a soft graze. As she pressed her forehead to his, he became lost in her hooded, violet eyes. So lost that he was afraid he’d never find his way out. Lucky for him, he didn’t have to. Nine’s beautiful, plump lips parted, demanding his attention. Her divided mouth exposed a straight, white set of teeth and the tip of her wet, pink tongue. He made a tight noise in his chest. His mind was made up. That’s exactly where he would start today’s sexual escapade.
Nine slid her hands down his neck and over his chest. She touched him longingly—confidently—and he swore he could feel the rapid pulse of her heart in the tips of her fingers as she moved them over each muscly ridge of his abdominals.
“What do you want, Anna?” he asked, taking note of her subtle flinch.
He didn’t mean any disrespect. She was Nine, sure, but that was a system name. She had to get used to her real name. Her “human” name.
“The usual,” she said, swallowing hard. “War…peace…you.”
“In that order?”
Her irises flashed with a fire he’d never seen before. All of those brought her extreme pleasure.
Because they were selfless.
She was selfless.
“In any order you want.”
God help m—Kade’s stomach clenched and his breath hitched as the palms of her warm, soft hands caressed the tip of his hard cock. He planted his hands on the wall beside her head and groaned before he closed his eyes. Images of her danced behind his eyelids, like they always did, relentlessly teasing and taunting him.
“Do you have any plans today?” she asked, sliding her hands up and down his shaft.
Her touch was gentle. A tormenting tease that scrambled his brain.
Kade shook his head and opened his eyes. “Not until dinner.”
Her violet eyes glistened as she fought a smile. “You might want to push that back a little. Just in case.”
Just in case? Dinner was seven hours away from now. How much stamina did she think he had? He could go four hours tops—five if cuddling counted too. The only way he’d make seven was if a nap was included.