Friction (PB2) by Kim Knox

Author:Kim Knox
Language: eng
Format: epub

Chapter Four

His quiet reply cut her. The need to swear burned on the tip of her tongue and she wiped her hand across her mouth. He had been…waiting for her. Her heart kicked and the sour feeling rose, almost choking her. Somehow, she felt worse than before.

Knowing that he’d been faithful to her stabbed more than the moment she thought he hadn’t wanted her.

Shan watched him pad through another arch into his bedroom, golden light

warming the darkness. He moved with efficiency, laying out fresh clothes on his valet.

His face was expressionless and she wished the insanity of sheen gave her some extra insight into his mind.

Nerves cramped in her gut, mixing with the sour burn of her guilt. And she swore, if this was another of his mind games, there was nowhere he’d be able to hide from her and her set of very sharp ceremonial knives she kept in a box under her bed. “Then what deal do you want now?”

Thorne paused as he slipped his pressed shirt onto another hanger. He held her

gaze and her heart missed a beat. “I’m open to negotiation.”

“My remaining an engineer is not open to this negotiation.”

Something glittered in his gaze and there was a slight curl to his lip. Shan knew she’d already given away an advantage, practically admitted that there was no real negotiation, that—she pressed her lips thin—she’d just agreed to something with him.

“Agreed. So…what are your terms for this arrangement?”

Her mouth was dry. She closed the distance between them, giving herself time to

think. It wasn’t something she’d ever considered. Getting naked with Thorne had

loomed large in her fantasies, but it had never pushed beyond wild sex, hadn’t pushed into imagining an actual relationship. “I’m not ready to be acknowledged publicly.” She 34

Friction

linked her fingers to stop herself from twisting them nervously. “This is a strange situation, Thorne. You have to admit that.”

“Again, agreed.” He dropped his shirt beside his suit on the bed. “Non-disclosure with the provision that you are no longer open to sleeping with other men.”

Shan was glad her cheeks were already hot from the shower. She wasn’t quite sure why she was blushing. Maybe it was the undercurrent of anger in his voice, a bitterness that forced memories of her numerous encounters. “No others.” She pressed her tongue to the back of her teeth, the fear of voicing her next term hot in her blood. “And honesty. Between us. Always.”

Thorne rubbed his hands together, the sound of skin against skin suddenly catching her attention. “All right. Is there anything else you want, Shankara?”

“Call me Shan.”

“Shan…”

His slow, deliberate drawl ran heat through her flesh and she drew in a breath. His voice simply…did things to her body. “How long?” She unlaced her fingers and willed more strength into her voice. “How long would you want this to go on? How does it end?”

Shan’s heart pushed into her throat at his silence. A part of her wanted him to put a date on when it would finish, because frankly, the whole idea of Thorne filling her days and nights terrified her.

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