I get out of bed when Santos is gone and slip on the shirt he’d discarded earlier when he’d changed into his more formal suit. It smells like him. Why do I feel so attached to that smell? Why does its familiarity feel so warm?
I button up the shirt and roll the sleeves up before walking to the door and, after a quick listen, opening it. The living room is empty. I assume Val or the other guards are outside in the hallway. I go to the window, but I’m not sure what I’m looking for. It’s not like I’m going to follow Santos. How and why would I do that?
Camilla’s name comes to mind, and I am very aware of what that feeling in my gut is called. Jealousy. I don’t like it. He hates her, though. I heard that much in his words, but more importantly, I saw it in his eyes, in the way they’d emptied. Deadened.
What happened to him? What did they do to him? He lived with them for a time and at the end, the Commander, their father, went missing. I gather that Santos was responsible for that. What did the Commander do that was so evil?
The image of Thiago’s scar is followed by Santos’s words. His father did that to him as a lesson in obedience. If he could do that to his own son, what did he do to Santos?
I shudder and turn to go into the bedroom when I hear the sound of the key card being used to unlock the suite door. Before I can make it to the bedroom, it opens and Ana enters with Caius right behind her. She stops as soon as she sees me. Caius is talking to Val, but as soon as he notices me, he, too, stops. He takes me in, and I remember I’m naked but for Santos’s dress shirt. I wrap my arms around myself instinctively because his gaze has that effect on me. It makes me feel cold. Exposed. Vulnerable.
“Sis,” he says, nudging Ana farther into the room.
Val meets my gaze, but he’s shut out when Caius closes the door. I wonder if Caius were to threaten me, would Val defend me if Santos wasn’t around?
“Should we have a drink?” Ana says, setting her clutch down and moving to the wet bar as if they’re just getting back after a nice night out. Maybe they are. What do I know?
Caius drags his gaze from me and turns to her. “Go to the bedroom. Wait for me there.” She glances at me, opens her mouth, but Caius shuts her up with a single command. “Get out.”
I watch her in my periphery because I’m keeping my eyes locked on Caius. Ana is a prop. Nothing more. He’s using her for something. Maybe it’s just sex, but I don’t think so. It’s too coincidental. Her family is established in Avarice, though. Maybe he’s going to do with her what Santos is doing with me, a marriage of convenience?
“Where’s my brother?” Caius asks after eyeing what I’m wearing again.
“I don’t know.” I shrug and turn to walk into my bedroom, wanting to be away from him.
Caius is on my heels though, and before I can get too far, he captures my arm and stops me.
“What do you mean, you don’t know?”
“I mean he didn’t tell me. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not his confidante.”
His gaze moves to the shirt I’m wearing. “But you two are getting cozy.”
I raise my eyebrows. “Let go of my arm. I want to go to bed.”
“Warming the bed for my brother? Is that what he instructed you to do?”
“Is that any of your business?”
“No, I guess not. You’re adults. You can fuck without my permission. And I hope you are, come to think of it.” He releases my arm and walks over to the wet bar to pour himself a whiskey.
“What does that mean?”
He studies me as he sips his drink. “Nothing. Just that it’s the only way to get pregnant.”
“What?”
“He didn’t mention it?”
Did I believe Santos when he told me he’d have me visit a doctor he trusts to refill my birth control prescription? I’m not sure what I thought. I have three weeks though, and there were more pressing things to get through, like my honeymoon.
“Oops,” he says. “Cat’s out of the bag, I guess.”
Dickhead.
“But tell me, you are getting cozy. I mean, you’re wearing his shirt. I’d think you’d want anything that reminded you of him far, far away, considering he forced you into his bed. Unless, of course, he didn’t have to force you.”
I study him. This is bothering him. “Would it upset you to know we were getting close, Caius?”
His jaw tenses. He doesn’t like the idea. I get it, don’t I? I’m the enemy. Caius wants to make sure his brother is firmly on the right side of things. His.
“So, you and Ana were besties once?” he casually asks.
“Until she betrayed me. You’d do well to watch yourself with her,” I warn him, wanting to give him something to worry about too, although I know he has his own agenda with her.
“She told me how you were bullied.”
My stomach tenses, and I get that sick feeling like I used to when I was in high school and the kids were getting started.
“Sounds pretty shitty what she did to you, honestly.”
I’m confused, and I don’t understand his motives.
“Anyway,” he shakes his head. “Just weird past stuff. Speaking of, Santos and Camilla were supposed to tie the knot at one point.”
“What?” I ask, surprised at that.
“Yeah. Santos and Camilla. An item. Personally, I think she’s a bitch, but she’s not bad looking.” He makes a point of letting his gaze move over me like he’s silently comparing us and I’m coming up way short. “They went pretty hard for a while, but she is a fucking ice queen. I get it why he’d choose you. Girls like you run pretty hot in bed.”
“Girls like me?”
“Yeah, you know, a little off. A little weird.”
“Fuck you.”
He chuckles, turns to pour himself another drink. “Kidding. Seriously though, do you know where he went?” he asks, turning around. “If he went to a bar, I need to go get him.”
“He doesn’t drink.”
He almost spits his whiskey out. “Is that what he told you?”
I find myself wrapping my arms around myself again. Did he lie about that? Would that mean he lied about Camilla? And what does that mean for my future? Does he really intend to get me pregnant? No. He wouldn’t. He can’t.
Caius closes the space between us and it takes all I have to stand my ground. “Where did he go, Madelena?”
“I don’t know, Caius.”
“Did he tell you to tell me that?”
“No.”
“Because it is partially true, I guess, that he doesn’t drink. He tries not to. You don’t want to see him drunk. And you definitely don’t want to be alone with him when he is,” Caius says.
“Why?”
“He loses control.”
“What does that mean?’
“He gets violent. Just watch yourself. Okay? Be careful around him when he drinks. That scar on Thiago’s neck? That was Santos drunk out of his mind.”
My mouth goes dry.
“Between you and me, the Commander was an asshole to him. To them both. They bonded over that, as weird as that sounds, and the Commander needed to teach them obedience. So he did what works best. Turned them against each other.”
“Santos did that to Thiago?” He nods. “How?”
“I don’t know the details. Rope, I guess. Almost killed him, from what I heard. Listen, don’t tell him you know that. It’ll mess with him. I know he’s not proud of what he did those years he lived with that family. They’re no good, the whole lot of them. And them showing up tonight is not a good sign.”
I remember Camilla’s strange comment about being neighborly. What did that mean? I’m struck silent by all of this. It’s information I thought I wanted. But maybe Santos was right. Withholding is a mercy.
The bedroom door opens, and we both turn to find Ana standing there with her hair down and wearing a short baby-doll negligee that must be made of rice paper because I can see right through it.
She catches my eye, making sure I get a good look, before she turns her gaze to Caius and gives him a provocative smile.
“If you keep me waiting much longer, I’ll have to start without you,” she taunts.
Caius swallows his drink, greedy eyes eating her up. She looks good, I have to say.
“That’s not a bad idea. Go get started. Leave the door open. I’ll be right in.”
She blinks her eyes demurely.
Caius turns to me, and I see Ana behind him climbing onto the bed, spreading her legs and slipping her fingers between them. Her eyes hold mine as she begins to caress herself.
Caius is grinning when I turn my gaze to him. “I’d invite you to join, but I have a feeling my brother won’t appreciate it. You can watch if you want, though. No harm in that.”
I have no idea how to respond. Caius must see that because he laughs outright, sets his glass down on the coffee table, and moves toward his bedroom, stripping off his shirt as he goes. I watch his back, no scars there, just skin and muscle rippling beneath. Nothing like his brother. He takes hold of Ana’s ankles, making her yelp when he tugs her to the end of the bed and bends his head between her legs. I turn and run into our bedroom then, but not before hearing Ana’s deep, guttural moan of pleasure before I slam the door shut and lock it.