“Oh.” It’s all I’ve got right now. The digital clock on the side table reads 6:42pm in stark red letters. What time did Zeth come in here looking for me? I can’t remember, but we must have been sleeping for hours. I sit up, careful not to make any noise, and tip toe my way to the en suite. It’s only when I stand that I feel the slick, stickiness between my legs and a rush of alarm floods me. No condom. We didn’t use a condom. Again. Since our slip back at my place and the subsequent humiliation of a morning-after pill, I’ve been taking the contraceptive pill, so there’s no risk of me getting pregnant. But still…I’m a doctor for crying out loud, and Zeth Mayfair is a man whore extraordinaire. I should know better than this. I’ve seen first hand the nasty shit that can happen to your lady parts if you’re reckless with them. I like my lady parts. I don’t want them all funked up with chlamydia, or worse.
Zeth and I need to have a chat about that. In the meantime, I take a hot shower and get dressed. I don’t really have time to do much but towel dry my hair and apply a small amount of makeup—I’m supposed to meet with Julio’s girls at seven thirty for a pampering session, and I can’t afford to be late. Despite how distracting being here with Zeth is, I haven’t forgotten who else is here: my sister. Alexis is here, in the same compound, and I am damned if I’m not going to finally find her tonight. We won’t be able to get her out until tomorrow night; Zeth announced earlier that with everyone distracted by the party, it will be the perfect opportunity to slip out without being seen. Plans aside, I’m so nervous I feel sick. I haven’t seen Lexi in over two years. I’ve changed a lot since then, and I’m guessing she has, too.
Zeth’s still asleep when I leave the bathroom. He’s in exactly the same position I left him in; the man sleeps like the dead. I sneak to his side of the bed, and then I lay my hand flat on his chest, snickering to myself, knowing how cold my hands are.
The reaction is instant. And violent.
“Motherfucker!” He’s lying in the bed one minute, and the next I’m pinned against the wall by my throat and Zeth’s clenched fist is sailing toward me. I turn my head just in time to narrowly avoid being smashed in the face, but he’s already pulling back for another try.
“Zeth! Zeth, stop!” I scream the last word. Scream it as loud as I can with my windpipe being crushed for real this time.
“Sloane?” Zeth’s hand loosens right away, dropping hold of me so that I slide down the wall into a boneless heap at his feet. “Oh fuck. Fuck. I’m…” He rushes to the door and switches the light on. “I’m sorry. Are you okay?”
I eye him uncertainly, rubbing my hand over my bruised oesophagus. “Uh, yeah. I’m great. Just wondering why you tried to kill me, though, I guess. After making a point of telling me you would never hurt a poor little defenseless girl?”
“I fell asleep. I didn’t mean to do that.”
“Sleeping makes you homicidal?”
He makes a dismissive sound at the back of his throat. “Waking up in strange surroundings with someone lurking in the dark makes me homicidal.”
I raise an eyebrow at this. Pippa would be having a field day right now, but I’m not stupid enough to even ask what his deal is. This is perhaps the one thing I suspect Zeth Mayfair isn’t going to tell me. I suspect that because of the completely shut down, void expression on his face. He stands there, tensed and completely naked, staring at me, clearly waiting for me to ask. I don’t, though. He holds out his hand, offering to help me up.
“I’ll find somewhere else to sleep tonight. That way you won’t have to worry about me attacking you at three am.”
I accept his hand, grateful that my heart’s finally returned to its correct location in my chest cavity and has vacated my throat, where it leapt when Zeth charged me. I don’t like the thought of having to sleep in the room all night on my own. He’s right, though. I don’t like the sound of being strangled to death in the early hours of the morning, either. “I could just coldcock you with that gun.”
Zeth gives me an amused glance, sitting back down on the bed. He rubs his eyes—such a normal thing to do for such an abnormal human being.
“Ha. Yeah, the gun. We should probably talk about that. You feel like telling me why you chose that instead of something a little more…fun?”
I didn’t think he’d ask, to be honest, but I don’t have a problem with telling him why. I sit down on the bed beside him, letting myself lay back into the rumpled sheets. They smell deliciously of him. “Well, you were right before. Since we started this whole thing, you’ve done nothing but push me to free myself. To realize I was holding myself back. You took that from me. I was trying to do the same thing. Except you’re not physically restrained like I am, Zeth. You’re on emotional lockdown. When you’re around me, you do everything and anything you can to not feel anything whatsoever. So I took that that from you. I made you feel something.”
He’s staring at me, eyes narrowed into slits. “What, you think because you scared the living shit out of me that I’m suddenly fixed and I’m gonna fall in love with you now or something?”
That earns him a laugh. He’s really has no idea. “No. Oh, no, Zeth. You don’t have to worry on that front.”
“And how’s that?”
“You see me as a game. An experiment. Something to toy with until you get the desired result, at which point I’m assuming I’ll no longer be of use to you and you’ll find something else more interesting to play with.”