Dead Drop (The Guild #2)
Tate James
1
The cold press of steel against my throat and the familiar sting of my skin breaking woke me with a shock. My body remained frozen, deadly still, but my eyes snapped open to confront my attacker. Only to find Leon staring back at me from just inches away. His green gaze held mine, steady, unblinking, unmoving, until the trickle of blood down my neck broke the spell he held over me.
“Leon,” I whispered, my voice a little rough with sleep. He’d gone to get us snacks so we could fuck like bunnies, but had taken so long I’d fallen asleep. And now here we were. With his knife at my throat as I lay naked in his bed.
“Danny,” he replied, still not blinking. Like he was worried I might disappear if he closed his eyes even for a split second.
I swallowed, feeling the blade cut me a little deeper with that motion. “What are you doing?”
His gaze dropped from my eyes to the knife he held at my throat, then to my mouth, where he lingered a moment. “I was thinking about killing you,” he admitted without even a trace of guilt in his voice.
Damn. Here I was holding out hope that it was a sex kink. Guess weapons during sex was just Kai’s thing.
“That’s unfortunate,” I replied, assessing my next move. Leon was a tech bunny, a hacker. He couldn’t take me on now that I was awake, surely. “I’d probably prefer not to get murdered right after sex, but maybe that’s just a me thing.”
The corners of Leon’s lips twitched like he was fighting a laugh, but I wasn’t sticking around to wait for him to follow through. I wrapped my fingers around his wrist and jerked it sharply to the side, dislodging the knife from my neck but taking a deeper slice in the process.
Not that it slowed me down. Leon grunted in surprise at my strength from a position of such weakness beneath him, and I rolled to get free of his weight. Thank fuck I hadn’t bothered pulling the blanket over me when I fell asleep, or I’d be tangled up like a burrito by now.
“Danny,” he barked, rolling to his feet and shifting his hold on the knife. “Don’t fucking play with me right now.”
“Me?” I shrieked back, scrambling to the other side of the bed to keep the mattress between us. “If I hadn’t woken up, were you going to cut my throat?”
Leon gave a one shoulder shrug. “Probably. But you did wake up.”
I ran a hand over my face in horror. Not at the situation, though it was unbelievable at best, but at my own shocking choice in men. Seriously? First Kai who was honey trapping me right back, and now Leon who apparently harbored secret murder tendencies? Fuck me, I needed professional help. Or a better vibrator.
The warm rivulet of blood from my neck trickled down my chest, and Leon watched it with pure fascination, making me seriously question how the hell I’d missed the red flags with him all along.
Pointing a finger at him, I hardened my glare and tried to ignore the way he was looking back at me. “Stay the fuck away, Leon. Don’t make me kill you to get out of here.”
Hell, if I’d had any weapons within reach when he’d woken me up, he’d be dead already. The only reason I was trying to be reasonable was that he held the upper hand. For now.
“Where do you think you’re going, DeLuna?” Leon asked in a dangerously calm voice as I made a move toward the closet.
I scowled. “To get dressed, Marx. No offense, but I’m not sticking around to get murdered in my sleep, and I’m not going out in the snow while I’m naked.” Gritting my teeth, I took the gamble that he wasn’t going to kill me right now, and turned to grab clothes out of the closet—until the tip of the dagger slammed home in the wooden door a scarce half inch from my face.
“You’re not leaving,” he announced.
Fury and outrage rolled through me, and I wrapped my hand around the hilt of the knife, yanking it free of the wood. “Stupid move, Leon,” I informed him with a chuckle, spinning around to face him. The blade was still stained with my blood, the setting sun seeming to amplify the red inside Leon’s bedroom. “Do you seriously think you can stop me?”
An ice cold smile crept across his lips, and his eyes flashed with the challenge. “I don’t think, DeLuna, I know. Just try me.”
Well shit, if Leon had a death wish, who the fuck was I to talk better sense into him? But I certainly wasn’t going out of my way to kill him… I just fucked him, and if I was honest with myself, my crush had turned into full blown infatuation that not even this little hiccup had fully quelled. So rather than coming at him with the knife, I just shook my head dismissively and crossed straight to the door. Fuck getting dressed, I would grab a coat and snow pants downstairs.
Leon moved with surprising speed, intercepting me before my hand could even touch the door handle. I lashed out, swinging the knife at him and twisting out of his reach with practiced ease… but when my eyes locked on him once more, a cold sense of dread crept down my spine.
“You’re not just a tech bunny, are you?” I asked in a resigned whisper.
He gave a low chuckle. “Just? No. No, I’m not. And to be honest, DeLuna, I’m a little disappointed it’s taken you this long to notice.”
His gaze flickered from my face to the knife in my hand, then to my tits. He licked his lips, and a ripple of potent arousal shot through me. Damn it if I wasn’t more interested now that he was peeling back the façade.
“You’re not going to let me leave without a fight, are you?” I shifted my grip on the knife, preparing to do whatever it took to get past him. Intriguing as this shift in Leon was, I couldn’t forget that he had been about to cut my throat moments ago.
He didn’t respond immediately, his gaze raking over my naked body like he was addicted. Then he shook his head. “I don’t think I could, even if I wanted to.”
“You’re insane,” I muttered, eyeing him up and trying to stay focused on him as an opponent, not as a gorgeous naked man who I’d just fucked.
He shrugged one well-muscled shoulder. “Apparently.”
I snorted a laugh despite the gravity of the situation, then darted forward, swiping with the knife in my hand and grabbing for the door handle. Leon hissed in surprise, jumping back out of the arc of my weapon and allowing me the chance to disappear out of the bedroom.
His reaction time was a shit load quicker than I was prepared for, though, and he caught up with me before I made it even halfway down the hall. His arm wrapped around my neck, lifting me clean off my feet even as our combined momentum sent us flying into the carpet.
“Fuck!” I exclaimed when my chin hit the floor and I tasted blood. I wasn’t letting him get the better of me so easily, so I bucked in his grip to slide free and stab out with the knife I’d retained my hold on. This time it sliced across his bicep, and blood splattered the cream carpet as I scrambled back to my feet.
Leon gave the cut on his arm a cursory glance but didn’t seem to even react to the pain. Instead, he rushed forward, grabbing my wrist before I could twist away.
“Drop it,” he growled, compressing my wrist with a shockingly strong grip.
I gritted my teeth, holding onto my weapon and swinging a punch at his head with my left hand. He dodged it in a lightning fast slip, then caught my follow-up hook on his jaw with barely a grunt. Before I could punch him again, he swept an arm around my waist, spinning us both until I found myself crushed against the wall at the top of the stairs.
His dangerous green gaze locked on mine as I struggled against him, but he had me tight. No way in hell was Leon a tech bunny. He was, dare I say, better than me. And that terrified me.
“I said drop it, DeLuna,” he ordered me again, his fingers crushing the bones of my wrist even harder until I no longer had a choice. My fingers loosened involuntarily, and the knife fell to the carpeted floor with a dull thump.
A deliciously evil smile curved his lips. “Good girl.”
Oh fuck. He did not just say that. I officially needed professional help, because his mocking praise nearly made me come.
“Jesus, Leon,” I groaned. “You’re so fucking hard right now, it’s really making it difficult to remember what we’re doing here.”
He wet his lips. “What are we doing here?”
I gave a shaking laugh, holding his gaze. He had me all off balance and so fascinated in learning who Leon Marx really was. The fact that he could match me in a fight? Like my best sex dream come to life.
“I’m pretty sure I was about to kick your ass, then disappear into the night with my head still firmly attached to my neck,” I informed him. “You think I can’t kill you without a knife?”