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But neither one of them were gold.

“DAMN,” I swore, dropping my arms. A rush of disappointment surged in, joining the adrenaline. “You’re not Xander Kyrkos!”

“Could’ve told you that,” said the burly stranger. “In fact, I did tell you that.”

The man made no motion forward, no threatening moves in my direction. Instead, he began pulling his clothes back on. I dropped the pick and smoothed my dress down, suddenly very aware of my nakedness.

“So where is he?” he demanded.

“Who?”

“Kyrkos!”

Now it was my turn to be confused. “I— I don’t know,” I said. “He was being brought here. I mean, I arranged it so that I was being brought to him… And… and…”

“You’re not his concubine?”

Concubine. It seemed like an odd word. The strangest word in the whole fucking world.

“Hell no.”

“Then why are you here?”

He was handsome as all hell — gorgeous even. And young too. Much too young to be Kyrkos, although in the heat and the darkness this wasn’t something I ever could’ve realized.

Not to mention having him behind me the whole time.

“I…”

I hesitated, looking again at the dark, gorgeous stranger. This stranger who’d just fucked me. A man who’d fucked me hard enough, and well enough, to actually make me come… even though I despised him for who I’d expected him to be.

Then, staring back at him, I realized something.

He didn’t expect to find you here either, the little voice in my mind spoke up. He’s just as surprised as you are.

It was definitely a holy shit moment.

“You’re here for him too,” I breathed, in sudden understanding. “Xander Kyrkos.”

He was looking at the ice pick now. His eyes scanning back and forth between it and me.

“Yes.”

“To come for him,” I added. My eyes narrowed. “To kill him?”

The man didn’t answer right away. But his silence was all the answer I needed

.

“I followed him down the hallway,” he said eventually. “I watched him stand at the door to this very room.”

My pulse quickened again. To be so close. So near to my goal…

“I ducked back for a moment,” the bearded stranger went on. “And then when I—”

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Our eyes locked. Someone was crashing against the door.