Page 39 of Endure the Pain
“The boss’s daughter,” he answered.
“I am the Banphrionsa. That means I outrank everyone in this family besides Stefan. So if you betray me, I will kill you and no one will bat a fucking eye. Am I understood?”
Will clenched his jaw before he replied simply, “Yeah.”
“Good.” I looked at Louie. “He may be part of my security. I’ll call Finn to help fill in the fourth spot.”
“You sure you’re comfortable with that?” Louie asked, looking from Will to me.
“I wouldn’t have said so if I wasn’t. I’m going to leave you Dean to help you deal with that,” I said, waving my hand toward Hank.
“You don’t have—”
I cut Louie off by standing on my tiptoes and crushing my lips on his. His surprise only lasted for a breath before he took control and pulled me close, shoving his fingers into my hair and wrapping an arm around the small of my back.
The kiss was scorching hot but short. I broke away with a sly smile. He stared down at me with swollen lips. “That was unexpected. Are you sure that was a good idea?”
I didn’t care what people thought. It was nobody’s business. Unfortunately, my kiss with Louie just now wasn’t an announcement that we were sleeping together. It was a test. Dean and Asher were blocking Hank from seeing our kiss, but Will had gotten a front row seat. If word got out that I'd kissed Louie, I’d know if Will could really be trusted.
Before I sauntered away, I locked eyes with Will. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
CHAPTER 13
It was the night of the party and instead of heading downstairs, I was throwing up in my underwear while Dean held my recently styled hair back. I upchucked everything in my stomach to the point of dry heaving.
“Try taking a deep breath through your nose and out through your mouth,” Dean advised, to help me stop.
I did. I focused on just breathing until the rolling of my stomach stopped. I flushed the toilet and stood with my hand on my bare stomach. Dean walked me over to the sink and continued to hold my hair back as I washed around my mouth and brushed my teeth.
I took a peek in the mirror for any possible damage. My mascara had run a little from my eyes watering and a few curls needed to be tightened. It was all an easy fix, thankfully.
Because Dean had texted for reinforcement, Asher rushed into the bathroom with a glass of water in hand. “Are you okay?” he asked, offering the glass.
I took it. “I’m already feeling better. I don’t know if I’m coming down with something or if I ate something bad. Either way, let’s pretend it didn’t happen.”
He nodded and explained that he needed to get back.
Stefan had hired extra security through the security firm owned by Aiden, Jamie’s uncle, for tonight’s event. There were going to be a lot of powerful people attending and almost all of them were shady as fuck. I’d suggested to Stefan that Asher be put in charge and give Louie the night off. Asher knew how Aiden’s men operated and he’d gotten to know most of our security. Stefan had agreed.
Asher had been very nonchalant when I’d asked him if he’d be interested and replied with, “If you need me to, I suppose I can.” I'd had a feeling all our TV binging had made him lazy, but when I'd brought up the bonus Stefan was going to pay him, he'd perked up real quick. “You should have led with that, doll.”Greedy bastard.
I shooed Dean away so I could finish getting ready. My makeup for tonight’s event was dark. I had blood red lips and smoky eyes. My hair was curled and pinned back. I worked quickly to fix my smudged makeup and hair because I was already running really late. I stripped out of my underwear. The black gown I’d bought a week ago wasn’t the kind I could wear anything underneath. The sleeves were long but made of loose black sheer chiffon that cuffed at my wrists. The bust of the dress plunged to my sternum and there was a slit in the skirt that went up to the top of my thigh. The back exposed my shoulderblades and zipped down to my butt. I slipped on the dress and called for Dean for help with the zipper.
Dean returned, wearing an all black suit, sans tie. He took me in from head to toe, then nodded. “You clean up nice. It’s hard to believe you were in tatty sweatpants just a few hours ago.”
I rolled my eyes and turned. “Can you zip me?”
He sighed behind me and zipped up my dress. “You just flashed me your ass.”
I huffed. “It’s not the first time you’ve seen my ass and probably won’t be the last time either.” I smoothed my hands down the front of the dress and turned to face him.
“I was afraid you were going to say that,” he grumbled.
I crossed my arms over my chest and frowned at him. “I feel like I should be offended.”
“How would you feel if you saw me naked?” he drawled.
I actually thought about it and scrunched my nose. “I see your point. As your best friend, I’d try not to look. Well, not unless you needed me to.”