Page 68 of Even Robots Die (Even Ever After #3)

Florentine

T his is real. I’m not dreaming.

Both of Brice’s hands are on my hips, tugging me to him, like he needs this as much as I do.

They slip under my shirt, slide along my skin until they reach my bra and then they circle my back and he expertly unhooks it.

He doesn’t lose a single second before his hands pull down the cups of my bra so he can caress them.

Only then, his lips leave mine to trail the side of my throat and for a second I have the irrepressible need for him to sink his fangs into my skin, but his lips continue down and I feel them through the fabric of my shirt before they wrap around my right nipple.

My back arches against the door and Brice's left hand slides to the underside of my thigh, bringing my leg up so I can hook it behind his. He presses his hard on against my pussy and plasters me against the door with a tip of his hips, and with a speed I can’t see, he grabs my left thigh and hooks my leg with the other one.

I have to move my hands from his back to the back of his neck, so I don't feel like I’m about to fall.

I shouldn’t have worried though because once my legs are at his back, Brice’s lips are back on mine and he’s strolling to the bed as if I weigh nothing .

He drops me unceremoniously onto his bed and all I can see in his eyes at this moment is a hunger I’m pretty sure is mirrored in mine.

Except, what he told me mere minutes ago is also playing on a loop and I can’t get rid of it.

Brice seems to see the change in me and stops short.

“I know that look. You’re about to tell me we’ve got something more important to do and I’m going to want to punish that addictive mouth of yours for uttering those words,” Brice tells me, and I want to laugh at how on point he is.

“I need to save my dad,” I tell him, and he sighs before coming to sit next to me on his bed.

I curl on my side so I can look at him more easily.

It takes a few seconds for Brice to finally speak again, and the vulnerability I can hear in his voice almost breaks me.

”Don’t trade yourself for him. You’re worth ten of him or even more to me.” he cups my cheek as he says that. “Please.”

I sit again, and his hand stays on my cheek.

I can’t tell him I didn’t entertain the thought of giving myself over so that Dad would be back with the girls, but I’ve seen the sort of games the birds play, not only on Brice but on everyone.

Before Brice there was Léandre and it wasn’t much better, but they’ve been wreaking havoc on my city, on my country, and even the whole world for much longer than this.

They’ve been passing as angels for more than three hundred years now and fanatics would do anything to make the masses believe a lie. After all, it wouldn’t be the first time humanity has killed in the name of a god or a religion. It’s like we never learn from history and that it’s bound to repeat.

“I have a plan,” I tell him. “Trust me.”

He stands and holds a hand out for me.

“I’ll trust that beautiful brain of yours,” he answers as he helps me up, “if you trust me to help you too.”

It goes against all my instincts to ask for help and it takes me way longer to answer him than it should.

In the meantime, I’ve amended my plan and changed it so it now includes Brice and any resources he might be able to provide.

“Okay.”

Brice scoops me up and heads in the direction of the door that’s at the back of his bedroom on the left behind the bed.

“What are you doing?” I ask, only half amused. We have things to do if I want to finalize everything I need in under three days.

“You need a shower. I need one too. I’m making things more efficient,” he says, and I feel him shrug while he’s still carrying me.

I don’t know what to do with this playful side of him.

I also have no idea if my period is over or if I’m still a mess and would prefer for Brice not to see that.

But Brice doesn’t give me time to overthink anything. He opens the door, turns on the water with me still in his arms, and before I know it, we’re both drenched in water and our clothes are sticking to our skin.

“You know you’re supposed to remove your clothes before showering?” I tell him with a raised eyebrow. At least none of us are wearing any shoes. It would have been a huge mess otherwise.

“And let you run away while I get undressed? I don’t think so,” he tells me as he finally lets me stand on my own two feet.” I have a feeling you would already be halfway to your workshop as soon as I was under that shower by myself.”

He’s not wrong there.

I know it’s completely wrong, but I would forgo a shower in the name of efficiency and urgency.

I give him an unimpressed look.

“And you thought making me all wet would do the trick?”

The words have barely breached my lips and I immediately regret them. Not so much what I said, but how he immediately interpreted the wording I used. His eyes darken, and that hungry look comes back on his face.

“I had plans for that a few minutes ago,” he tells me, and I can see the truth behind his words—he’s holding back for my sake only.

“But I’ve come to know how your mind works and I want you all to myself the day you let me take what I want.

I also know it’s not today. If we went back to my bed right now, half your mind would be with me and the other half would be making lists about what you still have to do in the next three days.

The day I fuck you, I want your undivided attention. ”

And just like that, I’m wet and not just from the shower.

That man looks rough from the outside and yet he’s the first one who took the time to understand me at my core and I find it highly intoxicating.

He’s also right. I might want him badly, but I still won’t allow myself to fully enjoy what he’ll do to my body if I haven't done everything in my power to save Dad.

Brice peels my clothes off of my body one by one, leaving his own on all that time. I feel weirdly exposed and not at the same time. He knows my mind better than anyone else and now I want him to know my body, too. We’re not having sex today, but it doesn’t change that fact.

When Brice is done with my clothes and throws them to the side of the room, he grabs a shower gel from the little nook on the side of the shower and I’m suddenly very aware that I’m the only one naked here.

I’m also very aware that I’m disappointed he’s not getting naked too.

“You’re going to stay dressed?” I taunt Brice with a cheeky smile that is more bravado than anything else.

“If you want my clothes gone, you’ll have to remove them yourself,” he taunts me back as he rubs the soap between his hands.

He wants to play? Then, it’s game on.