Twisted Games (Twisted, #2)

by Ana Huang

“Rhys Larsen.” His deep, gravelly voice rolled over me like a velvety caress. Now that he was closer, I spotted a thin scar slashing through his left eyebrow, adding a hint of menace to his dark good looks. Stubble darkened his jaw, and a hint of a tattoo peeked out from each sleeve of his shirt.

“Your house.” Rhys tilted his head toward my spacious but cozy two-bedroom abode. “It’s a security nightmare. I don’t know who signed off on the location, but you have to move.”

He was, after all, my bodyguard, but it would’ve been nice to have eye candy without wanting to drop-kick him into the next century.

Men. They always ruined it by opening their mouths.

“He—you…” I sputtered, uncharacteristically speechless. “Why, I never!” I turned to Booth, who was trying to melt into the giant potted plant by the front door. “You’re not leaving. I forbid it.”

I’d known she would be trouble the minute Christian told me about my new assignment. Told, not asked, because Christian Harper dealt in orders, not requests.

“By the way, Princess, the book is upside down.”

Heheh

“Master! Spank me, Master!” Leather chose that moment to let loose one of his notoriously inappropriate outbursts. “Please spank me!”

“Mas—” Leather quieted when Rhys leveled it with a glare. The bird ruffled its feathers and hopped around its cage before settling into a nervous silence.

A grim half smile touched Rhys’s lips. “I’d rather you hate me alive than love me dead.”

Oh my heart!!

Rhys. Shot. Rhys. Shot.

“I suggest you stop lookin’ at me like that, Princess,” I said, my voice lethally soft. “Unless you plan on doing something about it.” It was perhaps the most inappropriate thing I’d ever said to her and way out of the bounds of professionalism, but I was teetering on the edge of sanity.

“I’m the king,” he harrumphed. “What I say goes.”

“You won’t touch me, and you won’t let anyone else touch me either. So tell me, what the hell do you want, Mr. Larsen?” You.

She frowned. “But it’s on my bucket list.”

One of the most useful skills I learned in the navy? How to tie a good knot.

The words slid

“Perhaps…” Rhys’s touch skimmed down my neck and over the curve of my shoulder. I shivered, my skin blossoming with a thousand more goose bumps. “I was always meant to find my way to you.”

Bridget von Ascheberg was mine and mine alone. It didn’t matter that she wasn’t mine to take. I was taking her anyway, and if I could tattoo myself onto her skin, bury myself in her heart, and etch myself onto her soul, I would.

Her eyes widened, but before she could respond, I closed the distance between us and grasped her chin with my hand.

“But first, I want to make one thing clear. From this point on, you’re mine. No other man touches you. If they do…” My fingers dug into her skin. “I know seventy-nine ways to kill a man, and I can ma...

“There. That wasn’t so hard.” Rhys grabbed the back of my neck and pulled me toward him. “Remember. In public, you’re my princess, but in private, you’re my whore.”

“Trust me, Princess. I would rather end my own life than ask you to do anything that might hurt you.”

Rhys!!! ❤️😍

“Keep your underwear, gloves, and heels on,” he said, still in that deceptively soft tone. “And crawl to me.”

I’d weathered artillery fire, nighttime missions in subarctic temperatures, and more broken bones and near-fatal injuries than I could count, but Bridget crying came closer to breaking me than all those things combined.

And I realized…it’s not that I didn’t believe in love before. It’s that I was saving it all for you.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll rip it off you later.” I lowered my head and whispered, “I’ve never fucked a queen before.”

“Have you seen Jules and Josh? I can’t find them anywhere.”

Christian stood in the shadows, chatting with Andreas, but his eyes strayed to something—someone—on the dance floor. I followed his gaze and winced when I saw Stella.

“But someone once told me we always end up where we’re meant to be, and this is where I’m meant to be. With you.”