And most importantly of all, I was going to be in control here. Not him.
Not by a long shot.
I climbed out of the tub gracefully, not even looking at Apex. I moved like I’d done this a thousand times before and completely ignored the way my heart was thundering in my chest like a scared little bunny’s. The water traveled down my breasts in little trickling rivers. Out here in the cold, without the heat of the water to protect me, my dark pink nipples were almost painfully hard. Bubbles clung to my shoulders and my hips, and when I carefully regarded the towel he’d handed me, I realized it wasn’t big enough to wrap myself in.
Crap. I should have checked that before I climbed out of the safety of the tub. Another freakin’ mistake.
“I don’t know what you’re doing in here,” I said in my best gold-class voice. It was the one my mother had used to order our cooks and cleaners around back home. It sounded authoritative, even coming out of my mouth. “But if you’re going to insist on staying, the least you can do is stop staring and make yourself useful.”
When I looked over my shoulder at him, I thought I almost caught a smirk on his lips.
“And what use could I be of to you?” he asked.
“I need a bigger towel. To dry off with,” I added, a little clumsily. I didn’t want him to know that I was trying to shield my body from his gaze, inner floozy be damned. “And some fresh clothes, too.”
I couldn’t tell if it was just my anxiousness, or some kind of personal screw-you to me on Apex’s part, but it felt like he moved incredibly slowly as he went to fetch the towel. At least when he brought me a bigger one, his eyes stayed on mine—much to my relief.
“Shall I towel you off too, my lady?”
I scowled at him, then grabbed the new towel from his hands. “I don’t think that will be necessary.”
“As you wish.”
Apex turned again and moved to a cabinet across the room. While he wasn’t looking, I dried myself off as quickly as possible, then wrapped the towel around my body and let out a little sigh.
Safe again.
I knew there was nothing really dangerous about his stares. If he was going to be a pushy creep, he would have tried something by now. Like an idiot, I’d already given him his opening to take advantage of me when I’d been back in the dungeon. But he hadn’t taken it. Apart from looking at me with those relentless black eyes of his, he hadn’t done anything but kiss my hand and bargain for my release from my cage.
Still…having the towel around me was a brief respite from his gaze.
It didn’t last.
“You will need to drop that to dress,” Apex pointed out as he offered me a folded set of fresh clothes.
I took them gingerly and felt my bad-bitch attitude waning. Face to face like this, without bars or a bathtub between us, it quickly became apparent exactly how much bigger than me he was. I was five-foot-two on a good day. He must have been well over six-five.
Worse, he didn’t seem capable of just standing. He loomed.
Standing next to him like this, my act was quickly slipping away from me. I was losing my cool along with it.
“Are you just here to see me naked?” I blurted out.
Apex stared at me for a long moment, then shrugged. “You are the one who chose to get out of the tub.”
“What else was I supposed to do? Just stay in there all day until you finally left?”
“Do I make you uncomfortable, Atlanta?”
“No,” I scoffed. That was a lie. He did. “But you could have at least turned around or something. What happened to being a gentleman?”
“You did not ask me to turn. I assumed that if you had wanted me to, you would have asked.”
“I shouldn’t have needed to!” I wanted to ball up my fists and maybe punch him in the gut or something, but doing so would mean letting go of my towel—and if my guesses about his muscles were right, probably breaking my hand to boot. “I don’t know how people of your species do things, but where I come from, men don’t go around barging in on bathing women!”
“But I am not a man, Atlanta.” Apex tilted his head to the side slightly. “And you are a very long way from home.”
“Tell me something I don’t know,” I scoffed, turning away.
Before I could, Apex’s hand shot out towards me. He gripped my shoulder gently—but that didn’t mean I missed how each of his fingers was tipped with a short, sharp claw in place of a fingernail.
“You are a very long way from home,” he repeated, “in a palace that is a jail, on a planet that is a prison. When you were brought here, you did not merely become the plaything of a queen. You became the hostage of a captive. Queen Lieja cannot leave this place any more than you can—and she was not kind to begin with. When the powerful become powerless, they seek out ways to feel powerful once more by any means they can. Your first act of insubordination towards Lieja landed you in prison. What do you think your next will bring you?”
For a moment, I just stared back at him. He had a good point—a good enough one that I decided to put my next assassination attempt, which I’d been casually mulling over ever since my last one, temporarily on hold. But…
“That’s nice, Apex, and I’m sure you’re right,” I told him. “But that doesn’t explain why the hell you came in here to gawk at me, does it?”
“It does. You are simply not paying attention.” Apex’s words were still a little harsh, but his voice
