Claimed Hard by My Best Friend novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: House Rules

By three in the morning my father was asleep on Lucy's couch with a blanket up to his chin.

I stood in the doorway of Malachi's penthouse with my bag on my shoulder and refused to go in.

"Dane knows where you live," Malachi said. "He knows where Lucy lives. He doesn't know where I keep the key to this floor."

"That's not a reason."

"It's the only one I've got."

The penthouse took up the top of the Gilt. It had black floors, a wall of glass and the whole dark ocean beyond it.

There was almost nothing in it. A couch, a long table, a kitchen with no food in the fridge.

It didn't look like a place anybody lived.

I walked in and set the bag down.

"I have terms," I said.

"Okay."

"One. You sleep on the couch."

"I was going to."

"Two. You don't touch me unless I say so."

His face did something small. "You said that like you've been practicing."

"I practiced in the elevator. Three. I can walk out any hour of the night, and you don't follow me."

"Fine."

"You agree to all of it?"

"I'd agree to anything tonight." He peeled off his ruined shirt. "Can I bleed on the kitchen island while you decide?"

I forgot to answer.

His torso was covered in ink. A black line of script ran down his ribs. A dagger went through a rose on his left pec, and ink ran down both arms to his hands.

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