Above the Law

Chapter Thirteen

Parker Yates looked her up and down with raised brows, mouth agape. All thoughts of the mission ahead of them seemed to evaporate while the lust boiled deep inside him, threatening to spill out. And then a minor sense of anger trickled into his already jumbled brain. "You're not wearing that," Yates said curtly.

He'd seen her mainly in loose t-shirts and yoga pants; his body couldn't stop itself from responding to her every accentuated curve and her full, red lips. His leather pants had been tight as it was.

"So you get to play dress up and I don't?" Eden said. "And if I'm not mistaken, you're the one who told me how to dress for tonight."

He pressed his lips into a thin line and ran his eyes up and down her body, shaking his head. "I—you—you shouldn't—"

She crossed her arms over her chest. He forced his drifting eyes back to hers so she didn't catch him staring at her emphasized chest. Or her body in general. The tight, red dress left little to the imagination, yet his mind seemed to wander and wonder what was beneath the thin material. "It's just... tight."

She smiled devilishly. "Your outfit's too tight."

He turned his back on her before he did something he regretted, slipping his leather mask on as he did so.

She watched his back attentively. He seemed harder than he had before, as Yates, that is. The warmth she'd seen in his eyes seemed nonexistent now. Power and intimidation radiated off of him when he put his suit on. He was a different person under the mask.

He turned back around, yanking his leather gloves on. "Are you ready?"

She nodded.

"Are you scared?"

She hesitated only momentarily. "Not as scared as I should be, I think." She was terrified, but yet she was fearless.

He walked over to her slowly, as if approaching a rabid dog, then stopped, mere feet away from where she stood.

Even in her three-inch heels she still had to look up to meet his avid gaze. She found herself wearing shorter heels nowadays—or no heels—she told herself if was solely because she was no longer working at her dad's bar, but she knew deep down part of it was because Parker wasn't very tall. She liked having to stand on her tiptoes to kiss him.

"What were the conditions we agreed on?"

She thought back; his large figure silhouetted against her open window, the collage of dates and victims, the sound of their quite voices making vows. "You have to train me. You don't kill our victims in front of me. You give my dad his warning... and I don't try and figure out your identity." She smiled and looked him up and down once. Leather looked good on him.

"And? You're missing key information that I need to hear you repeat again. I need you to promise."

She nodded once, faintly. "I do as I'm told while we're out there. And once I'm in, I'm in."

"And are you still okay with those terms?"

"I'm already in it for the long run. Do I really have a choice?"

He frowned. "Eden, you always have a choice. At least with me you do. If you don't want to do this, don't. If you're scared, wait. If you made the decision against your better judgment, then don't go through with it. If you think you won't like the person you become after doing this, then save yourself. It's your life, it's your decision. I want you, but I won't make do something you don't want to do. I won't."

"I still want this," she said, no hesitation.

Relief flooded his features that weren't shielded by the mask. He didn't' know what he'd do if she had said no.