The King (The Original Sinners: White Years, #2)(54)

“I’m very pretty,” he said as he pulled himself out of the water and wrapped the towel around his waist.

“Will it make you happy if I check you out?”

“I wouldn’t recommend it actually.” Kingsley took off his glasses and set them aside. “Since you’re a worrier.”

But it was too late. Sam had looked.

“Oh, shit.”

Kingsley sighed.

“I was afraid of that,” he said. “It’s not as bad as it looks.”

Sam dropped her clipboard on the f loor and walked over to him.

“I’m looking,” she said, and whistled to herself. “God damn, that must have hurt. What did that?”

“Bullet plus the surgery to dig it out.”

“Can I touch it?”

“I’m wet and wearing a towel, and you want to touch me?”

“Yup.”

“Look, Little Lord Fauntleroy, the reason I hired you to be my assistant was so that we could have some…” He paused and searched for the right word. “Distance between us.”

“I’m not giving you a blow job. I’m touching your scars.”

“Blaise gives me blow jobs. She doesn’t touch my scars.”

Sam looked into his eyes. Kingsley was acutely aware of the closeness of her body. Without his clothes on, he could feel the heat emanating from her. She’d shed her jacket and vest after he’d ordered her to “tone it down.” Suspenders held up her pin-striped trousers, and her white shirt was unbuttoned to the center of her chest. She might be dressed in men’s clothing, but he couldn’t deny how alluring and feminine he found her. At the V in her shirt he could see the slightest curve of her small but pert breasts. The last thing he needed was to get an erection and scare away the best assistant he’d found yet.

“Fine. I don’t believe in touching someone who doesn’t want to be touched.” She raised both hands in surrender. “I am, as you see, turning my back on you.”

She put one foot over the other and spun neatly around. “Now would you like to hear messages?”

“Not particularly. Do you think I should seduce Lucy Fuller?” Kingsley walked to his closet and dug for clothes. He heard something drop. When he turned around, he saw Sam picking her clipboard off the f loor again.

“Seduce Lucy Fuller?” she asked, looking shocked and slightly disgusted. “Why?”

“It would cause a scandal if it got out she’d cheated on her husband. Might give us some leverage against Fuller.”

“Or make him a sympathetic martyr to his whole congregation. You know people always blame the wife and never the husband.”

“Good point,” he said. “I didn’t want to f*ck her anyway.”

“Why not?”

“She had an entire chapter in her book on marriage on why sodomy is such a crime against nature even married couples shouldn’t engage in it.”

“That’s bizarre.”

“Sodomy’s not a crime against nature. Nature invented sodomy. If Mother Nature didn’t want us engaging in it, she wouldn’t have made it so much fun.”

“I can’t argue with your science. Poor Lucy. Her loss.”

“Poor Lucy? She’s richer than I am. Did you know that? Her books and videos fund the WTL empire.”

“They always hit the bestseller list. God only knows why.”

“The WTL empire is built on their perfect marriage.”

“I have parents,” Sam said. “I don’t believe there’s such a thing as a perfect marriage.”

“My parents did. Until they died,” Kingsley said. “Maybe it’s for the best. They would rather have died than fall out of love with each other.”

Sam gave him a long searching look that Kingsley tried to ignore.

“I’d rather fall out of love with someone than die,” Sam said. “You can always love someone else.”

“Easier said than done,” Kingsley said, and his words sounded bitterer than he intended.

“So, who are you in love with you don’t want to be in love with?” Sam asked.

Kingsley glared at her.

“Right,” she said. “Distance. We’re trying to keep some distance.”

“If you please.”

“Sorry. Okay, I’ll get back to work digging around on Reverend Fuller.”

“Let’s divide and conquer. I’ll handle Reverend Fuller. You focus on Lucy Fuller. They’re making a lot of money off her books. Follow the money.”

He pulled his pants on and grabbed a shirt from off the hanger.

“Now, what are my messages?”

“Are you dressed? Is it safe to turn around again? I don’t want my delicate lesbian sensibilities overwhelmed by your incredible manliness. I might get the vapors, whatever those are.”

“It’s safe.”

She turned around.

“Kingsley, you haven’t buttoned up your shirt yet, and I can totally see your chest. You lied to me, and now I have the vapors.”

“Come here,” he ordered. She looked left and then right as if scanning the room for a trap. Maybe hiring Sam had been a mistake. All he could think about right now was getting her into bed and seeing the woman’s body she hid under her men’s clothing.