Free Uncovering You 6: Deliverance by Scarlett Edwards Page A

I look around the street, feeling a lot like a tiny fly caught in an invisible web. “Of course I don’t take offense, Jeremy,” I say sarcastically. “Why, what’s a little more invasion of my privacy at this stage of the game, anyway? It’s not like there’s anything about me that hasn’t been laid bare.”
    “Lilly, stop,” Jeremy commands. “You’re being histrionic.”
    I step around him and fling open the car door. I’ve come to accept that I cannot have any secrets from you, Jeremy. But, taking away Fey and Thalia’s privacy, too? That’s what has me so riled up. “Let’s get out of here,” I spit, and slam the door shut.
    Jeremy stalks around the front of the car and gets in. I shove my seat belt angrily into its holster. It doesn’t fit. I try again, jabbing it into the slot once, and again, and again, and again, and again.
    “Here,” Jeremy says, reaching over to help. “Let me get that.”
    “I can do it!” I explode. I keep trying, but the damned thing just won’t go in.
    “Lilly.” Jeremy takes my hand. I try to jerk away. But, he has an iron grip. “You’re ruining the vehicle.”
    “I don’t care!” I cry out. I feel tears of anger and frustration building in my eyes. Why can’t I do it? Damn it! It’s such a simple, stupid thing!
    With all the force I can muster, I rip my hand from Jeremy’s. Pain shoots through my shoulder. “Fuck!” I curse. It feels like a sprain. I rub at it vigorously with my other hand, seat belt forgotten, the injury worsening my already-foul mood.
    “Lilly—”
    “Just go!” I say. “Go. Take me back to the room. Have ‘your men’ follow us. See if I care.”
    He just looks at me. He makes no indication of starting the engine, or driving us back, or anything of the sort.
    “Well?” I scowl. The pain is working its way up my neck and down my arm. “What are you waiting for? Go! Take me back to the prison where I’ll know, at least, that my every action isn’t being scrutinized by invisible watchers.”
    “You’re overreacting.”
    I bark a near-hysterical laugh. “No, Jeremy. I’m not. You’re under reacting. Don’t you think it’s a little, oh, I don’t know, outside of regular decorum to plant spies at a meeting that was supposed to be strictly casual?”
    His jaw tightens. “If you knew the lengths I went to, to get those men there,” he begins.
    “Oh, and now you want me to be thankful?” I spit. “You want me to say ‘Thank you, Jeremy, for having your goons watch over us?’ Well, tough fucking luck. You’re not going to get that from me. No way. No how.”
    “Having the cafe secure was essential to our meeting Thalia and Fey,” he says softly. There’s an undercurrent of impatience in his voice, which, if I were in a more reasonable state of mind, I would do well to heed.
    I don’t and I won’t. I refuse to stand on pins and needles around Jeremy Stonehart any longer. I’d go crazy if I had to keep second-guessing every minute action. I’m already committed to him, bound inextricably to the enigma of the man. And he’s bound to me. If I risk evoking some of his displeasure by acting this way, so be it. He’s already done his worst, and I’ve survived it—twice. Right now, it’s doing immense things to my psyche not to feel so restrained around him.
    “If I couldn’t arrange for it in time, you would have never seen your college roommate. I think , Lilly,” he emphasizes the word with a low growl, “that I deserve some appreciation for that. This type of bratty attitude will make me think hard about letting you go on similar outings in the future.”
    “Outings where every step I take is being watched, every word I say probably recorded, is that right?” I give up on the trying to ease my shoulder pain and, instead, jam both hands in my armpits, crossing my arms and staring straight ahead. “Even without the brooch, or the collar, I’m still your prisoner. You did a fine job reminding me of that