The Deal Taker (Book III)

Chapter Two - Pillow Talk

I stared at him with a puzzled expression. "What?"

He closed his eyes and placed his hands on his stomach, completely going still. "This is all that will happen the next few days," he repeated patronizingly. "While you're sleeping, that is," he added with a teasing grin.

I grabbed a pillow, rolled until I was over him, and pressed it against his face, knowing all it'd do was mess up his perfectly styled hair. I actually found myself laughing menacingly. If he could have a sick sense of humor, so can I.

He was still for about a minute, causing me to actually be a little concerned. If I killed him, that'd probably cause a lot of problems here. When I lifted the pillow off his face, he was giving me a scowl. "You do know it is bad luck to kill the groom before the wedding, right?" He then looked at me, up and down, causing the smile to return. "Are you not wearing pants?"

I rolled off him and pulled the covers over my legs. "The leather pants were making my legs raw."

"I admit, I am looking forward to marrying you. You continue to surprise me." He said it was such admiration that I had to look away.

My light-hearted mood sizzled away and I went right back to my dark one. When I'm in a bad mood, my filter kind of malfunctions, leading to my bratty response. "I bet you've said that to all of your wives."

He looked up at me with a puzzled expression, mixed with a bit of heat in his eyes. "Excuse me?"

Shut up, the voice in the back of my head was whispering. I'm pretty sure that voice tries to keep quiet most of the time because it's afraid of me. "Well...You have been married a lot, so I've heard. You've probably felt the same for them, right?" My mouth just wouldn't close.

Matthew sat up a little taller with a calm and rational expression. He didn't look like he was about to light into me, but he did look like he was about to give me a long and well-thought-out lecture. I'd rather have him shout at me. "You shouldn't believe in rumors you've heard, Anna. People like to spread rumors about me being married over a dozen times, which is definitely a lie. I've been married three times. Well, four, if you count one time over a century and a half ago when I woke up married to this one woman in China." He flashed an uneasy smile at me. "That marriage was annulled that night."

Four times? Sure, it was less than I thought it'd be, but it was still four more times than I've been married. "That's quite a few," I murmured, trying to still stand by my accusations.

"Sweetheart, it's no secret that I've been on this planet a rather long time. If you think about it, I've been around for dozens of lifetimes, which means I've not even married once per lifetime. I'm even counting my first wife when I was human."

That sparked a question in me. What were those women like? If Matthew was as old as he portrays himself to be, why did those women catch his eye? "What was your first wife like?"

He narrowed his eyes at me, suspicious of my question. "Why do you want to know?"

"Call me curious. You know about my exes, I'm sure. I want to know about your past. I'll tell you about anything from my past if you share yours," I offered because I knew he basically researched everything about me anyway after I agreed to work for him; his background checks on all employees are extremely detailed, especially for assassins, I guess.

To my surprise, this offer caught his interest. "Deal."

I held out my hand and shook his to be sarcastic. "Tell me about your first wife when you were human."

Matthew's smile changed just a little. It was as if every horrific memory was being relieved. He kept a smile on his face, but I could tell it was forced. "Her name was Matilda. She had strawberry blonde hair and dozens of freckles on her face. She was the most gentle and kind person I've ever encountered, even now." He glanced at me as if I might have been offended by it.