Darkness & Lies: A Brotherhood Novel (#1) by Brandi Salazar Page A

them had an inkling of knowledge about him. He’d have to play it cool and hope he could call her bluff.
    Crossing her arms over her chest, she appeared to be sizing him up. To land another blow to his manhood? He wasn’t sure, but Erias continued to smile and wait to see how it all panned out.
    “Where’s your key?” Cheyenne jutted her chin out defiantly; sure she had called his bluff until he held out his hand and produced a small copper key with a worn, brown leather tag complete with the room number stitched in.
    Still not fully convinced, she went to the closet and dug in her purse. “You could have stolen mine.”
    Erias just grinned at her flustered state. Little did she know he was the master of illusion. So long as she didn’t want to inspect it up close; he was golden.
    Cheyenne was severely disappointed , not to me n tion highly pissed off , when she found her copy right where she had left it. Peeking over her shoulder, she saw her new roommate dangling his own key out in front of him while wearing a huge shit-eating grin on his insanely handsome face.
    It took everything in her to fight the urge not to round his bed and slap the smug smile from his face.
    “ Done in the bathroom, roomie?” h e taunted.
    “I’m taking this up with management,” Cheyenne gritted, crossing the room to get to the phone.
    “Go ahead, but take it from me, you’ll just be was t ing your time.”
    Ignoring him, Cheyenne picked up the phone and pressed the star to connect her with the front desk. When nothing happened, she felt like screaming. Slamming the handset back onto its base, Cheyenne cut a hot path to the door determined to get someone to listen to her and get this obvious mistake straightened out.
    Before she could reach the door, the man blocked her way. “Move,” she demanded, “before I make you.”
    He laughed at her determination. “Make me,” he challenged.
    Cheyenne looked up, way up, and met his gleaming eyes without fear. “Don’t push me, buddy. It’s been a long day. I lack the patience to deal with this shit. Right now the only thing I want to do is climb into bed and get a good night’s sleep. The last thing I want to do is share my room that I paid for with someone else. Now, please move out of my way, so I can get this issue resolved, and we can all rest easy.”  She tried to move past him only to have him move in front of her again.
    She gave him a peeved glare , and the way her brows furrowed making little creases in her forehead made Erias want to scoop her up and take her back to his bed.
    “Trust me on this one, lady. The only thing you’ll find down there is an empty desk. There isn’t a soul around that’s going to help you tonight. We’ll have to wait ‘til morning before anything can get straightened out.” Damn, he hoped she bought that.
    Cheyenne narrowed her eyes on him. She wasn’t sure she bought that. For all she knew, he could just be a really good liar, but then, she had tried to call the front desk herself and hadn’t gotten a response. Maybe he was telling the truth, but then he could have broken into her room while she was in the shower, fabricated this huge st o ry to wheedle his way in just so he could murder her in her sleep. Stranger things had happened.
    “If you don’t mind, I think I’ll check it out for m y self, thanks.” Surprisingly, he stepped out of her way and allowed her to leave.
     
    Erias shook his head in mild amusement as the door sealed shut behind him with a soft snick. He had hoped that this mission would be easy, and he would have been able to sway the woman to see his reasoning. Even so, as Erias had learned early on, thing s in life were rarely easy. No matter, he would just have to put forth a little more effort.
    With a heavy sigh, Erias closed his eyes and pr o jected his thoughts to the floor below. People milled about chatting idly and drinking heavily. The staff was busily t i dying up for the night.
    Reaching out to them , he