Stealing Fire (Bad Boys Of The Underworld Book 5) by Mallory Crowe

was trying to bond with her. Become her friend.
    But he wasn’t a friend. He was her guard.
    She pushed the bowl away and stood. “I’m going back upstairs.”
    “It’s boring up there. I’m here to show you a good time! You like video games?”
    Ella narrowed her eyes. “Do I look like the video game type?”
    “I don’t judge based on appearance. And, as a matter of fact, that look you’re giving me screams ‘first-person shooter.’”
    Ella continued staring, letting her eyes tell him exactly how ridiculous the idea was.
    “You can pretend you’re shooting Lucian.” He grinned.

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    O f all the things Lucian expected to hear as he walked down the stairs, it wasn’t the sound of Ella screaming at the television.
    “That was a clean shot! How is he not dead?” She threw the Xbox controller on the couch cushion between her and Dean, watching helplessly as her animated character fell to the ground. Large bloody holes tore up the soldier’s head.
    Dean laughed at her predicament. “You’ll get the hang of it.”
    “No, I got it. Point and shoot. That’s exactly what I did, and the little aim-y thing told me I was shooting him in the head, but guess what? I’m the one dead!”
    Lucian stared between the two of them, trying to figure out what the hell he was looking at.
    “Morning, sunshine.” Dean reloaded the level.
    Ella stiffened as she realized Dean wasn’t speaking to her, but pointedly ignored him.
    Even though he knew her fear was justified, he couldn’t resist the urge to mess with her a bit. “You don’t seem like the video game type.”
    She kept her gaze firmly locked on the TV. “Some people don’t judge others based on looks alone.”
    “Or else you’d have people thinking you were Miss America all the time, right?”
    Ella’s shoulders tensed even more and Dean’s eyes bulged. “Oh my God! You’re a beauty queen!”
    Lucian threw his head back and laughed. “Seriously?”
    She rolled her eyes. “I was a pageant girl. I don’t know why you’re both laughing. There’s nothing funny about it.”
    Dean looked back to Lucian. “Remind me to Google this later.”
    “Go for it. All you’ll get is a few pictures of me looking great in some ball gowns.”
    “No bikini?” asked Lucian. That earned him a look of disgust from Ella.
    “Don’t you dare Google me just so you can see me in a swimsuit.”
    He held his hands up in surrender. “If you insist.”
    She sighed and turned away from him again.
    This really would be an uphill battle, but he wasn’t making things any easier by baiting her. “Ella, I need to see you over here.”
    Her back went back to ramrod straight position at the sudden order. After a slight hesitation, she stood and faced him. He knew she’d be afraid of him, but it was frustrating to see her so jumpy at the slightest word.
    And she probably wouldn’t be any happier with him after what he was about to do.
    He strode to his study, leaving her to follow him.
    She stood at the threshold to the room for a moment before she entered.
    “I’m not going to bite.”
    “Right. Because you’ve given me no reason at all to fear you,” she said in a sardonic tone.
    Instead of pointlessly defending himself, he held his hand out to a chair next to him. “Sit.”
    She plopped herself down, looking more like a surly teen than the beauty queen she apparently was. Even surly, she was a knockout. Her hair was tangled and her eyes showed just how little sleep she’d gotten, but when she looked up at him with those big, brown eyes, he had to remind himself how to breathe.
    And now he was going to make her hate him even more. “Are you afraid of needles?”
    She scooted away from him on the chair. “I’m afraid of you and I’m not a big fan of needles. I sure as heck don’t want those two things mixing.”
    He tried to put on a comforting expression, but had a feeling it wasn’t working. “I’ve done this plenty of times before. I just