Untamed (149 page)

I swallow. “If he can control himself tomorrow, I can do it.”

“Fine, but you’re not doing the shadowing. That was a mistake on my part.”

“Tina,” I say, holding my voice steady. “I can do the shadowing. I have the skills. You’ve seen the tattoos I administered to myself.”

“No. Tomorrow you’ll just be watching me. I’m sorry, but I can’t ethically allow you to do even a portion of the tattoo. That was wrong of me.”

“Tina—”

“He had us both going in there, Penelope. Played you like a fiddle, goaded you into doing the tattoo,
and
me into letting you. No, you can just watch.”

“Okay,” I say.

She pauses for a moment. It seems like she’s hesitating to say something. A moment later I find out what it is.

“Do you like him?”

I take my time. I wonder if I should react with false indignation. I decide to just be honest with her.

“I don’t know. I know that I dislike him.”

“Sometimes the two are hard to separate.”

At first I think that she may be patronizing me, but from her expression, I know that she’s not.

“
He
likes you,” she says.

“No he doesn’t.”

“Judging from what just happened, I’d say he definitely does.”

“His erection?” I say, shaking my head. “No, he’s just a dog.”

“Not his erection,” she says. “His eyes. He couldn’t take them off you.”

Chapter Thirteen