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look at him anymore. He’d really fucked up. Lara was polite to everyone. She couldn’t hold a real grudge to save her life.
He was the exception because he didn’t deserve anything else.
“I don’t know what you’ve got. Dax retrieved the drive from Freddy’s apartment, but Zack would like the explanation from you. If that’s more than you’re willing to give, let me know. I’ll try to figure it out and explain it to him. He really is serious about not using information that was stolen from you.”
“Why? Why not just use what you already have? You paid enough for it. Well, I paid for it.”
She wasn’t going to let up. He’d worried that once she knew who he really was, she wouldn’t want him anymore. He hated being right. “Zack won’t use it.”
Her gaze slid away from his. “He’s not what I thought he was.”
Of course she was talking about Zack and not him. “He’s a good man. I don’t care what anyone else has said or what evidence you’ve collected. He’s good and I’ll prove it.”
“That’s what I meant. I didn’t expect him to back off.”
“He backed off because I care about you.” No matter what, Connor did care. He just wasn’t good enough for her. She was right about that. It just proved she wasn’t as naive as he’d thought.
She leaned over and picked up her dog. “All right. I’ll show him. We’ll see what he has to say after he’s seen what I found.” She walked past him, Lincoln in her arms. “Then you’ll leave?”
“When I’m confident that you’re protected, yes.” He turned to follow her, finally understanding that she might never forgive him.
* * *
What had she done? Lara was spitting-nails angry with Connor, but the look she’d put on his face damn near killed her. The whole ride home she’d let her hurt and anger meld into a toxic mixture. She’d let it roil in her gut and she cried, her tears seeming to fuel her rage.
Then she’d gotten home and everything had been turned upside down.
He’d told his friends he wanted to marry the girl he’d seduced only so he could steal her secrets? His superpowerful friends had been waiting in her home, acting as if they belonged there for the simple reason that Connor cared about her and that meant they accepted her.
Was he serious? Or playing another game? He totally confused her, and she didn’t trust herself to recognize when he was lying to her. She’d proved that attraction and sex only clouded her logic. He knew that and probably wouldn’t hesitate to use it to his advantage.
She stepped out into her living room and set Lincoln down. He immediately wagged and gave a little yip and ran back toward her bedroom, toward Connor. Her dog loved him.
Her dog would just have to get used to being without him. Like she was going to get used to it. She couldn’t trust him again. No way. She would be twelve kinds of fool if she took him back.
Besides, after what she was about to reveal, he would probably hate her anyway. It was obvious Connor had very few weaknesses, but his friends were one of them. She was about to prove to Zack Hayes that he hadn’t been as careful as he should have been.
She stopped before making it to the hallway. This was completely reckless of her. She couldn’t just accuse the president of the United States of killing his wife. What would he do to her? If he’d killed his own wife, he wouldn’t hesitate to kill her, too.
She looked back and Connor stood, watching her. Lincoln was trying to get his attention, but he merely stared at her with the same expression she’d seen on his face in the beginning. Bleak and empty.
But for a few days, she’d seen something else on that handsome face. When he’d looked at her, he’d light up.
She’d extinguished that light.
Or it hadn’t been real in the first place and she’d just convinced him to stop pretending.
“How do I know there’s really someone out there trying to kill me?” she asked.
“I think the bullets speak for themselves.”
“Do they? You’re very good at making things up, Connor. How do I know you didn’t concoct this story?”
“The body should be evidence. Would you like to go to the morgue and see it for yourself? She wasn’t an actor.”
“Or you just didn’t mind sacrificing a pawn to make everything look real to me.”
His stare zipped down to Lincoln, but he didn’t stoop to pick the pup up. “Yeah, that sounds like something I would do.”
“So why should I believe you?”
“It doesn’t matter.” He shrugged. “I know the truth and I won’t leave you alone while I think you’re in danger.”
“What if the danger is from your so-called friends?”
His eyes narrowed. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“You want me to turn my smoking gun over to them and simply believe there will be no recriminations or backlash. How do I know you haven’t planned this setup all along? Maybe you plotted that, once I gave you the evidence, you’d take me back to your place and make me disappear. You’ve done things like that before, right?”
Her stomach turned even as she forced the words from her mouth. She hated every one of them. Lara knew she should stop poking and pushing him, but something nasty that had never surfaced twitched inside her. She had a terrible need to needle, to punish, to do anything to get him to react. In that moment, she wanted him to hurt as much as she did.
He raised his gaze and she had to force herself not to flinch and take a step back from the pain there. “Yes, I have. I like to kill little fairy princesses. Is that what you want to hear, Lara? You want to make me out to be a monster? I could give you file after file that would prove you right. I’ve got so much blood on my hands I can’t wash them clean, but I’m not going to kill you. In fact, I will never harm a hair on your head. I’m going to protect you, on my terms, on my turf.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Do you want to know what I’m going to do when I’ve managed to drag you back to my lair?”
She took a shaky breath and prayed he couldn’t tell how much the tone of his voice affected her. “I won’t go anywhere with you.”
“That’s why I said dragged, princess. I’ll do it. I’ll drag you by all that pretty hair if I have to. Do you know what I thought about the first time you took your hair down? I thought I would get caught in it. Like a web. I would touch it just once and then I would be stuck forever because something that beautiful had to be a trap. That’s what you are, Lara. A trap. You’re everything I’ve always wanted and nothing I can have. I knew it in the beginning, but I was already reaching for all that beauty.” He took a step toward her, bringing their bodies so close she felt the heat between them. “When I get you to my house, I’m going to spread your legs and fasten my mouth on your pussy. I’ll eat like a man who knows it’s his last meal. Then I’ll pin you down and have my way with you all night long. And you’re going to let me.”
She shook her head even as she felt her skin sizzle at the image his words produced. “No.”
“You will because you’ll want it one last time, too. Because you know no man is ever going to make you feel the way I do. When you find your handsome, limp-dick, vegan prince, he’ll very politely make love to you and you’ll lie there and let him because you think you should. But you’ll lie underneath him and wish he was me. You’ll dream about my dirty hands on your pristine body. You’ll imagine my mouth on your pussy and that, my love, that will be the only way you’ll be able to come for the rest of your life. So you’ll let me have you because you’ll need one more memory to get you through all those years without me.” He raised a brow at her. “Now go out there and show everyone your evidence, and cling to the hope that you can put me off with your cold stares and nasty words. In the end, you’re just postponing the inevitable.”
Her heart raced as she turned away. He surprised her when he let her escape into the hallway.
She no longer thought it was reckless to show off the evidence she and Freddy had gathered.
Nothing was as reckless as staying in that bedroom with Connor. If he touched her once, she would be a puddle of goo at his feet, very likely begging him to take her with him. She wouldn’t care that he’d lied. She wouldn’t care that she was being a doormat. She would only care about being in his arms again, and she couldn’t allow herself to be so weak.
Lara stalked through the living room where Connor’s rich and superpowerful friends were talking quietly. She heard them murmuring about how worried they were before they caught sight of her and went silent.
She was confused and all she really wanted was to get out of here so she could think, but it didn’t seem likely Connor was going to give her meditation time. No. He seemed determined to hound her until he got everything he wanted from her, even if that meant body and soul.
