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She hadn’t even eaten today. She almost laughed as she remembered that. Hunger hadn’t been high on her list of priorities this morning. When her attorney had called requesting that she and her grandmother accompany him to the Federal Building to sign some papers, Risa had never imagined that the thought of food would only make her sicker later.
Now she understood why he had been so vague about explaining why they had to sign those papers immediately. He’d implied the papers had to do with the vast holdings the government had seized from Jansen Clay.
Risa had been fighting for years for items that had belonged to her mother, who had died years before Risa’s kidnapping. Jewelry, a few antiques Jansen’s second wife had taken possession of, and some pictures. Risa had prayed that was being resolved, only to learn that her life was only going to hell faster than it had been.
She still couldn’t make sense of it. Jansen hadn’t thought she was worth trying to sell, but someone else thought it was worth 2 million to kill her. It was enough to be laughable. She would laugh again if she weren’t afraid she would end up screaming.
Sitting up on the bed, knees bent, she laid her head against her arms, closed her eyes, and breathed out as she fought the panic rising inside her.
She had agreed to play bait. Here she sat, in her apartment, for all intents and purposes with her new lover. That was enough to make her cry. Her body was still sizzling, despite the truth of her situation, and the need to touch him again was like a fever burning inside her. Because of that fucking drug. Because it was messing with her normal arousal and making it worse. It was destroying her from the inside out.
At the sound of the bedroom door opening, she tensed, biting her lip as she swore she felt Micah enter the room.
“I or
dered dinner.” His voice washed over her and sent ripples of awareness coursing over her.
She nodded in reply.
“I’ve also sent out an order for groceries.” His voice hardened, Risa nodded again.
“We need to talk about this, Risa. Now, while it’s safe to talk here. Ignoring the situation isn’t going to make it better.”
“I’m really good at ignoring things,” she muttered. “Trust me, it’s not that hard to do, and it really does make life easier.”
“Until you’re dead?” he asked coldly.
Her head lifted at that. “Fate’s a bitch, isn’t she?”
His lips tightened. “Get out of bed and get in here and talk to me, before I join you.”
She laughed at that. She was amazed that she could laugh without breaking into hysteria.
“Well, wouldn’t we just hate to make you do that?” she stated mockingly as she pulled herself from the bed and moved for the door. “I’d hate to put you out to that extent again.”
Electricity seemed to race over her body as she passed him at the doorway. It was all she could do to control the gasp that built in her throat, or the need to touch him.
“You ran out on me last night,” he stated as she moved to the couch and curled into the corner. “Why?”
She stared back at him in surprise. “That’s rather self-explanatory, wouldn’t you think?”
Why did he care? It wasn’t as though she had done anything for him.
“If you had waited, Risa, we could have fixed the problem.”
Looking away from him, she wondered rather mockingly exactly how they could have fixed that problem for him.
“There’s nothing to fix,” she pushed out between stiff lips. “We’re stuck together; I understand that. I’ll try to stay out of your way as much as possible.”
“Yeah, you do that,” he snarled back at her.
She looked away from him, concentrating instead on the small office area she had created in the corner of the room. The corner desk, file cabinet, and computer. She had work to do there, but she couldn’t seem to get a handle on actually doing the work. The accounting she did from home kept the bills paid; it kept her from having to dip into the small trust fund her mother had left her, and kept her grandmother from having to support her.
“Did we need to discuss anything else?” she asked. “I’m tired. I thought a shower and a nap—”
“I said I ordered dinner.” He sat down in the chair across from her. “And I said we needed to talk.”
“Just because you said it doesn’t mean I agree with your decision.” There was a chance she didn’t have much longer to live anyway; she wasn’t going to spend her last days on earth kowtowing to his arrogance. It was bad enough that now that he was here, she couldn’t seem to get a handle on her own arousal. She needed to change panties, she was so damned wet.
