Maybe he was truly playing the ultimate game with her. Making her believe that he was in her flat when he had simply unlocked the door, placed the rose, and left. What a prank that’d be. But her heart was still lodged in her throat as she stepped around from behind the screen and…
Nothing.
No Moriarty.
She was shaking like a leaf.
Walking through her rooms one more time, she searched for him—and found nothing. If he was there, he’d found a very good place to hide, or was doing a brilliant job of staying out of her way.
Adrenaline was like every emotion. It couldn’t last forever. After a while, it burned itself out like all the rest. After what seemed like hours but was probably little more than five minutes, her shoulders fell away from her ears. Her pulse was just starting to calm down for the first time in maybe that entire hour.
He wasn’t there.
Why was she…disappointed?
No.
This was a good thing. He’d saved her from a terrible mistake.
Turning to head back toward her bedroom, she blew out the candle.
A hand grasped her by the throat and squeezed.
“Good evening, Irene…”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Sasha felt her head spin as Moriarty held her by the throat from behind.
Like going from hot to cold and back again, the adrenaline rush, then crash, then rush again was too much for her.
And she knew that had been the entire point of it all.
She could only gasp as he pulled her back against his chest, easily controlling her without even having to squeeze. His other hand splayed across her stomach, fingers wide, and pressed her firmly against him.
She felt his desire against her lower back, giving her no question of his intentions. Or the sincerity of it.
“Before we begin…” He bowed his head low to her ear, and ran his tongue slowly up along the edge of it before nipping at the lobe. “I feel as though we should set a few things into record.”
For all intents and purposes, she was putty in his hands. “You want to take this moment totalk?”She dug her fingernails into his thighs again, needing something to hold onto more than anything else. And bringing him a little pain had seemed to spur him on before.
His chuckle was darkened with a growl as he pulled her harderagainst him, grinding his hips against her. “Do notrushme, woman—” He pushed her forward, sending her staggering toward the windows that faced the street. “I want you to open the windows wide and pull the curtains.”
She was shivering. Positively shaking like a goddamnleaf.As she went to turn to face him, he stopped her with only his voice.
“No. Do not look at me. Donotturn. He can see you.”
“Wh—” She paused. Then she understood.Sherlock.Ofcourse,the bastard would follow her home. Ofcourse,he’d watch her flat in case they were having some sort of secret meeting. “You want to give him a show.”
“More than he bargained for.”
Which meant…Sidney was there, also.Fuck. Fuck!She shut her eyes. It was inevitable. All of this was inevitable.“Noneof this is about me, then.”
“That is what I wished to discuss before we…advanced the matter.”
Lifting her chin, she opened her eyes and waited. She would take this news with her head held high. She wouldn’t be some wilting wall flower. She wouldn’t be defined by if a man loved her or not. “I didn’t come inside expecting you to have feelings for me, James. I am not a naive child. I just expected the desire to be legitimate, if nothing else.”
“I promise I do not have this reaction to Sherlock.”
