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“How are you watching me?”
“That’s for me to know and you to try to find out, and fail.”
His lips arch into a sensual smile that stirs memories of the way he kisses—it’s reckless and maddening, just like him.
“You can hack a system.”
“Obviously.”
But he won’t tell me how. So far, he seems to have hacked and tampered with things in a way that no one knows he uses.
“Why are you watching me? What kind of sick game are you playing?”
“It’s not a game, believe me. Games are all about pretending. That’s not me, not my style. I don’t pretend anything. I tell it like it is and do what I want to do.”
“Like how you kissed me?”
“I’ve done worse.”
I’m sure he has. “Can we please just cut to the chase? You made me wait all day.” There’s no reason he couldn’t have told me whatever it is he wants to say this morning, or fuck it, even last night.
He just wanted to demonstrate his power over me and drag this out as long as possible, so I’d suffer while I waited and worried.
“You can’t rush these things.” He holds up his phone. The phone which currently has the video and pictures of me saved on it. “A man needs to think when he holds so much power in his hands.”
Bastard. Fucking bastard. I wish I could slap that smirk off his face. If I could, I would do so faster than a heartbeat.
“Have you thought?”
“I have, but I need some answers that will become important to my decision.”
“Answers to what?”
“What do you need the money for?”
I knew he was going to ask me that again. I just hoped he wouldn’t. Now’s not the time to hold on to my pride and plans that will amount to nothing if he screws me over.
Swallowing past the constriction cloying at my throat, I push my shoulders back and decide I’ll play nice if it helps me.
“For college.”
“Youhave to pay for your college tuition?” He looks me over with disbelief. “Your parents aren’t coughing it up? I find that hard to believe.”
“My mother doesn’t want me to go to UCLA.”
“Why?”
This is so awkward. I don’t want to talk about this to him or anyone else. “Because it’s in L.A.”
“That can’t be the only reason, what’s the rest?”
I sigh and try to hold in my frustration. “She wants me here. Near her. She doesn’t want me around my father when he gets out of prison.”
“Now we’re talking. And I’m guessing you’re daddy’s girl. So no matter what that bastard did, you’ll still love him, and you’re ready to forgive his ass.”
“No. That’s not it at all.” I shake my head, but I feel like a hypocrite inside. “Look, I don’t want to be here, but my mother will cut me off if I leave. That’s why I’m still here and why I had to come back when you threatened me. I don’t want to be at this school, and I don’t want to go to Raventhorn University either when the time comes. I don’t want to live a life of crime and shady shit.”
He looks me up and down. I know I was offensive, but I don’t care. He asked and that’s the answer.
