AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Need to think about it? Yeah, I get it,” he muttered, interrupting her and straightening up, “but don’t take too long. One way or another, I will get it out of you. Please—make it easy on both of us.”
As she let out a sigh and shifted her gaze to the window, he sensed her position had changed fromI can never tell himtomaybe I should.
He hoped she’d see sense.
There was still time.
The picture suggested she had information.
He wanted her confession.
He also wanted to show her he wasn’t a beast.
Unlike the Zeppelin brothers.
They took no prisoners.
Somehow they’d discovered her snooping, and ransacked her apartment desperate to find out what she knew.
A chill rippled down his spine.
She’d probably be dead if he hadn’t lured her to the lodge.
* * *
The modicum of relief Steph had found on the bedroom terrace overlooking the forest had evaporated. There was information and photos on her computer Marco Moretti wouldn’t want her to have. Demanding her password was one thing, but threatening to have her machine hacked was something else entirely.
That would expose so much more.
If she sat down with him and went through the little she knew about the Zeppelins, there was a chance the intimate details of her life would remain hidden. Fighting panic, she searched for an answer, but thinking clearly wasn’t easy with him standing at the side of the table staring down at her.
“I saved you the last piece of French toast,” she said softly, moving her gaze back to him and hoping to change the subject. “Or do you have to go?”
His lips curled just short of a smile.
“I can stay for a minute,” he replied, sitting down and topping up his coffee, “but I’ll be busy most of the day. I suppose I should eat this,” he added, lifting the fried bread and putting it on his plate. “No sense letting it go to waste—unless you want it.”
“I’m stuffed. I couldn’t eat another thing.”
His casual manner helped, but she still found his Jekyll and Hyde personality unnerving.
“If you’re hungry or thirsty,” he began, pausing to take a quick mouthful, “you can come in here and help yourself.”
“Really? Does that mean I’m free to wander around?”
“No, that’s not what it means,” he replied, shooting her a reprimanding look. “You’ll remain in my room. Only leave if you’re coming in here. If you’re seen anywhere else in the house you’ll be punished, and that doesn’t necessarily mean a spanking. We both know you enjoy having your tail whipped.”
“I plead the fifth,” she murmured, hating the blush that sprang across her cheeks.
“There’s no point. The truth is written across your face,” he said with a grin. “Tanning your ass can still be a deterrent, but in this case, if you disobey me, you’ll end up hogtied on the floor. Are we clear?”
“Yes, Sir,” she managed. “I won’t leave your bedroom except to come here to the kitchen.”
Eating the last of his toast and washing it down with his coffee, he leaned back. “In my office at the club there’s a plaque on the wall that saysSometimes you have to go through hell to get to heaven.”
“Who said that?”
“I did,” he replied. “Think about it. Do you want anything else to eat?”
