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Wrapping his arms around her from the back, he pulled her close. “Calm down, Anabella. We’re safe, and we’ll get this figured out.”
“Quit telling me to calm down. I am not going to calm down. I realize you and your buddies may have people trying to kill you all the time, but this is a first for me. I’m—as you have pointed out—just an accountant. No one tries to murder accountants!”
“They do if said accountant is doing a forensic examination of the company’s finances and has ferreted out that there’s a problem. Has it occurred to you that Blackwood Senior may have been playing you all along? That he’s the one who is actually behind the double dealing and was having you spot any weaknesses so he can rip off his own company?”
“No, it hadn’t occurred to me because I’m not used to that level of duplicity.”
“When dealing with the Blackwoods, it’s important to keep uppermost in your mind who you’re dealing with. They will throw anyone under the bus in order to save themselves.”
The argument was going strong and had come out of nowhere. He wasn’t even sure how they’d ended up in this place, but he feared they were arguing about things far outside the current circumstances.
When she tried to break away from him, he released her. She moved away from him, putting barriers of furniture between them.
She shook her head. “I don’t think I can do this.”
“I don’t think you have a choice. Even if you walk away right now, it’s doubtful that whoever is trying to kill you is going to give up.”
“I’m not stupid, Cooper, and I wasn’t talking about the whole people trying to kill me thing.”
She wasn’t making sense. If she wasn’t talking about people trying to kill her, what was she talking about—him? Was she questioning their relationship? She couldn’t be; she just couldn’t. As insipid as it might sound, Coop knew Anabella was his soul mate. The one woman he’d been seeking all his life, even before he knew he wanted to find her. Keeping her alive was about more than stopping Blackwood Industries from whatever it was up to; it was about ensuring that they had the future together he had never even dared to dream of.
Maybe she was just questioning his commitment to her. After all, she seemed to think she wasn’t worthy of him, which was contrary to the truth. He wasn’t worthy of her. She was everything a man could want in a wife, but he knew he left a lot to be desired in the whole husband department. Miley was always saying that men were dumbasses because they made assumptions about things without ever checking in with the other people in their lives. He told her once he loved her—he’d even said it first—and she’d responded in kind. How difficult could it be to understand they just needed to get through this next bit, and then they’d be fine. They’d ride off into the sunset together.
“You were right. I need to make someone in authority listen to me and tell them what I’ve found. They can take it from there. I think I’m just done with all of this.”
“I don’t know if you remember, but the FBI have opened their own investigation and are looking to take you into custody. Redmond is one of the agents on the team. We aren’t convinced he isn’t knee-deep in whatever’s going on. That’s why we whisked you out of the hospital.”
“Shit. I should remember that.”
“They’d pumped a lot of drugs into you. I’m surprised you remember anything at all.” Maybe that was it. Maybe she didn’t remember him telling her he loved her and vice versa. She’d been pretty loopy. “I love you, Anabella.”
“Don’t say that,” she snapped.
“You told me you loved me, too,” he said trying to get himself to calm down. “Did you forget that?”
“As you have pointed out, I was high on drugs. It was a nice little fantasy.”
“So, you don’t love me?” he said, alarmed at how crushed he felt at that.
“I’m saying that things said in the heat of the moment should not be held against someone after that moment has passed.”
“I don’t believe you believe that. I’m not sure what’s gotten into you, but I’m going to go fix us some breakfast, and then we can talk about it.”
“I don’t want to talk.”
The reins of his temper were slowly slipping through his grasp as he closed in on her position. “Well, it wouldn’t be my first choice.”
“You can’t just fuck me into submission.”
“I don’t know about that. It seemed to have worked pretty well at the cottage.”
He wasn’t sure who was shocked more, or what they were shocked by when her hand came up to slap him across the cheek. Neither of them said a word. They just stared at one another.
Anger and lust surged through his system. All of his primitive instincts and inclinations came to the fore. She was his; he knew that and so, by God, did she. He was on her before she had a chance to say or do anything else. Anabella shrieked in outrage as Cooper grabbed her by the wrist and practically flung her over the back of the chesterfield.
The last remnant of his civility reared its ugly head as Anabella tried to push up from being bent over the sofa. His hand delivered a harsh smack to her backside. A backside that was covered and needed to be naked. Cooper threw the hem of the sweater up over her back and jerked her leggings down past her knees. The sweet, ripe smell of her arousal assailed his senses. Realizing he wouldn’t be able to spread her legs far enough to step between them, he pulled a knife from his boot and then froze.
He needed to know he wasn’t frightening her. He held the knife where she could see it out of her peripheral vision. “Use your safeword, Anabella, or I’m cutting these damn leggings off and giving you what you need.”
