But the money was gone, and he could see her thinking Julian wouldn’t miss it. But then why wasn’t she spending it? She’d only had enough for coffee the other day.
Or she’s playing you and wants you to see her as fragile to bring out your protective instincts. No one else would be on her computer at work.
It didn’t matter because he would figure out what she was doing, and then he would pay Julian back.
Then he would make sure she stayed out of public life, and eventually the press would relent. He might even be able to get her to drop the lawsuit. He could take care of her financially. He could give her the life she wanted even if he had to do it quietly for a while.
Once she was out of the limelight and things died down, he could introduce her to his family, and maybe things would work out.
“You know you could put the evidence in front of her and ask her what she knows,” Deke offered. “I’m well aware that’s not what the client wants, but if you’re into her, it might be your only shot at keeping her around after she finds out.”
“Who says she has to? Look, if I find irrefutable proof that she’s taking the money, then I’ll confront her.” And he would offer her a way out. She wouldn’t leave him then. She would cling to him. He halfway wanted that scenario to be true. It would make things easier if he had the upper hand. “If she’s done nothing wrong, there’s no need for her to find out I was ever anything but her training Dom and eventually her formal Dom. She doesn’t have to know I was brought in to investigate her.”
She wouldn’t have to know he was the one who’d put her in a corner and left her nowhere else to go.
Deke frowned his way. “I don’t know what world you’re living in, but in this one, there is one truth. They always find out. Always.”
Michael had to pray that Deke was wrong.
Chapter Eleven
Vanessa yawned and turned in bed, expecting to find what she’d found the last eight days of her life—Michael’s warm body next to hers.
It was Sunday morning, and she was looking forward to waking up the same way she had yesterday. Michael took his time in the mornings. There wasn’t a ton of play, but there was a long, slow exploration of her body that inevitably led to her wrapped around him, sighing out his name.
His side of the bed was empty, and she heard someone moving around in the bathroom.
She sat up because he didn’t usually get out of bed without waking her up.
Of course her use of the word usually was only based on a little more than a week, but it had been an awesome week.
After that first night at The Club, they’d come back to Michael’s place, and she hadn’t even thought about going to the guest room. It wasn’t like she had a ton of stuff, so it had been easy to move it into here. They’d played every night after he picked her up from work and they’d shared dinner. They used his private playroom, and then they’d spent Friday and Saturday night at The Club. Her ass was still a bit sore from their scene the night before, but she’d found she even liked that ache.
There was a little voice inside her head screaming that she was moving too fast, that he was way too good to be true, but she wasn’t listening. She’d talked about her fears at her therapy appointment this week and found a compromise. Her therapist had talked about how it was okay sometimes to live in the moment, and Vanessa was going with it. She would think about all of this later. It was too nice to sink into this lovely place and let herself simply be for a few days.
There would be a reckoning. Whether that came down to Michael realizing she wouldn’t fit in with his family or something more mundane, she was fairly certain this relationship couldn’t work the way she wanted it to, but she’d started to wonder if they couldn’t have a few months together.
“Hey, gorgeous.” Michael stepped out of the bathroom dressed in slacks and a button-down shirt.
She sat up in bed, pulling the sheet around her breasts. “Are you going in to the office?”
He held out a hand, his eyes going to the sheet, and he didn’t have to tell her what he wanted. She let the sheet fall away and took his hand, allowing him to help her to her knees. He stood beside the bed, his eyes roaming her body as his hands did the same. They stroked over her.
“No, it’s much worse. I’ve got to meet my mother for brunch. She’s got something she wants to talk to me about,” he said, leaning over and kissing her softly. “She called at the last minute and said it was a family matter.”