“You thought I was blackmailing you.”
Uh, yes.
“You thought I recorded us fucking a year ago, and that I had the video—that I was going to show that film to the world so that I could get a dig at your bastard of a brother and your father?”
Cat nodded. She also forced herself to release his hand and to slide back—as far back as she could go because the man’s fury was palpable.
Her shoulders hit the leather seat behind her.
Jason didn’t move. “I didn’t record us.”
“Someone did,” she whispered right back. Why, why had that video surfaced after a whole year?
“And if I had recorded us,” Jason continued, as if he hadn’t even heard her, but Cat knew that he had, “I damn sure wouldn’t ever let anyone else watch it. You were for me, Cat. Only me.” His voice roughened. “You still are.”
Wait, had he seriously just said that? His voice had been little more than a growl so Cat wasn’t sure. Her fingers slid toward the door near her left-side. “Okay, so there seems to have been a…um, misunderstanding here.”
“You went to the Playhouse to meet me.”
“Yes.”
“You went to a sex club to meet me.”
She’d just said as much. Her eyes narrowed on him. She wished there was more light back there! “I went because I thought you were blackmailing me! It wasn’t like I was going there to—to have sex with you!”
“If you were going in a sex club, love, then you were certainly going to get fucked.”
Was the car slowing? She couldn’t tell for sure. Maybe. “Tell your driver to stop. I want out.”
He stretched out his legs and seemed to cage her in even more. “What did you plan? That you’d offer me sex in exchange for not releasing the video?”
This was way out of control. “The video has you in it, too! You need to be worried! You can’t want the world to see—”
“To see me taking you?” She thought he shrugged. “I don’t want people seeing you, but knowing that you’re mine…that’s a secret I’ve kept too long. Maybe it’s time everyone learned that truth.”
“Stop it,” she snapped at him, pushed too far. He acted as if what she’d revealed didn’t matter. She’d been terrified when the video first appeared, and now that she knew Jason wasn’t behind the blackmail…how am I going to stop that video from being released? It could be all over the Internet by morning.
Jason would just get hyped more. The Bad Boy of Britain would have struck again. She’d get slammed and labeled as the sister who’d slept with the enemy.
Silence filled the vehicle. It stretched as more miles passed. That silence was wrecking her nerves. “Let me out of the car, now,” Cat ordered him. She tried to sound imperious and not scared, but she was pretty sure she sucked at that attempt. “I have to go back! If I don’t show up tonight, he will put that video up.”
The car was finally slowing. Yes! She lunged for the door handle. Jason just tossed out his hand, a move that was lightning fast, and his fingers curled around her wrist. “You’re not getting away again.”
She had to get away. “It’s my life we’re talking about! Someone back there—someone wants to destroy that life.”
His hold tightened on her. “I won’t let that happen.”
Laughter broke from her then. Wild, angry. “Right…as if you weren’t the one who tried to destroy me the last time I was in Vegas.” There was a reason she’d stay away for so long. That reason was currently rubbing the inside of her wrist with his callused fingertips.
The limo stopped.
“Let me go,” Cat said. She knew the words sounded like a plea. What did he want? For her to beg?
Very slowly, his fingers unfurled from around her wrist. She hesitated. Cat had actually thought that would be so much harder. But, right…he’s done with me. I’m done with him. Her chin lifted and she shoved open the door. Her sneakered heel hit the pavement and—
Cameras flashed all around her. Voices shouted.
Her jaw dropped. The limo had stopped right in front of a long, red carpet that led into the Archer’s Arrow Casino. A huge crowd of reporters surrounded that carpet and they were all taking pictures of her.
She wasn’t as recognizable as her brother—Cameron was usually in nearly as many tabloids as Jason—but—
Jason slid out behind her. He put his arm around her waist and he turned her toward him.
“What is happening?” Cat demanded, but suddenly, his tux made sense. A terrible, horrific sense.
“My new restaurant opened tonight,” he told her, golden eyes gleaming as more cameras captured their image. “Thanks for helping me celebrate, love.”
Then his lips took hers. He kissed her right there, on that red carpet, in front of the reporters and the crowd, and Cat realized that it didn’t matter if the video of her and Jason leaked out.
Jason August was staking a claim on her right then. Right there. Kissing her for the world to see.
By dawn, they’d be the ones in the gossip pages.
By dawn, her brother would know about her relationship with Jason. Her father would know.
Cat shoved her hands against his chest. The guy was freaking unmovable. He just kept kissing her, and she would not let her toes curl. Slowly, slowly, his head lifted. “Too long,” Jason whispered.
She shook her head. “Why?” Didn’t he realize what he’d just done to her?
“You can thank me later,” Jason told her and the guy flashed her a wink. He kept her hand in his and turned toward the crowd with a smile on his too-handsome face. After a few more photos, he started guiding her along that red carpet. She caught sight of a TV star sliding out of another limo just a few feet behind them.
This couldn’t be happening.
But, oh, hell, it was.
The secret she’d tried so hard to keep for the last year was about to rip her world apart.
Chapter Two
Jason waved to the crowd that had gathered in front of his restaurant. It was a gala evening for the rich and powerful…so many had turned out for the opening event, just as his publicist had predicted.
And even though he’d been planning this moment for months, Jason sure as hell wanted to be someplace else right then. If the restaurant hadn’t been opening in his good friend Drake Archer’s casino…I’d damn well be elsewhere.
Cat was beside him. Furious. Glaring. Gorgeous. She’d tried to slip away again and again as they made their way through the crowd, but he’d just tightened his hold on her wrist. He’d gone a whole year without her at his side. A year. Did the woman actually think he’d just let her slip away once more?
“Thank you all for coming out tonight,” Jason said and all eyes shifted to him as he stood in the middle of the restaurant. “Enjoy the food, enjoy the champagne, and be sure to spend one hell of a lot of money before you head out!”
Laughter greeted his announcement. He lifted the flute of champagne he held in his right hand, kept his left firmly around Cat’s delicate wrist, and saluted the crowd.
Drake Archer stood in the back, with his arm curled around the shoulders of a lovely redhead. Drake lifted his champagne flute, as did the others, and Drake inclined his head toward Jason.
There, old friend. Now my debt to you is paid in full.
Because Drake Archer wasn’t some simple businessman. The world was wrong on that score. Drake had secrets—dark and dangerous secrets—secrets that Jason shared.