Need Me (Dark Obsession 3)

Chapter One

“Please. I’ll pay any price. I just—I don’t want to die.” Julianna Patrice McNall-Smith clenched her hands into fists as she was led into Devlin Shade’s office at VJS Protection, Inc.

The company was high-end, supposedly very discrete. If you had a problem, VJS was the solution. They offered protection. A twenty-four hour, seven-days-a-week bodyguard service, and with the way her life was falling straight to hell, she could sure use that service.

“Why don’t you sit down?” Devlin said, his deep voice rumbling as he closed the door behind her, sealing them inside the sanctuary of his office.

She probably shouldn’t like his voice as much as she did. She shouldn’t be so aware of him. It was wrong.

So why did he feel so right?

Julianna sat down and carefully crossed her legs in front of her. She noticed that Devlin’s gaze dipped to her legs, and she tensed for a moment. Stop it. Keep your mask in place. You can do this.

He pulled his stare away and paced toward his desk. He didn’t sit down, though. Instead, he propped his hip against the edge of the desk and stared at her.

“My lawyer told me to come to you,” Julianna said because she didn’t like the way silence stretched in that office. “Sophie Sarantos said your firm was good at discrete protection.” But her laugh was brittle. “I don’t really care if you’re discrete or not. I just need help.” Because Julianna knew a killer was out there, and she didn’t particularly want to die.

Not when I’ve just started living again.

“I’m well acquainted with Sophie,” Devlin said.

His voice was really quite dangerous. So rumbly and deep. It made her think of things she had no business even considering right then. Julianna straightened her shoulders. Maybe he wasn’t jumping to take the job because of the things he’d heard about her. “I’m not a killer.”

He just stared back at her. His eyes were such a bright, brilliant blue. Gorgeous eyes. When she looked into his stare, Julianna felt a little bit lost—and she knew that could be a dangerous thing. Devlin was tall, strong, with powerful, wide shoulders that stretched his suit jacket. His thick, dark hair slid away from his forehead. Devlin was a handsome man, not perfectly so, but handsome in a rough, rugged way. His cheeks were sharp, his jaw cut and square, his nose was a little bit hawkish, but that just added to his rugged air. And his lips…

I have no business noticing his lips.

She shifted a bit in her seat and uncrossed her legs. Then, nervously, she re-crossed them immediately. Her skirt slid against her skin.

Devlin cleared his throat. “Your case is going to be delayed. You realize that, of course. With the prosecuting ADA now dead—and with all the news that the guy was a straight-up psycho who’d been stalking your lawyer, hell, there’s no way you’ll be seeing the inside of a courtroom anytime soon. All of ADA Eastbridge’s cases are about to come under one hell of a scrutiny. All those people that he sent to prison—they’ll be shouting injustice and demanding new trials. Because of him, the prosecutor’s office is a serious cluster fuck right now.” He waited a beat. “And that can only be good for you.”

Her breath felt cold in her lungs. “Good for me? Sophie isn’t just my lawyer. She’s also my friend. That man—Clark Eastbridge tried to kill her! That is hardly good for me.”

Devlin watched her with that unreadable stare of his.

“You mean it’s good for me…” She understood now. “Because Clark Eastbridge being a psychotic prick means I probably won’t see the inside of a jail.” Sophie had actually told her the same thing. Eastbridge had been pursuing her case with particular fury, and now that the truth about him was out…well…even the press was going a bit easier on her.

“That’s exactly what I mean. Guilty or innocent, things have changed for you now.”

She shot to her feet and nearly leapt toward him. Their legs brushed as she leaned in toward him. “I’m not guilty.”

He shrugged. “I’m not on your jury, so it’s not my place to say.”

His words hurt her. Why she should be surprised he thought she was a killer, Julianna didn’t know. Plenty of people had thought and said the same thing. That she was a calculating woman who’d taken herself a rich husband. She’d bided her time until she was legally set with his money, then she’d brutally killed him.

If only people knew the truth about her dead husband.

If only they knew the truth about me.

“Until the real killer is caught, I do have to worry about the possibility of spending the rest of my life in jail.” And that couldn’t happen. She’d already lived too long in a cage. She wouldn’t be doing it again. Even Sophie didn’t know that Julianna had made plans…escape plans. If things started to look too dark, she was going to vanish.

And, lately, with fear crowding ever closer, vanishing had started to look like the perfect choice. I just don’t want the world to remember me as a killer.

“You want me to catch the real killer?” Devlin asked, cocking his head a bit as he stared down at her.

Her hands lifted and curled around his shoulders. Why was she touching him? Julianna wasn’t sure, but she just tightened her hold on him. “No, I want you to keep me alive. He’s after me. I know he is, and I want to hire you as my bodyguard.” Money wasn’t an issue for her. Not anymore.

For just an instant, the past swam before her. That terrible morning when she’d woken on the floor of her den and found her husband’s dead body right beside hers. His blood had soaked the carpet. It had been under her body. On her.

Everywhere.

Devlin’s gaze slid over her face. Slowly. As if he were taking her in. Julianna was far too conscious of her fingers on his shoulders. Of his body so close to hers. Of—

“Do you always get what you want?”

Her brow furrowed.

“Do you always…” Devlin continued, voice roughening a bit, “use your body to get what you want?”

Her mouth dropped open in shock, then immediately closed as rage swept through her. “I’m not using my body.” She jerked away from him. Sophie had been so wrong about the guy. Going to Devlin had been a huge mistake. He wasn’t the man she’d thought, not at all.

Julianna rushed for the door, but Devlin caught her before she’d taken more than a few steps. He curled his fingers around her shoulder and spun her back to face him. “Every news story says that you’re a femme fatale. The woman who seduced billionaire Jeremy Smith and convinced him to marry her after a whirlwind courtship.”

Sh

e was the one who’d been seduced. And trapped.

“And then you come in here, offering to pay anything if I help you.”

Her chin shot up. “I was talking about money. Any amount you wanted. I wasn’t talking about paying with myself.” And she hurt right then. Why, Julianna didn’t know. He wasn’t the first person to hurl insults at her. “Despite what you might think, I’m not a whore, high-priced or otherwise.”

His fingers slid down her arm. “My mistake.”