“Lies. Let’s see how relaxed you are after I make you come three or four times.”
“You’re nauseating,” I tell him, even though my panties are completely drenched, before I twirl to head to my room.
He hooks an arm around my waist and then his mouth is at my ear.
And the heat of it, the sensation of being against his rock-hard body? It has me trembling and insanely aware of every nerve ending on my body.
“Do we have a bet?”
“Maybe I’m done with San Diego. Maybe it’s time to move on, so either way it’s pointless. Either you don’t find out and waste your time spinning your wheels, or you do find out, find out the information is useless and all it means is that I leave town.”
“You don’t wanna leave San Diego. You love your job. Your best friend just got married. The only way you’d leave at your name being discovered is because you’re scared.”
His words hurt. They’re true.
“You’re bad at hiding that you’re terrified of something. You’re shakin’ right now. What is it?”
You. I’m deathly afraid of you. Because I could fall for you and then everything could fall apart, and people could get hurt. Badly.
“I’m shaking with anger, not fear. And maybe it’s just time to go anyway,” I say. “Maybe because you’re trying to remind me of things I just wanna forget.”
If I make it about me moving on and not about me being in danger, will he let this go? I’m so confused right now about the way to play this. Because the way he keeps touching me, the way he looks at me, it’s really, really hard to not just fall to pieces.
“How about this? If you try to take off, I’ll follow you.”
“Why would you do that?”
“If you take off because I get to the truth of you, it’s because you’re hiding something, and it’ll be my responsibility to my client to find out what. They’re facing some serious problems in another location that prompted these background checks. If it’s deemed that you’re part of that investigation, I have no doubt they’ll want me to figure out where you’ve gone and what your part in it is.”
“I have nothing to do with their other offices. I do some creative work for them, but I’ve never been to any of the other branches, never even met anyone that works there in person.”
“Definitely, you takin’ off will mean I’ve got to follow in case it has anything to do with the problems they’re facing over there.”
“That’s crazy.”
“Tell me what’s going on with you,” he whispers against the back of my neck and it dawns I’ve let him hold onto me way too long.
“You’re deranged.”
I shake free and keep walking down the hall. When I grab my doorknob, he calls out, “So, if I figure out who you are by next Wednesday, I get to fuck you again.”
“And then what?” I hiss.
“Then we go from there and see.”
I turn and glare at him. “You’re an asshole.”
“And you’re a liar. But you like how I fuck you, so if you lose, you also win.”
“Such a dick,” I scowl.
“Let’s have some fun with this, Vixen. Unless I find out you’re doing something to fuck over Aiden’s family’s company, in which case you’re up shit’s creek, no paddle. You’re not and this is just you trying to move on with your life for some innocuous personal reason, I let it go. Either way, if I figure out your real name by Wednesday, we spend another night together. All night.”
“You’re unbelievable. No. Fuck off. I’ve done nothing wrong at my job and if this is only about you working for CC, then you can let this go.”
“If you’ve got nothing to hide, what’s the worry?”
“If you’re doing this for the job, then trying to make me have sex with you is blackmail and gross sexual misconduct related to your job, is it not?”
“A wager is not the same as extortion, and you know it. Let’s put it this way. Either way, I’m digging in to find out the truth. You want me to keep it on the downlow, you make this wager. You want me to notify the Carmichaels that I’m investigating you, I do that now. Either way, I dig. You want it on the downlow because you really are innocent, you make the wager.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s fun.” His eyes sparkle with mischief. “I’m gonna work to find out anyway. What’s the worst that happens? More orgasms for both of us?”
So much worse than that if he figures out who I am, but how can I let on that this is the case? If he can figure out who I am, they can figure out where I am. Tori’s number one rule was that no one can know my truth but me. Nothing is a secret unless nobody knows. The only one that knows is my mother, so it’s not a 100% secret, but this is the closest I could get.