Scandalize Me

“Aren’t we a pretty pair,” she said, all of that darkness in her voice, all these years of despair and denial and revenge fantasies to ease the terrible cost of it all.

Everything she’d done. Everything she’d lost. All the girls Jason had ruined. All the ways she was ruined herself. All of it. Because that was all she had left.

Maybe Jason had been right a long time ago, and what he’d made her was all she’d ever be. Maybe she should have surrendered to that a long time ago, the way so many of the others had. The way Sarah had.

Maybe she should have given up. It would have been easier.

She smiled at Hunter, and told herself this was funny. “You’re not a john, but at least you get to be an asshole. I’m afraid I’m just another whore.”

Chapter Eight

He’d known.

On some level, Hunter was aware, he’d suspected this. Why else would she have thrown Sarah’s name in his face that first morning?

He’d known, but he hadn’t wanted to know. The story of his fucking life, and yet this wasn’t the time to dive back into the comfortable swamp of his own self-pity. Not when she’d gone too cold, too frigid. And it wasn’t that clever, deliberate coolness he’d found he couldn’t get enough of, that he only wanted to bask in. It was as though the Zoe he’d known had disappeared beneath a long winter’s deposit of ice, and he could hardly bear it.

He hated it. He wouldn’t allow it. He crossed his arms over his chest to keep from reaching out to her, and he drew on all his years of tense football games and tough plays to calm himself down. To focus. This wasn’t about him, it was about Zoe. His beautiful, brave, tough Zoe, who he refused to let disappear into that darkness he could see had its hooks in her. Deep.

“This is why you wanted me,” he said, straining with the effort to keep from shouting. To keep all that fury that rolled inside him banked and controlled, because he didn’t want to aim it at her. “My connection to Sarah.” He jerked his head at the television screen. “To that piece of shit.”

“You’re the key to my revenge,” she agreed. But her voice was frozen. Too sharp and mocking. It was like a slap.

He didn’t want to slap back, he wanted to soothe her, hold her, help her—but he knew she’d never let that happen. She’d never let him close to her again without a fight.

Hunter could always fight. He was good at it.

“Some revenge,” he said. “So enthusiastically sleeping with a man you think prefers the company of call girls. How does that hurt Jason, exactly?”

“That was purely to manipulate you.” A quirk of her dark brows. “Especially the enthusiasm.”

He laughed, though he couldn’t quite pull it off. “I appreciate you suffering through it. Very thoughtful. But you probably should have come up with a better morning-after act.”

There was a flicker of something in her too-dark eyes then, and he thought he might have broken through, but then she only smiled that same empty smile.

“I don’t think I have to manipulate this situation any further,” she said calmly. Too calmly, as if he hadn’t been there in that bed. As if he didn’t know there hadn’t been a shred of calculation in her all night long. “You’re either going to help me because Jason Treffen is responsible for your girlfriend’s death, or because you know I’m aware that you’re one of his very special clients and you wouldn’t want that getting out. It doesn’t matter which.”

“Of course it matters.” That came out harsher than it should have, revealing him too starkly, and her head jerked back as if he’d hit her. Damn it. “I told you I was never his client. Not like that.” He studied her for a taut breath, then another. “Are you fighting all the ghosts in the room or are you fighting me? I can’t tell.”

“I can’t really see the difference.”

“Fight me, Zoe. You can actually hit me. Because I’m standing right here.”

She moved then, and he thought it was a small sort of victory, even when all she did was head to the far end of the sectional and sit down, lounging back as if she’d never been more at her ease. Never more calm.

Meanwhile, he thought his chest might crack wide open. He thought this might actually kill him. Especially when she leveled that unfriendly look at him, as though after all of this, he was the enemy.