Beware of Me (Dark Obsession 4)

She’d been willing to kill in order to keep him safe. A man never forgot a woman who’d done that for him.

They rode down the elevator in silence, and when they headed through the glass doors of the building and out into the busy city streets, he wasn’t particularly surprised to see Agent Monroe standing at the corner.

But when Monroe saw him, the guy glowered.

Ethan’s car was waiting right out front. As Ethan opened the door for Carly, he gave the special agent a friendly wave…

With his middle finger. Then he climbed in the car after her. The door shut with a soft thud and Carly gave him their destination address.

When they pulled away from the curb, he didn’t look back to see if the FBI agent was following him or not. Right then, he wasn’t doing anything that would get him in trouble.

That part would come later.

***

Having a car take her through the city was nearly heaven to Carly. Traffic was insane, of course, but then, it was New York, so how could it be anything else? But when Ethan’s driver pulled to a stop in front of Dr. Nelson’s building, he didn’t seem to have any trouble finding a place to park. Mostly because Carly realized the guy had just made a spot for the sleek car.

A privacy screen separated them from the driver, and that screen had made her feel far too conscious of her close proximity to Ethan.

“Who are you meeting?” Ethan asked her.

Her hand had already gone to the door handle, but she hesitated. “You know so much about my life. Surely you know this part, too?” And she hated that. Hated that her soul was so bare. “If this is going to work…” Carly didn’t even know that this was, not yet. An uneasy relationship? An alliance? She cleared her throat. “If we’re going to get through the next few days, I really think it would be better if we didn’t lie to each other.”

His fingers feathered over her shoulder. “I’m not lying to you. I have no fucking clue who is waiting in that building. It could be a lover. It could be a PI. I own the public relations company, yes, but I didn’t push into your whole life.”

Didn’t you? It sure felt that way to her. She was so unbalanced, so unsettled…and maybe that was why the truth came out. “Quincy broke a part of me.” That was the way she’d felt. “Before you got there that night…before you broke in…” Say it. Say it. “He raped me.”

The silence in that car was stark. Stunning.

Terrifying.

She opened the door and risked a glance back at Ethan. The car’s interior light shone down on him, and he’d gone absolutely white. The only color in his face was his blazing eyes.

“I know you suspected.” He’d arrived after she’d already been attacked. But this—this was the first time she’d ever said those stark words to him.

His hands were clenched at his sides.

“You and I, we didn’t talk again, after that night…” Her heart was slamming into her chest. Get out of the car. But she didn’t move. “It was hard to get over it.” Why am I lying? It wasn’t hard. Freaking impossible. I still hurt.

“Baby,” his voice was a rasp. “You’re ripping out my heart. I’ve wished a fucking thousand times I’d gotten there sooner.”

She shook her head. “Then maybe his men just would’ve killed you.” Quincy almost had killed him. “I don’t blame you. I-I hope you know that.”

“I blame my fucking self.”

She had to blink away the tears that wanted to fill her eyes.

“If I could,” Ethan continued, his voice still so rough and ragged. “I would kill that bastard again. Only it would be slower. And he’d beg for the end.”

She shook her head. Hard. “That isn’t the way. It isn’t the way to get better.” And she was better. A nightmare hadn’t woken her up in weeks. So she still had trouble getting close to men. At least she didn’t vomit after a man touched her. She’d done that, the first time she’d gone out on a date after the attack.

But then she’d started her therapy. She’d been determined not to let Quincy or his ghost win.

And he won’t.

Maybe something had broken inside of her, but she’d rebuilt herself. Piece by piece. “My shrink is in that office. Dr. Nelson. I’ve had therapy, on and off, since the attack.” Dr. Nelson was the therapist she’d started to see after her last doctor had moved out of town. She’d been seeing Dr. Nelson for about seven months, but…

But this is the end now.

She put her heel down on the pavement. One, then the other, and she slid out of the car. The driver stood a few feet away, waiting, no expression on his face. “You okay?”

“Yes, fine. Thank you. For asking…and, um, for the ride.” Carly nodded to him. “I’m Carly, by the way.” She’d been so nervous before that she hadn’t introduced herself to him. Ethan had a way of doing that—making her forget pretty much everything else.

“Charles.” His head inclined toward her and he gave her a brief smile.

She wanted to smile back, but her emotions were spinning out of control. She’d lied when she told Charles that she was fine. Fine wasn’t even an option.

Carly could hear Ethan behind her. Climbing from the car. Part of her wanted to break and run away. Another part wanted to see just what he’d say to her.

She’d never told another lover the truth before.

He isn’t your lover. You shared some hot kisses with him long ago. And, okay, maybe recently, too. But he isn’t—

He turned her toward him. His hands were gentle on her. So incredibly gentle. Ethan’s fingers curled under her chin as he tipped her head back and she stared into his eyes.

“I should have gotten there sooner.”

Carly shook her head. No, hadn’t Ethan heard her? The attack hadn’t been on him. Quincy had been a sick, twisted psychopath. He’d—

“No one will hurt you again, Carly. If they try…” He bent and kissed her. Softly. Carefully. Like she was some delicate treasure to him.

She wasn’t, of course. But…

“If anyone tries,” he whispered against her lips, “I will fucking make him wish for death.”

Such a gentle touch, such a terrifying promise…because she knew he meant those words.

“You are perfect. Know that. Always have been. Always will be,” Ethan said as his forehead pressed to hers. He just—held her there, with traffic around them, with people hurrying past on the sidewalk.

“You sent me away,” Carly whispered. He probably didn’t know about her trip to the psych ward. Now wasn’t the time for that bombshell. One painful past reveal was enough sharing for the moment.

He flinched. “I thought I was helping you…Getting you away from me and the danger in D.C.”

But she’d needed him. So much.

Why had she called out for him in that psych ward? What had she really thought that Ethan would do for her?

“I hope you understand,” he whispered into her ear. “I hope you know…you are still perfect. Still strong and good, and that bastard didn’t do anything to alter who you are.”

Her arms were around him. She was holding him just as tightly. The tears were back, and she didn’t stop them. S

o what if a crowd could see them? She needed this moment. She needed Ethan. A man who knew all of her secrets and still told her—

You are still perfect.

“I missed you,” she confessed to him. Probably a huge mistake, but she was past the point of being able to stop. Their relationship—good, bad, fucked up—it went too deep for her to hide that truth from him.

“And I think part of me might have just died without you,” he told her.

Her breath caught in her throat. She looked up at him.

“You were always the best thing in my life,” Ethan said. “You were the good one. And without you…you don’t really want to know what I became.”

She wanted to know everything about him.

“Go on inside,” Ethan told her. “I’ll be waiting for you when you come out.”

Right. Her appointment. Dr. Nelson.

Slowly, she pulled away from Ethan. Her gaze searched his once more, and she was surprised because she could have sworn that she saw a flash of pain in his eyes.

Ethan…in pain.

That was something she’d never liked. “I’m okay now,” she told him, oddly driven to comfort him.

He gave her a slow smile. “Baby, you always have been. Even at seventeen, you were the strongest woman I’d ever seen.”

Her heart raced faster as she turned away from him. There were tears on her cheeks, but for some reason, her steps seemed lighter as she hurried to her appointment with Dr. Nelson.

***

Ethan watched Carly until she’d disappeared into the tall, gleaming building. He pulled in a deep breath, one that seemed to hurt his lungs. His hands had fisted when she walked away, and he wanted, so badly, to drive those fists hard and deep into—

“Uh, Ethan?”

He turned at the question and found his new driver/bodyguard watching him with worried eyes.

Charles West was dressed in a light blazer and jeans. His dark eyes showed a hint of worry as he glanced from Ethan toward the building. “Is everything all right, boss?”

He was sure Charles had overheard plenty. The tall, deceptively strong, African American guy had many talents—and few weaknesses. Ethan respected the fellow for a whole hell of a lot of reasons, but he didn’t trust him. Not even close.