Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 149137 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149137 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
“Let’s take a walk and talk about this,” she said, reaching for his hand.
He pulled it away before she could touch him. “Don’t do that.”
Now the tears showed up. He was sure she’d been saving them. “Please. I didn’t know you when I took this assignment. I only knew that somewhere out there another agent is in trouble, maybe even dead, and I was the one who could help him. I didn’t plan on falling in love with you.”
Sure she didn’t, but then it had been a handy way to manipulate him.
Now he could easily see every move she’d made had been to get him to a point where he would place her in the best possible position to do her job. In some ways, he even admired her for it. He could understand. Hell, his job was all he’d had until he’d met…his job was all he had, too.
“They listen to me in the playroom?”
“I’m not sure,” she replied. “It’s very likely.”
So they would know about his proclivities. They would have heard him topping her, saying things that could be taken in the nastiest of contexts. They wouldn’t be able to see his expression or how she responded. Without the aid of sight, the words themselves would be harsh, the commands of a man merely using a woman for sex. Since they’d talked openly about the club and its members, he would have to deal with that as well.
But that wasn’t his only problem.
“They listen in my bedroom. Don’t they? They would have heard us talking last night after your dads went to bed. Are they really your dads? They were surprisingly effective. They could be actors.”
She swallowed once and then again. “Yes. Yes, they are. And I wasn’t thinking about that last night. Josh, those tapes won’t ever go anywhere. No one outside this operation will ever hear them.”
He’d whispered his story to her because she’d been the only one on the planet he wanted to share it with. In doing so, he’d spilled his secrets to a group who dealt in them, who fed off them. His words would go into a file for the Agency higher-ups to read and they would decide what to do with the information. His sad-sack life, his blood, spread out for everyone.
He’d paid blackmail for years, but love had been the thing to bring him low.
“Please say something,” she begged.
“You wouldn’t like what I have to say.” His heart actually ached. It thudded in his chest, squeezing and unclenching, and every beat hurt.
“I love you.”
He closed his eyes because he couldn’t stand to look at her. “Don’t say those words. They’re meaningless coming from your lips.”
“Josh, I do love you. We have to talk. I know you don’t want to, but I can see you’re angry with me. It’s okay. I would be pissed off, too. I’ve lied to you, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love you. It doesn’t mean that I intended to leave you. I prayed we would get to Hector’s and save the operative and you wouldn’t have to know. I was going to stay with you.”
He opened his eyes and looked at her. Really looked at her. She was wearing chic clothes that had designer labels all over them, her hair still shiny from the blow-out she’d had earlier. Of course she was staying. She had a taste for his lifestyle now. “I’d like you out my house in the next hour. Tell Shane and Declan they’re fired as well. I think I’ll stay at Jared’s until I can find somewhere else.”
“What?”
He stood up. It was time to put an end to whatever this was. And maybe he wouldn’t go to Jared’s. It was time to end that, too. He’d been better off without friends. Jared was the one who’d talked him into… Of course. What a complete idiot he was. “Jared’s in on this. His brother works for you people. Naturally.”
She shook her head. “No. No. Jared has no idea what’s going on. He’s your friend and he thought he was helping you. He wouldn’t do this to you. I promise. You can trust him. But Josh, you can’t kick us out. You can’t fire us. I know this is all going to hell, but we need to talk.”
“Talk about what?”
“Talk about why you’re so cold right now.”
“I’m cold because this is who I am.” He was cold because if he let even the slightest hint of heat in, he would have a hand around her throat. He was cold because it was important that he stayed nice and numb. If he let a sliver of emotion in, he would hate her every bit as much as he’d ever loved her. He put a hand up. Perhaps there was another way to end this. “Look, you’re making a lot of something you probably shouldn’t.”