And I still hadn’t thought of anything to ask for so I was forced to improvise. “I can afford my apartment and living expenses. But I take care of my mother too so I don’t have the extras, and I really like extras. Designer clothing is a weakness.”
“If I had my way you wouldn’t ever wear clothes.” Forget what his hands were doing because now Reeve leaned forward and bit my nipple.
My panties went from damp to soaked. “Ah.” Concentrate. “And I’m a shoe whore.”
His head popped up, suddenly intrigued. “Now shoes I can get behind. Can’t you just wear shoes” – he glanced back at the ones I was wearing – “like those, and stockings? Those thigh-high things.”
Damn, I liked it when he got flirty. He still had that undercurrent of dark, but was also fun. Like he’d been when I first met him at the resort.
His other resorts. If I could get him to take me to some of his other resorts, maybe that could lead me to Amber. “Mostly, I want to travel. I want to see places, first-class style, and I don’t want to travel alone.”
“And that’s the reason you targeted me.”
“One of them.” I ran my hands up and down his chest, digesting the words he’d just said. “‘Targeted,’” I scoffed. “As if I were a sniper.”
He leaned back in the chair, distancing himself from me. “Aren’t you?”
It bothered me that he thought that. Bothered me because there was resentment in his tone. Bothered me because his mood seemed to have changed with the statement.
Bothered me mostly because it was true.
I dropped my hands. “You really don’t like me do you?”
“I still haven’t decided.” He didn’t even try to pretend he was teasing.
It stung. More than I wanted it to. More than it should have.
I scooted off of him, awkwardly because of how I’d been sitting and because it was stupid for me to be hurt by what he’d said. He made it even more awkward when he didn’t try to stop me.
Folding my arms across my chest, I walked to the windows overlooking the pool. It was almost prettier at night. The lights shone on the water, making it glimmer. Making it glamorous.
Much like this life.
I’d forgotten how sparkly it appeared on the surface, how it was really only smoke and mirrors.
“Emily.” Reeve sighed softly. I watched his reflection in the glass as he stood and came up behind me. He gathered my skirt up and squeezed my ass. “I have decided I want to fuck you,” he said at my ear. “Do all sorts of dirty things to you.”
He could push me against the window and bang me right there. That would be plenty dirty. And probably a fitting way to fuck a woman that he didn’t even like.
The thought made my chest feel hollow. How sick that it also turned me on?
Reeve watched me in the glass. “That’s what you want too, isn’t it Emily?” He pressed the length of his body against mine. “For some reason, I want to give you things as well. Which works out for you because I wouldn’t ever give anything out of obligation alone.”
I turned my head slightly toward him, showing him he had my attention. Wishing I could tell him that I didn’t really want anything from him. Wishing I could be “liked,” for once, instead of “paid for.”
“Here’s what I’m going to do,” he said, pressing kisses to my neck in between his words. “When you leave here later, you’ll take one of my cars. I’ll leave the keys on the coffee table for you. It’s yours. I’ll have the title transferred to your name tomorrow. Will that do?”
Only if it will help me find Amber. “It’s a start. I suppose beggars can’t be choosers.”
“I think you’ll find in this case that beggars actually can.”
I pulled away and spun to face him. “Are you saying that if I beg I’ll get to travel?” I’d do it. I’d do whatever it took to find the truth and get away from this man. This man who was very much the flame to my moth. Already I feared that finding answers wouldn’t be enough to sever his pull on me.
He put his hands in his pockets and straightened his stance. “I’m saying you get a car. I’ll think about the rest.” His wicked grin returned. “And also, begging is more than welcome.”
Welcome, not necessary. If it wasn’t necessary, he wasn’t getting it.
After a beat, he said, “I’m going to get the keys and pull the car out of the garage. You will wait for me in my bedroom. Up the stairs, to the right, end of the hall.”
I took a shaky breath. This was it. Yes, I’d already had him inside me, but I was certain that I hadn’t yet been introduced to what things would really be like between us. If I wanted out, if I had any doubts at all, this was my window, before he put the keys in my hand.
Out was what I should have wanted. I didn’t. And suddenly, I was scared. Not of what Reeve would do to me, but of what I’d let him do to me.
I forced myself to make an effort toward self-preservation. “Reeve. Is there… do I need to know anything? Like what you expect from me…?”
His eyes darkened. “You’ll know.” He paused, probably waiting for me to do as he’d told and go upstairs, but I didn’t move. “What?”
“Do I need a safe word?”
His eye twitched, but he met me dead on. “You either trust me or you don’t, Emily. If you need a safe word, you probably shouldn’t be here.”
He was right – I shouldn’t be there. Especially when I was clearly walking into a questionable situation without being given any tools to get out if I needed to. If I’d learned anything from my past, I’d have run about now.