Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Corvus…
Her muted steps fell on the stairway’s treads as I went through the motions in my kitchen, making us coffee. She looked thoughtful, troubled, and I liked the way the look wore on her beautiful face.
“How do you take your coffee?” I asked, and she stared at me, as though I’d spoken Alien translated into Greek in her direction.
“I just want to go home,” she said, and I nodded.
“Your car’s out back. Looks like you found your purse – sorry about no shoes, but I’m sure you have plenty others. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you wear the same pair twice.”
Her expression went from wide-eyed innocence and scared to absolutely mollified.
“What do you want from me?” she demanded, and she slipped into one of the seats at my small dining table.
I smirked and asked once more, “Coffee?”
“You seriously expect me to drink anything you’d try to give me from now on after you drugged me last night?” she asked archly.
I grinned wolfishly and said, “I’d tell you to keep your panties on, but I know you don’t have any at the moment.”
I watched her blush furiously, and she stood up.
“Oh, relax!” I chided. “Sit down, have a cup of coffee, get it together, and then you can go.”
“I can go now,” she argued.
Letting my gaze turn molten, I snapped at her, “Sit down!”
She sat, abruptly, and swallowed hard, and her obedience pleased me. She was afraid – but still stared at me, resistance and impertinence in her deeply troubled blue eyes, and I fully admit I enjoyed having the upper hand.
“How do you take your coffee?” I demanded curtly.
“Two creams, two sugars, but you’re wasting your time. I’m not drinking that.”
I gave her a look of consternation, then turned back to the pot, pouring two mugs, opening the fridge, adding half and half to one, tossing in two spoonsful of sugar, before sliding it across the table at her.
She sat and simply stared at me.
I raised my coffee to my lips and arched my eyebrows at her over the rim of my mug as I took a deliberate swallow and willed her silently to stop being so fucking obstinate.
She wrapped her hands around the mug in front of her, more for the warmth than out of any desire to actually drink it, and stirred it, which at least satisfied me that she was keeping with decorum.
“I like you better without all that fake shit,” I muttered, and she arched one eyebrow at me, bristling.
“Pretty stupid blondes and sex appeal sell more houses,” she said flatly, and I huffed a laugh.
“It also gets you whatever the hell that was last night,” I countered.
“You’re seriously going to blame me for Hal Lindstrom’s bad behavior?” she countered. There was some of that fire she held banked inside – the embers and coals sparking to life.
I cocked my head and set my coffee on the counter beside me, leaning my hands between the counters, pressing my hands flat and lifting myself off my feet in a stretch, as I contemplated what she was implying. I had to admit, she was right.
“No, you’re right. That was all him. You tell a dog to sit and stay in the presence of a prime piece of meat, and it tends to have more self-control than your average man these days.”
“Did you just compare me to a piece of meat?” She gave me an ugly look, and I barked a laugh.
“Now you’re reaching, princess,” I told her. “I was agreeing with you and walking back my prior statement, but you won’t even give me that, right now, will you?”
She shook her head.
“No, I won’t. Not while you’re standing there all blasé about drugging me and… and…” She was trying to find it when it was so blatantly obvious, so I helped her out.
“Sexually blackmailing you?” I supplied.
“Yes,” she said, and she sat back in her seat as though I’d whisked the sheet off and displayed the stark horror that lay underneath.
“I guess I’m not such a complicated guy after all.” I shrugged and took up my mug for another drink.
“Certainly, no better than the dog,” she muttered.
“Although I do have more self-control,” I said. “Right up until I don’t…”
“I don’t see the difference,” she said.
I grinned. “The difference is that depending on your behavior, this gets to be as pleasant or unpleasant as you want it to be.”
“What in the Cruel Intentions warped reality are you talking about?”
“Not as airheaded as you pretend to be on the regular, are you?” I shot back.
“What?” She looked confused.
“I like to play with my toys, and you’re quickly catching on,” I told her.
She closed her eyes and shook her head. “And if I don’t want to play?” she demanded.
I laughed at that. “Then you wouldn’t be playing like you are,” I said. “You would have left by now if something in you wasn’t at the very least… curious.”
She swallowed hard, took up her coffee, and drank a big swallow.
She set it down and then seemed to realize what she’d done because she looked up at me with those eyes, so wide, and showing too much white, and I couldn’t help myself. I howled with laughter.
“Give it a minute,” I told her and took another swallow of the black liquid gold in my mug. “You’ll see I didn’t put anything in it.”
She propped her elbows on the table, covered her mouth with her hands, closed her eyes, and trembled finely. I appreciated the beauty of her discomfiture.
“I’m going home,” she said finally, and when she opened her eyes, the bottom lashes were thick with gathering tears.
“By all means,” I said. “Keys are right there.” I gestured to her keys in front of her. “Laptop is in the living room.”
I watched her slowly get up and gather her things and said, “I’ll walk you out.”
“I can manage just fine,” she tried. I smiled and chuffed a laugh, shaking my head as I held open the door off the kitchen into the courtyard.
“You need me to open the carriage house garage door for you.”
“Oh.” She cringed as she slid by me and carefully stepped out onto the patio brick in her bare feet, her toes perfectly manicured to match her fingernails.
She clutched everything to her chest, awkwardly, as though it would somehow shield her from my presence.
I opened her car door for her, and she looked at me, blinking in surprise, the door suspended between us as she still clutched her belongings as if they would somehow save her from me.
It was far too late for that, but if it made her feel better…
“Remember, I call and you answer.”
High spots of color appeared on her cheeks, and she didn’t say anything, just got into her car and tossed everything onto the passenger seat, most of it spilling onto the floor.
I made sure she was in before I shut the door and stepped back, hitting the switch to open the garage. She stared at me, starting her car and waiting so that she could pull out.
She was careful, and I was glad for that. It was a nice Jag. Looked like it didn’t have many miles on it. She pulled out onto the street and, once clear, left in a hurry.
I hit the switch and walked back across the patio and into my kitchen, taking up my phone off the counter and checking the tracking software I had installed on her new phone.
I watched her dot move along the lines of the streets she took, satisfied it was working, and wondered just how all of this would play out.