Chapter 25
Callum
“Is that all you have to say for yourself?” With great effort, I manage to keep my voice cold and even. I know I’m blowing the whole “earn her trust” plan, but right now, I don’t give a damn. This is the final straw.
I was already in a foul mood from witnessing half the city leering at Lucy in her wet, clingy dress, and from not being able to sweep her up and continue where we left off in the car before her competition.
Now I’m nothing short of irate. My growing possessiveness toward this woman confounds me, but I can’t deny the truth. Just like I can’t control the heated words flying off my tongue.
“There are nude pictures of you in circulation, and that’s all you can say? What’s next? You got a sex tape I should know about?”
Lucy’s face is somehow both flushed and sickly pale. Her shiny, red-rimmed eyes flash with fire as she clambers out of bed and crosses the room, glaring daggers. “What do you want me to tell you? I didn’t take that picture!”
She shoves my chest with weak, trembling hands I hardly feel at all.
Her words waver as she continues. “And I didn’t send it to myself or to you, so why don’t you just lay off?”
So because she didn’t push the Send button herself, this is all okay? I could barely look at that picture before glancing away, but I guarantee that no other red-blooded man will do the same if the photo pops up all over the internet.
What the hell was she thinking? “Right, right, I’ll just stop doing my job so you can swap nudes with crime lords to your heart’s content. What, did you let him snap a few shots and then change your mind? Is that why he’s blackmailing you?”
“Fuck you!” Lucy’s voice is only a few notches shy of a shriek. “So what if you didn’t know? Some things are private. You of all people should understand that.”
“And you, the girl who was attacked and nearly hauled off from a club a few days ago, should know that your safety comes above your pride.”
“My pride?” She blinks a few times, mouth gaping. “Is that what you think this is about?”
Anger boils in my throat. It’s a struggle to keep my voice level. “All I ask is that you be honest with me so I can do my job. What’s so difficult about that?”
“The way you’re honest with me?” She throws her hands in the air. “Bugging my phone so you can get a copy of all my communications?”
She’s right, but it’s too late to stop the runaway train. “It’s my job to keep you safe.”
“Well, believe it or not, you don’t have to keep reminding me that I’m just a job to you, you overgrown pain in my ass!” She paces toward the window, then back to me. “I’m already well aware that I’m just some mess you have to clean up after.”
She sucker punches me in the gut with that one. Is that really how I’ve been treating her? Is that what she truly thinks?
Regardless, I don’t have time to deal with that.
“All you had to say was, ‘Hey, Callum, I just received a threatening text.’” I shove a hand through my hair. “Why can’t you just work with me here? How do you expect me to do my job if you won’t cooperate?”
She rounds on me. “The same way you do everything else! By barging in unannounced and making me feel like shit.”
Fresh tears streak down her cheeks.
This is all screwed up. I didn’t mean to storm into her room and trigger a crying spell. Again.
Fuck. I’m angrier at myself more than anything else, but that does nothing to help. She’s still in the wrong.
Not only did she put herself at heightened risk by not telling me about the text, but Roguilin or one of his asshole minions—whoever snapped naked photos of Lucy—apparently possesses pictures even racier than this one.
Why am I so surprised? I’ve known all along that she tangled herself up with Roguilin to advance her career. This is just proof I was right about her.
But that realization still hurts like hell.
The thought of another man seeing Lucy like that—and flaunting it, no less—infuses me with murderous rage.
I wonder how much a prison guard would charge to give me a few minutes alone with Roguilin.
I’ll save that idea for later. After I deal with this pressing issue.
“I should’ve told you.” I clench my jaw, grinding my teeth. “But you should’ve told me too. I’m trying to keep you alive, and that was…an unpleasant surprise.”
“And what do you think this is for me? A picnic?” She stands in front of me with growing indignation, a flame gaining oxygen. “Why didn’t you tell me you bugged my phone?”
“I’m not the one on trial here.”
“Did you get off on spying on me all this time?” She jabs a sharp nail into my chest. “And please accept my humble apology for the unpleasantness the sight of my naked body’s caused you. I can see how horrifying that must’ve been for a man like you.”
I jerk back. The remaining tethers of my self-control begin to fray. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
Her lip curls with acid. “Someone cold and heartless enough to be a robot.”
Cold? Heartless?
A growl rips free from deep in my chest as I stalk toward her and pull her close.
When she doesn’t resist, I crash my mouth mercilessly against hers. She returns my kiss with just as much violence, yanking my hair like she wants to tear the follicles from my head. Again.
The sharp bite of pain only hardens my dick more. I groan as she digs her long fingernails into the back of my neck, sparking fire at the base of my spine.
I grip the soft fabric of the hotel bathrobe, wanting nothing more than to tear it off.
Open-mouthed and breathless, we kiss like savage beasts, tongues colliding in a feral blaze. We’re screwing with our mouths. The fire between us burns so hot, we’ll be lucky if our clothes don’t melt before we reach the king-sized bed.
Our reckless, wild kisses grow more passionate and intense by the second. Lust seizes control as I stagger against Lucy, both of us migrating toward the mattress.
My cock’s eager for more. I toss Lucy on the bed and kneel on the edge of the mattress, climbing on top of her like the animal she’s unleashed within me.
And then a flash of something—fear?—crosses her face.
The emotion vanishes in an instant, but the wake-up call is already ringing.
Shit. What am I even doing?
I push back from the edge of her bed, my blood running cold.
“I’m sorry.” I need to go. Fuck. “I shouldn’t have done that. It was a mistake, and it won’t happen again.”
Sickened, I leave like the coward I am, slamming the door behind me.