Page 89 of Obsession

“I remember I once thought I was being watched,” Violet says with a self-deprecating snort. My heart stops for a full beat.

There was absolutely a time she was being watched. Byme.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I swear I always felt eyes following me, but it was just in my head.”

“Oh? When was this?”

“Few months before I came to see you.” She’s crouched on the floor beneath the desk, checking for bugs. She rises when she finds nothing, then sweeps across the desk for another quick go.

It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell her the truth. I can imagine it, her sidled up close to me while I tell her everything. I have files and files of videos I took of her, photos I shot, reams of background history. Everything locked up tighter than a vault.

One day I’ll tell her, but today is not that day.

“And what if you found someone was watching you?”

She looks over her shoulder at me and laughs as if the very thought’s preposterous. “Why would anyone want to followme?” She shakes her head. “Honest to God, that’s the silliest thing. I’m nobody.”

I cross the room to her. The look in her eyes tells me she’s wary of me, that she knows she’s pushed it by calling herself a nobody.

“Okay, so I’m not anobody,” she begins, in an effort to backtrack that I’m not buying. We’ve been together now for a few months, but I’ve known her longer than that.

“You are notnobody,” I tell her when she’s within my reach.

“Cain,” she murmurs, her eyes focused over my shoulder at the door. She’s afraid we’ll get caught like this, but I couldn’t give a shit. She shakes her head, flustered and frazzled, until I tug a little lock of her hair just at the base of her scalp. Her eyes widen, and her lips part as her gaze meets mine.

“Not here,” she whispers, begging me not to dominate her where someone could see us. She gave me her word when we closed our first case together that she’s mine. That she’d devote herself to me, give me carte blanche in exchange for my serving her vengeance on a platter.

“Violet,” I warn. She promised me. She gave me a vow that she’d give herself to me, and giving herself to me means I take her wherever, whenever, and however I want. I use that to my full advantage. Never said I wasn’t an asshole.

“You are not nobody,” I whisper in her ear. “You are the most brilliant, the most mesmerizing, the most intriguing woman I’ve ever met.”And I love you,I mentally tack on, but I can’t say it aloud. If I do, she’ll run. I’ve worked every day since the minute she stepped foot on my property to build her trust, but we’re not there yet. She still occasionally flutters her wings like a caged bird, ready to flee when the door opens.

“Well,” she murmurs, placing her hand on my shoulder in an attempt to calm me. It works. “That still isn’t reason enough tofollowme. So the very idea’s preposterous, Mr. Master.” She cocks her head and gives me a teasing smile. “Since the only person who finds me so enthralling… isyou.”

My heart stops. For one raw moment I think she’s actually hit on the truth. But no… she can’t know.

The handle to the door behind me turns, and we quickly go back to work. I’m distracted, though, as we do our detail.

Does she suspect anything?

The night goes on without a hitch, other than one minor incident involving an intoxicated ex, but Claude escorted him off the property so effortlessly, the crowd at the beach never knew what happened.

I do my job with only one eye toward the party, though.

As always, my main focus is Violet.

“Has anyone ever told you you’re smothering?” she asks, sliding her hand into my back pocket as the evening winds down. She rubs her chin against my chest so briefly she’s like a cat scratching an itch, before she resumes her professional demeanor.

“You’re the one grabbing my ass in public and painting me with your smell as if to warn off any potential predators.”

She reaches for my collar, and I look into her mesmerizing eyes the color of amethyst.

“I’ve got claws, and I’m not afraid to use them.”

“Mmm. Is that a promise?”

She grins, and her belly growls as Joe comes into the room. “House secured. That’s a wrap.”

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