Page 159 of Bitter Secrets

“That’s why you weren’t worried about my family accepting our marriage. You would have blackmailed them if you had to.”

He inclined his head. “I preferred their cooperation, but I had insurance if they decided to fight me.”

He didn’t gloat, but he should have. He had them by the balls. He had been collecting data on them for years. Had he started this once he was banished from the States, or did he start after she left him? Her heart careened into her throat.

“What do you have on me?”

She didn’t know how to interpret his long pause.

“Not as much as I’d like,” he said finally.

“What does that mean?”

“It means…” He set his glass down very deliberately on the table before he started toward her. “That after you landed in New York, you disappeared into thin air. Ran to Daddy, did you?”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “I didn’t go to him until you refused to sign the divorce papers.”

“The private investigators couldn’t track you. The only explanation is that your father was covering for you.”

“Maybe I’m just damn good at staying hidden when I don’t want to be found.”

A muscle ticked under his eye. “Where did you go, princess?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“I would.”

He stopped before her. Every primitive instinct she possessed warned her to run, but she held her ground. No more running. There was no point in it. If she wanted to get through this year, she had to face him head-on.

“You have your secrets, I’m entitled to mine,” she taunted.

“Then you won’t have access to the elevator codes or go anywhere without an escort.”

He always had a fucking comeback for everything. Well, she had one of her own.

“The only thing you could hold against me are my sex tapes. Did you find any of those?”

Her skin prickled as the air around him went electric.

“Come again?”

She ignored his chilling tone and tossed her hair. “You read the books. You already know about the wild sexcapades that I—"

He grabbed her cheeks, forcing her mouth wide. He ignored the hand that twisted in his shirt, popping off two buttons.

“If your father hadn’t interfered, there would have been no divorce and no other men. It’s a good thing I never discovered where you were. I don’t know what I would have done if I caught you with someone.” Pitiless black eyes raked over her face. “If there is a sex tape, you’ll pay.”

She yanked his hand down. She was too pissed to realize she only accomplished that feat because he allowed it.

“Don’t be stupid.”

“Let’s hope you weren’t,” he murmured. “That fucker’s life will be worth less than nothing if he dared—"

“Thereisno sex tape!” She flexed her jaw and shot him a baleful look as she tipped her nose in the air. “Well, not that I know of, anyway.”

She didn’t notice his hand flexing at his side as she put distance between them. The room seemed smaller now that he was in the middle of it. When she felt she had put enough space between them, she turned to face him.

“What would you have blackmailed me with if I didn’t agree to your sordid deal?”

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