Page 25 of Bitter Confessions

“There is no one else. It’s always been you.”

She shook her head wildly, keening as her emotions spilled all over the place. She strained against his hold until she got one arm free and extended it toward the elevator. “I have to get out of here.”

He slid his fingers between hers and gripped her palm as she reached for freedom. “Stay with me.”

She blocked out the beseeching tone she’d never heard from him before. They couldn’t continue with this charade. They were killing each other. They were a tragic cautionary tale of what happened when money, power, and lust collided. The shiny elevator doors reflected a surreal image in gleaming gold of Roth’s bulky frame surrounding a figure that looked small enough to be a child as she huddled in on herself to escape her internal suffering.

He nuzzled her as she wept. “I thought you’d played me for a fool. I was tortured by thoughts of whether you’d used me to escape your father or as a springboard to expand your horizons with other men.”

“Y-you’re sick.”

“Maybe.” He brought her hand to his face and rubbed his beard against her sensitive palm. “You didn’t leave me for your inheritance?”

Angrily, she tried to wriggle away. “No!”

“You never considered marrying someone like Baldwin, who came from the right background? Who your father approved of?”

“I already told you?—”

“Indulge me.”

“Why would I...?” she began heatedly but stopped when he bit the fleshy part of her hand. “No. I wasn’t planning to marry someone from my circle.”

“You didn’t give up on me because you doubted I’d reach the level I’m at now?” His voice deteriorated as he spoke.

She closed her eyes against another surge of tears and shook her head.

“And you didn’t know he had something to blackmail me with?”

His voice was so rough she could barely understand him.

“No,” she whispered.

He wrapped his arms around her and rocked to console both of them.

“I may not have left for those reasons, Roth, but I had others. Many others.”

“I know. Those I can handle. It was the others I couldn’t do anything about that drove me crazy.”

Her breath hitched as he cupped her face and began to trail kisses down her cheek.

“I’m breaking our agreement. Sue me. I don’t care.” She sounded desperate to her own ears. When he didn’t acknowledge what she said, she snapped, “Are you listening to me?”

“Mm.”

That masculine hum made her insides flutter. She cursed her body, which didn’t know any better than to respond to this crazy alpha male. She struggled physically, because emotionally, she was going under, and she couldn’t allow herself to be sucked in again. This was wrong. He was wrong for her. He always had been, and she had to get away before he put her under his spell again.

She made a desperate break for freedom and was elated when his arms dropped away. She scrambled forward, only to be unceremoniously flipped onto her back. She was blinded by the unforgiving lights before they were blotted out by Roth as he crouched over her. She opened her mouth to shout, but the broad smile on his face stunned her into stupefied silence.

She’d never seen him smile before. Not full-out. Not so genuinely. It transformed his face into that of a stranger. Paired with his tousled hair, she doubted Mo and Johan would recognize the seemingly joyful, carefree man above her as their grim employer.

“Roth?”

“You always believed in me.”

She turned her face to the side, unable to bear the boyish wonder lighting his features. It was tearing up her insides.

“If you’d known Maximus was going to blackmail me, would you have let him do it?”

---