Page 40 of To Die For

He cocked his head. “Wait a minute. Are you saying I’m fucking you because I don’t want you?”

Trust him to immediately see the holes, and drive a verbal truck through the argument. I didn’t see anywhere to go with that, so I backtracked. “The thing is, whatever the reasoning, I don’t want to have sex anymore. You should respect that.”

“I will. When you say no.”

“I’m saying no now.”

“Now doesn’t count. You have to wait until I touch you.”

“Who made these stupid-ass rules?” I bellowed, frustrated beyond control.

He grinned. “I did.”

“Well, I’m not playing by them, understand? Flip the pancakes.”

He glanced at the skillet and flipped the pancakes. “You can’t change the rules just because you’re losing.”

“Yes, I can. I can go home and not see you again.”

“You can’t go home, because someone’s trying to kill you.”

There was that. Fuming, I sat down at the table, which he had already set with two places.

He walked over with the spatula in his hand, and bent down to kiss me warmly on the mouth. “You’re still scared, aren’t you? That’s what this is all about.”

Just wait until I saw Dad again. I was going to tell him a thing or two about giving information to the enemy camp.

“Yes. No. It doesn’t matter. I still have a valid point.”

He ruffled my hair, then returned to his pancakes.

I could see arguing with him wasn’t going to work. Somehow, I’d have to keep my wits about me enough to tell him no when he got started again, but how could I do that if he kept jumping me when I was asleep? By the time I was awake enough to think, it was already too late because by then I didn’twantto say no.

He took the bacon out of the microwave, divided it between our plates, then dished out the buttery pancakes. Before sitting down, he freshened our cups of coffee, and also got a glass of water for me and set out the antibiotic and a pain pill.

I took both pills. Though my arm felt better, I wanted to stay ahead of the pain.

“What am I doing today?” I asked as I dug into breakfast. “Staying here while you go to work?”

“Nope. Not until you can use that arm. I’m taking you to my mother’s house. I’ve already called her.”

“Cool.” I liked his mother, and I really wanted to see the inside of that giant Victorian she lived in. “I assume I can talk to my family whenever I want, right?”

“I don’t see why not. You just can’t go see them, and I don’t want them coming to see you, either, because they could lead this guy straight to you.”

“I don’t see why y’all are having such a hard time finding out who he is. He has to be a boyfriend.”

“Don’t tell me how to do my job,” he warned. “She didn’t have an exclusive relationship going on. We’ve checked out the guys she was dating, and they’re clear. There are some other angles we’re exploring.”

“It wasn’t drugs, or anything like that.” I ignored his rude comment about telling him how to do his job.

He looked up. “How do you figure?”

“She belonged to Great Bods, remember? She didn’t have any of the signs, and she was in good shape. Not great; she couldn’t have done a backflip if her life had depended on it, but she wasn’t a druggie, either. It has to be a boyfriend. She came on to all the guys, so I figure it’s a jealousy thing. I can talk to my employees, find out if they noticed anything—”

“No. Stay out of it. That’s an order. We’ve already interviewed all your employees.”

Insulted that he seemed to be totally dismissing my views on the subject, I finished eating in silence. Typical man, he didn’t like that either.

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