Page 132 of Illicit Temptation

Curious, I grab the remote and scooch to the edge of the bed.

“Detective Garamond from the NYPD can’t give any more specifics, but the commissioner’s office just released this statement:

“Diamond Mogul Archer Crest, who we’ve also uncovered to be smuggling illegal weapons through the blood diamond trade, was found dead, decapitated in his Fifth Avenue office, which sits several stories above the renowned Crest Diamonds showroom.”

Archer.

Dead.

Decapitated.

Tying up loose ends, or rather decapitating them...

“An expert on deep lacerations suspects a knife such as the one shown here, would have been used.” The reporter cuts to a photo on the screen.

I slap a hand over my mouth staring at the same knife I’ve seen Trace use.

Trace...

I glance down at his white discarded, bloody dress shirt. I rush to the mirror and see small sweeps of deep red still lingering on my cheek.

Archer’s blood.

Trace fucked me speckled in my ex’s blood.

Still naked, I charge into the bathroom where he’s showering. His gorgeous naked body stops me in my tracks. I take a moment to admire him fully, and then I open the glass door, steam softly wafting around me.

“Come for more, love?” He soaps up his cock. “I’m ready for another go at you.”

God, he’s insatiable. “Archer. Was it you?”

He smiles wickedly, and with one hand, yanks me into the shower and pushes me up against the wall. “Aye...”

“Oh God... But why, why now?”

Trace studies me, his hand around my throat, his ringed fingers teasing my jugular. “His wife came to me.”

“What?”I go breathless.

“With divorce papers that gave her more money than she’d been asking for.” He turns the water off. “She told me he said he only wanted one thing.”

I shudder. “No.”

“Aye, he wantedyou. Gave her a fortune and twenty-four hours to sign or he’d...”

“He threatened her.”

“She was pregnant.”

“God.”

“That’s the devil himself. The man threatened to kill hispregnantwife. There was no way I’d let an unhinged animal like that keep breathing.” Trace hands me a towel and wraps another one around his waist. “And living in the same city where you’re working and can run into him? No way.”

“So you did it for her?” I ask, sniffing.

“I did it forus.”

“And the night before our wedding?”

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