Page 104 of Obsession

I flipped on the lights as he climbed the three steps to my part of the house. “This is the maid’s quarters.”

“I know. Why are you in them? And why is there power? I haven’t turned it on yet.”

I pressed my lips together. The space felt even smaller with him inside. I swallowed hard, and I shrugged out of his coat. “I have a generator.”

“So, you’ve been squatting in my house?”

My shoulders stiffened. “I told you,myhouse.”

“No, I have the deed, Grace. It’smyhouse.”

I pushed my hair out of my face. “Technically.”

“We have very different definitions of that word.”

“I’m trying to explain how this whole mess happened. Would you just shut up for five seconds?”

He took a step closer to me, his chest heaving. “Were you trying to con me?”

“No! Not really.”

“Grace.”

“Stop growling. The day you were interviewing for a new assistant was the same day I found out the bank had sold the house before I even had the option to buy it on my own.”

He opened his mouth to interrupt, but I pointed my finger at him. He dipped his hands into his pockets instead. “Go on.”

“It was the same day I found out I lost everything. You have to understand, nothing made sense. I never paid attention to money. It was just always there.”

Blake’s jaw flexed.

“I know that sounds awful, but it’s the truth. My family has always had money. My parents, my grandmother, my great-grandparents. This house was one of the first houses built on Lady’s Bay. Yes, ignorance is a big factor in all of this, but I was completely unprepared to find out everything was being taken from me.”

“So, you came to me?”

“The plan was to talk to you.” He took a deep breath at the wordplan. I walked toward him and placed my hands on his chest. “It wasn’t a con. I went there to try and make you understand why you should sell the house back to me.”

He frowned. “You have nothing.”

I winced. “I was crazy with grief, and I know it doesn’t make any sense. All I could think about was that my grandmother was gone, and you took the very last bit of her away from me.”

His face went blank. All emotion gone. “So, you thought you’d seduce me into giving you a house?”

Chapter Thirty-Three

Ipushed him back a step. “No, you idiot. Not every single move was so calculated. I went there to convince you sell the house back to me, but when I met you, I knew that wasn’t going to happen. I had to figure out another way to get my house back.”

“And I’m the idiot who hired you.” He shoved his hands into his hair. “Wow.”

“No. Not exactly.”

He laughed. It was a horrible sound. I so rarely heard him laugh, but the absolute desolation in it made my heart ache.

Hearing that pain had my hackles raising, but I forced myself to keep going. “I know people, Blake. It’s my gift.”

“No, your gift is glass and metal.”

“Glass and metal are my passion. They’ve been my center since I was a girl, but I’ve always been good with people. From school, to living in Marblehead, to the gallery—I understand people.”

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