Page 54 of Indecent Secrets

“I may owe you my cooperation,” I pointed out, “but I don’t owe you my motivations.”

For a second, I thought he would press, but then he shrugged. “Fair enough.”

It took all my self-control to hold in my sigh of relief.

David started to walk past me, then paused, his finger coming up to press under my chin, lifting it up.

Repressing my shudder was difficult. My stomach churned. This felt nothing like when Bryce would curl his finger under my chin and lift it up. Bryce made me feel hot all over whenever he did that. I loved how submissive I was, and how casually in control he was.

This was different. I felt like I was being demeaned, looked down on like I was some kind of insect.

David’s gaze searched my face. “You may be good at sex. But if you try to fuck me, you’ll regret it.”

I nodded, keeping my mouth shut and my eyes wide, like I was intimidated. He had to keep thinking that I was alone and under his thumb until I could get to Bryce.

David stepped away from me. “Good. I’ll see you for dinner tomorrow, then.”

He left the room, and I exhaled slowly. I stayed in there for another minute, making sure that nobody would notice the both of us leaving the same conference room.

Besides. I needed a moment.

I took deep breaths, my hand braced on the wall. I had to act normal. I could act normal, I could do this.

When enough time had passed, I exited the room and headed for Jack’s office. Bill disappeared the moment he saw me coming, apparently still embarrassed. Luckily, Bryce was inside.

“Hi.” I smiled as I entered, closing the door behind me. Once I was safely inside, my smile fell. “We have a problem.”

Bryce stood up. “What is it?”

“David knows I’m a fake.” I walked over, my knees wobbling a little, as if it was only just now hitting me how much danger I could be in. “He’s blackmailing me, saying that he’ll go to you and tell you the truth if I don’t help him eliminate you from the company.”

“I’m supposed to have dinner with him tonight, without you.” Bryce’s voice and face were grim. “I’ll handle it.”

“How? Without revealing who you really are?”

Bryce cursed under his breath. “I’ll figure it out. This has gone on long enough.”

I frowned at him as he typed away on his phone. “Bryce. Your job is to help out Jack. You don’t need to worry about me. Just let me be a… a double agent for you.”

“You’re giving up your entire plan because you didn’t bet on Jack Lawton doing something insane like hiring an imposter,” Bryce pointed out. “And now you’re telling me that you’ll happily let someone like David Weston pull your strings so that you can help me spy on him? I wasn’t aware you wanted a side gig in corporate espionage.”

I bristled. “I know what I’m doing, all right?”

Bryce shook his head. “This is literally my career, Leigh. I won’t have you in danger.”

That made my breath catch in my throat. “So you think he did it, too.”

Bryce raised his eyebrows. “I think he did what?”

“Don’t you play dumb with me.” I stepped closer. “You think that David murdered Lawton. He had constant access, he undoubtedly learned Lawton’s routine and details about his personal life. He had motive—he thought if Lawton died that his father would be able to take over the company. He knew that Lawton changed his will all the time.”

Bryce smirked. “But why would he think that the will would favor his father in any way?”

I felt like I was being teased, baited to figure something out. I frowned. “Well, it didn’t favor any of his lovers, did it? He just said that.”

Bryce raised an eyebrow. “Right. But what if he said that to one of his lovers and they believed him?”

“David’s a much more likely candidate than… oh.”

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