Page 13 of Fool Me Once

Entering her bedroom, atfirst he stood in the doorway, not quite entering her space.

She hadn’t changed much.The decorations were still the same. Cream walls, a nice grey carpet thathelped make the room feel large. It was a large room, but he liked to makethings roomier.

The early years of hislife and his stint in prison had cemented his need to have space at everyopportunity, and that hadn’t changed. He wanted space, everywhere.

Even though there were nopersonal items, the room screamed Leah. She had some hairbrushes and a fewpieces of makeup on top of the vanity. There was a television in the cornerwith a few DVDs stacked beside it. Everywhere was tidy. Nothing would truly giveanything away about the woman who lived in this room.

Cain had promised herspace. When she moved in with him, he told her she would have her own personalspace, all she needed to do was follow his instructions. He chose the clothesshe wore, either by sending a letter, or simply ordering what he wanted to seeher in.

Now, as he went to hercloset, he saw the many outfits she’d worn over the past couple of days. Thescent of the room was all Leah. For a second, he allowed himself to just enjoythe scent, but then he needed to get to work. Last night, he fucked up. Tonight,he wouldn’t.

He’d give her the wholeday to get her shit together, and after that, she was his. Glancing down at hiscell phone, his guard had checked in with him, and she was currently enjoying acoffee at one of his cafés. Cain owned quite a few of them around the city. Heliked to have business on every possible avenue. The best way to yield powerwas to have it everywhere.

He grabbed several itemsof her clothes and began walking back to his own room. He wasn’t too far awayfrom her, as he never wanted to be. At first, it was to keep an eye on herbecause he didn’t know what kind of woman he’d invited into his home. Now, itwas because he always wanted her close to keep an eye on her. That wasn’t goingto change. He needed to know where she was at all times.

Cain moved back and forth,going from her bedroom back to his, then back again until every single item ofclothing, including lingerie, was in his closet. There had been a whole sectionof his closet that had been empty, and now as he stepped back, he looked at Leah’sclothes he’d put there. It looked right to him.

He smiled.

Leah was going to bepissed, but he wasn’t going to change it. He expected to come home this morningto find her crying. Instead, she looked so pissed off at him for leaving lastnight. He needed to remember, Leah was not like other women nor would she everbe. She was her own person, and he fucking loved it. She kept him on his toes.

Glancing at the time, he’dseen she had been out most of the day. According to the man he had watchingher, she’d done a lot more window-shopping than anything else. She rarely maderandom purchases.

In the past six months,he’d bought more things for her than she had purchased herself. He didn’tquestion her. He paid her plenty of money that she could spoil herself with,and yet she chose not to spend money. He couldn’t help but be curious as towhy.

Glancing at the time, hesaw it was getting late, and he didn’t want Leah coming home to nothing, so hemade his way downstairs. It had been a long time since he had cooked anythingfor anyone.

He gripped the back of hisneck as he stared at the kitchen. He could leave it until Leah got home, andmake her cook for him, or he could make it up to her and cook her something.

He didn’t want her tostarve, so he got busy preparing something. The chef that worked for him alwayscooked everything from scratch, and as he looked into the fridge and freezer,he couldn’t see a damn thing that could easily be slid into the oven andcooked.

Gritting his teeth, hetook a deep breath and then got busy preparing some food. Before he had a chefand money, he cooked for himself. It had been a task he no longer needed toconcern himself with. Right at that very moment, he didn’t even know why he allowedhis staff a random day. They needed to earn their fucking wage.

Pushing his anger aside,as it wasn’t going to change the fact he had to cook, he rolled up his sleevesand started making food.

Chapter Five

Leah hated mindlesslywindow-shopping. There was a time she enjoyed staring through the windows,looking at all the impressive things on offer. As a kid, she would imagineherself as an adult, being able to buy things. Now, she had the money and themeans to get them, but she didn’t want them.

All she wanted to do wasto be away from Cain, but even that was impossible for her as he placed one ofhis guards on her. She didn’t even need to turn around to know he was there,waiting, watching, observing.

Rather than get angry, shekept walking. The streets were busy, but she didn’t pay much attention to thepeople milling about. She was much more interested in what was going on backhome. Leah had left Cain behind in the hope of clearing her head, and now itdidn’t feel clear. She didn’t feel anything.

It had been a good fewyears since she had run away from her problems. She tended to stand and facethem head-on.

Running a hand down herface, she blew out a breath as she climbed into her car and made her way backto the house. The guard followed her all the way to the main gate. She had nodoubt Cain got the message she was home, even before she got there.

Parking the car, she satback and waited. Last night had been a disaster.

Now, she wasn’t the kindof woman to have expected sunshine and rainbows. She’d never even taken time tothink about what it would be like to be with a man. Sex and men hadn’tappealed. But, last night had gone so wrong. It wasn’t even funny.

Grabbing the keys from theignition, she stepped out of the car and made her way up the steps. It wasalready starting to get dark, and the temperature had dropped.

She stepped into the mainhallway and was instantly attacked with a horrid scent.

“What is that?” she asked.She made her way toward the main kitchen, where she found Cain with a fryingpan, poised over the sink. It looked like there might have been flames at somepoint, but now there were none. There was smoke, and a rather red-faced Cain.

“What’s going on?” sheasked.

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