Page 86 of Inflame

“Good to know, Claire. Good to know.”

“What? I never confirmed that,” I snap, my tone a little too aggressive.

“You pretty much did.”

He must find this whole situation funny because he can’t stop laughing. When he finally stops, he does the weird, hooded thing with his eyes. The thing that makes my stomach do little flips, causing the butterflies to roll around. Sometimes I wonder if he is imagining me without clothes on. I’d be lying if I said those thoughts of him never crossed my fantasies at night. Hell, who am I fooling? I have those fantasies all hours of the day.

Nic basically saw me at my most vulnerable—having sex. What is left to see? Yeah, I had clothes on, technically. But he got to see me in a position that was meant to be private.

“Come back to the suite,” he whispers, drawing my eyes to his.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m not making two mistakes in one night’s time.”

“I would be the best mistake you could make.” The words slide out of his mouth like sin. I have never been this tempted before, this drawn to someone. He is dark and dangerous, and those things just make me want him more.

His smile lets me know he knows it too.

“The pathway to hell is paved with men like you.”

“Not denying that.”

“I should hate you for what you put me through up in the room.”

“But you don’t?”

“Oh, I do. I just hate myself more.”

I clean up my area, tossing my napkin to the side of my plate. When the bartender informs me that everything I ate and drank is paid for, I get up from my seat. I don’t even bother to thank Nic. It is the least he could do for putting me in such a horrible predicament.

“If things fall through with Ethan, it is on you.”

I watch him tap his fingers on the polished surface of the bar. “If things fall through with Ethan, it is because he is a douche. I never twisted his arm. Never threatened him. Hell, it wasn’t even my idea to go back to his room to play a higher stakes game. I simply stated my terms and he jumped on them to accept. You are expendable to him. An object. So when you go back to your mundane life, with your boring boyfriend, I hope that you constantly wonder if you are wasting away a chance at something better.”

“Better beingyou?” I say with more anger than I initially anticipated.

“Better being anyone but him. Your standards are so low that anyone would be able to reach the bar you have set. Raise it up a little. Make us men work for it.”

“You keep talking around the fact that you brought this whole mess to fruition. You did, Nic Hoffman!” I snap.

“Maxwell wanted to raise the stakes, Claire. He knows the consequences to gambling. There’s only one winner."

“You made it impossible for him not to follow through,” I grind out.

“Forever defending a man who should be doing that for you instead. No, instead he pawned you off and followed through by not taking the counteroffer.”

“A quarter million? How would you expect him to pay that? Money doesn’t grow on trees!”

“It does for him.”

My eyes snap up to his. “And how do you know that?”

“He’s lying to you. Been doing it from the start.”

“Lying about what?”

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