Page 50 of Diamonds & Deception

He doesn’t move for a few minutes, and I think I’m going to be trapped like this forever. Then he moves off me and slips the blindfold down so it circles loosely around my neck.

I blink away the tears and wait for my eyes to focus. I glance around the room and don’t see the other men. I’m thankful they’re gone but I’m still not at ease.

“What other lies have you told me?” He whips the blankets over my naked body. I’m grateful for the little reprieve from humiliation.

He doesn’t untie me, and he scowls down at me from the side of the bed. I blink up at him, and my heart breaks for what I’ve ruined. For the pain I’ve caused both of us. I start with the lie I feel the most guilty about.

“Daisy isn’t my dog.”

***

DAISY ISN’T MY DOG.What the fuck kind of confession is that? I’d braced myself for the other raw truths. That she seduced me to get information about her sister. That she has no feelings for me, and the sex was just a ploy to get to me.

The dog comment throws me off.

“She’s a foster dog I’ve been walking from time to time. I used her to make a connection with you in the park.”

Well, fuck. The woman did her research. I have no words, so I don’t say anything.

“One of your employees was killed four months ago. Carly Gould.” Nora closes her eyes, squeezing out another tear. She takes a few breaths and opens them again. “She’s... she was my stepsister.”

I wait for her to tell me the rest. I can tell she wants me to say something, to take the pressure off her. I won’t give her the satisfaction.

“I came to Boston to find out who killed her.”

I blink slowly, unimpressed with her confession. I want it all.

“I thought... the detectives aren’t digging deep enough. I’m an investigative reporter and came here in hopes of finding her murderer.”

I calm the rage building in my chest. She thinks I’m capable of murder. Ironic that the thought never crossed my mind until now. Not that I could even hurt her. Despite how much she hurt me with her betrayal, I’m not an evil man.

It killed me to ask the guys to come in here and set Nora up. I shielded most of her nakedness with my body, and I trust my men not to have taken advantage of her. They kept their hands where we discussed. Legs. Arms. Enough to freak her out and get the confession out of her, but never crossing the line.

“Have you found him? Your sister’s murderer?”

She lifts her gaze to mine and shakes her head.

I can’t look at her any longer or I’ll cave. She’s weak and defeated. I humiliated her tonight, and I’m not ready to apologize for it. She’s had three weeks to plan and execute her lies. I’ve had ten hours to process that the past three weeks have been a lie.

My heart shattered twelve years ago when Kelsey left me because I wasn’t good enough. I told myself I’d never let my heart get crushed again. The only way to protect it is to not let anyone in.

I didn’t follow my own rule, and now I’m paying the consequences. I’ll never trust Nora again. She’s an amazing actress and had me fooled from the start. I never doubted her. Not once, not even when the signs were blinking in neon lights.

There were no dog bowls or even a dog bed at her apartment, and I haven’t seen Daisy since our run in the park. What kind of dog owner is never with their dog?

Her evasive answers to my questions about her family.

Her nickname, although Nora could very well be a nickname for Lenora.

Her job as a food critic, yet the only feedback she gave about a dish was that it tasteddelicious.Wouldn’t a food critic, even off the clock, have a stronger vocabulary?

Nolan busted her in my office this morning. I get snooping around my bedroom or bathroom, but why my office unless she was trying to dig up something on me.

The bedside drawer of sex toys she claimed she never used. Now I understand why she was so hesitant and nervous to use the clit vibrator.

But, damn, that was hot. My dick twitches remembering the explosive sex we had on my dining room table. We hadn’t been in the right frame of mind to get a condom.

Shit. We’ve had unprotected sex. I have to believe she is on birth control and doesn’t have any sexually transmitted diseases. Fuck, I hope not.

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