Page 78 of Somebody's Watching Me
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you, Jamison.”
“Stop bogging down my email with your lies.”
“We fuck like wild animals most days,” he said as if reading a transcript. “What’s between us is desperate and needy, and I feel like neither of us can ever get enough. It’s terrifying to crave someone that much.”
Suddenly, Liam’s voice came through her phone, repeating the words.
“Let’s tackle the post break up logs, shall we?”
When she didn’t reply, he continued. “None of it was real. She tossed me aside like I had overstayed my welcome. All because I said I was scared to bring a kid into this world. Why is thatso important to her?”
“Because it is,” she whispered before she could stop herself.
“Yes, it is.”
The crinkling of paper made it sound like he was wading up the transcript to throw away, and she thought about telling him to burn it.
“For the longest time, I couldn’t figure out why he would risk losing you over what should be an honor. But the answer is simple. It’s because he knows he’s not good enough fortheJamison Fairweather.”
Good enough for her? It was more like the other way around. Liam was the better person of the two of them. The good guy everyone loved. Even her family liked him better than her. To them, she was always too much. Too loud. Too rude. Too everything.
And it hurt. To see that fear in their eyes over what she might say or do next always cut right through her. No matter how much she tried, her efforts at suppressing herself were never enough, and it was exhausting. She was so very tired of trying to make them love her for simply being her and not some version of what they expected her to be.
Liam was the only person who never once made her feel inadequate.
Clearing her throat, she examined her nails as if bored. “Are we done here, Mr. Sinclair?”
“Not even close,” he said with a chuckle. “Being the father of your child is something Liam didn’t deserve, and maybe that’s why things happened as they did. Maybe he’s not what you need.”
That hit a little too close to home.
“And what is it I need?”
“Someone who respects you for being you. Someone who can give you a baby and make it stick. A real family.”
The bastard. If she ever met this man again, she would rip his heart out on the spot.
“Someone who will also kidnap and drug me?”
Michael laughed, the booming sound grating in her ear. “Under different circumstances, the drugging wouldn’t have been necessary.Your reaction to me was genuine. When I ripped that mask off, you liked what you saw.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Oh, you want me to spell it out for you so when Liam analyzes this conversation later, he has to listen to it again and again?” He was in motion, his breathing uneven. “Nice.”
Incensed by what he was implying, she resisted the urge to disconnect the call.
“No, really.” He grunted as he moved closer to the chugging, but this time, she heard the distinct sound of brakes squealing. “I think it’s a great idea to let him hear how you were not only attracted to me, but that if we had met under different circumstances, I could have easily been not just the rebound guy, but THE guy. The endgame.”
“This conversation is over.”
“Over or not, you know I’m right, and it’s time to tell Liam the truth,” Michael shot back. “I’m sure it’s hard since your track record of being honest with him is pretty shitty as of late, but he should know that if you and I had met at say, oh, I don’t know, a random coffee shop on a rainy day, that you would’ve been interested.”
A recording of her voice blasted through the phone, repeating the words she said to Liam in the parlor the day before. “I would have to be blind not to say he’s attractive.”
“Tell him how you would have let me into your bed. Tell him how good you think fucking me will feel.”
An honest to God growl came out of her, and she stood to scream into the phone. “Listen up, you sadistic psychopath, you will never touch me. In fact, if you ever come near me or my family again, I will cut your dick off and beat you to death with it.”
