Page 86 of A Smile Full of Lies
“Correct. But more importantly, I’m an arrogant motherfucker with a delightful amount of leverage over you now. You’re going to be a good girl and do as I say.”
My heart climbed up into my throat.
“Am I, though?”
“Of course you are,” he crooned. “Unless you want me to tell Philip Knox about all the dirty little secrets you just spilled to me during our delightful little game…”
My pulse spiked violently.
“You wouldn’t fucking dare.”
He gave a distorted, eerie hum.
“Wouldn’t I? I’m fairly certain Mr. Knox wouldloveto hear how fiercely protective you are of him. And about how hard you came grinding on my thigh last night, not to mention that little… moment you had while staring at his portrait after it was over.”
My cheeks burned. My breath strangled in my throat.
“Please don’t tell him. I’m begging you.”
“If you’d prefer I keep those particular secrets between us, I’m going to need something from you in return, sweetheart.”
I rested my forehead against my steering wheel for a long moment before replying.
“What do you want from me?”
He chuckled.
“Oh, we’ll get to that eventually. But for now… be a good girl and behave for me the next time we see each other.”
I blinked.
“The next time we see each other?”
Nox Obscura hummed again.
“You and I have unfinished business, my sweet little liar, and I’m coming to collect.”
Motherfucker.
My jaw clenched. I hated him, and I hated how much I wanted him.
Chapter
Twenty-One
KNOX
The modulator buzzedagainst my throat when I ended the call. I peeled it off, dropped it on the desk, and for a second I just sat there, staring through the glass wall of my penthouse office at Knox Cybersecurity. Mobile Bay shimmered in the distance, but it didn’t hold me. Nothing could, not after what she’d just said.
Because he’s mine.
The predator in me wanted to leave right then. Grab my keys, cross the Bayway, and go home to the girl who had just begged me not to tell her secrets and staked her claim without even realizing it.
But I couldn’t. Not yet.
One of our biggest clients had a Sunday deployment scheduled — a full system update that couldn’t afford to fail. Hospitals don’t wait until Monday to need their networks secure. So I stayed. I oversaw the rollout, fielded endless calls, watched my engineers chase bugs across screens.
On the outside, I was the CEO, calm and collected, the man who made million-dollar guarantees of safety and delivered on them.
