Page 35 of Seductive Secrets

Quickly, she pushed the thought out of her mind. She wasn’t the forever kind of woman. She couldn’t do forever. She could never trust anyone for that long. She wasn’t…!

“Stop it,” James said, interrupting her panicked thoughts.

She blinked and looked at him through the mirror. “Stop what?” she asked.

“Stop whatever it is that you’re thinking.”

She put the top back on the mascara and looked away. “I wasn’t thinking anything.”

He sighed and wiped the last of the shaving cream from his jawline. “Yes, you were. You were starting to mentallypull away.” He grabbed her hands and turned her so that she was facing him. “You’re falling in love with me, Angela. And that scares the hell out of you because you don’t trust that I reciprocate your feelings.”

“I just…” she stopped, unable to lie to him. Not this time. Not about something this important.

“I fell for you last October, Angela. I’m head over heels in love with you. But you don’t think that you’re worthy of someone loving you.” He paused, letting her absorb his words. When she didn’t deny it, he continued. “You were treated as a commodity as a child, then sold into a brutal situation from which you had to save yourself.” He pulled her in closer. “I can’t imagine what you endured, but I will tell you every day for the rest of our lives that I love you and that you are the most amazing woman I’ve ever met.” He felt her stiffen at those words and added, “If you’ll trust me enough to believe in my feelings for you.”

She opened her mouth to reply, but…she was too stunned. His words sounded too good to be true. He couldn’t love her, she thought frantically. He must be lying.

But Jamesneverlied. He was one of the most honest men she’d ever met. He was just like her guys, but better.

He shook his head. “You’re not ready. I get that. I’m sorry, Angela. I’m moving too fast for you.” He hugged her close and she loved the feel of his warm skin against her cheek. “I’ll prove it to you. Iknowyou love me. After everything you went through, I know you never would have given yourself to me the way you have over the past few days if you didn’t love me.” He pulled back and looked into her chocolate eyes. “All I’m asking is that you give me time to prove to you how I feel. That I want you for yourself and not because you are a product, not as somethingto sell.” He paused for a moment, then said, “Will you do that for me? Can you give me that time? I promise, I’ll prove it to you.”

“Yes,” she replied, and gasped as panic surged up her throat, almost choking her. She wanted to pull away, to run and hide. She wanted to find a safe place where he couldn’t hurt her.

He must have understood what was going through her mind because he held her closer, but she instinctively knew he’d let her go if she needed to.

Forcing her muscles to relax, she leaned into him. She gave herself over to him. If that release was only her physical being, that was enough. At least for now.

James felt her relax against him, but he knew that the battle wasn’t over. Angela was a brilliant woman, determined to make a safe life for herself. And that safety meant that she kept herself alone, unavailable for abuse.

He got that. He understood what she’d gone through and why she pulled away from him. But he couldn’t walk away from her. He’d done it back in October. He’d let her go because he hadn’t understood her then. Now that he did, he loved her all the more. Now that he knew, he marveled at the strength that had helped her survive and even thrive.

Damn, he loved her!

Pulling back, he released her and grabbed his shirt. “Come on. Let’s go visit Mike and find out what he wanted to tell me. Whatever it is, he wasn’t willing to text me any details.”

They hurried down the stairs but came to a halt when they found a bunch of boxes stacked in the middle of the living room. “What’s all this?” Angela asked.

James looked at the boxes, his gut tightening with dread. “You found what the key opens?” he asked, looking at Dash, who was sitting at the breakfast table with one of the boxes at his feet and papers spread out in front of him.

“Yeah. I had a hunch last night about something Kasim said. I looked up a storage site that is two blocks away from where you two were asking questions. I went out and just walked along the storage units and, sure enough, I found a strange looking lock. When I tested it with the key, it worked. I called Callum and he helped me load all this up. We brought them back here and…” he nodded towards the coffee pot, silently letting them know that the two had been up all night sifting through the boxes.

“What have you found?” Angela asked.

Dash shook his head. “A lot of files with numbers on them. But I can’t figure out what the numbers represent. It’s some sort of cypher, but nothing that I’ve ever seen before.” He glanced up from the papers, blinking as he looked over at Angela and James. “What have you discovered?”

James shook his head. “I don’t have anything yet. However, my friend, who was analyzing the blue powder, texted me early this morning. He asked me to come to his place so he can tell me what he’s found.”

Dash stood up, coffee cup in hand and moved to the counter to refill the cup. “I can be ready to go in five minutes,” he told them. He rubbed his jawline experimentally, then did a mental shake as if dismissing the concept of a shave.

“We’re fine,” James assured him. “No one knows about Mike. His laboratory is out in the suburbs, far from the city limits. Plus, he has some pretty good security.”

“MikePhillips? The guy who runs Phillips Labs?” Dash asked, his eyebrows rising.

“Yeah. Do you know him?”

Dash nodded his head. “Yeah. My company installed his security system.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s good. Whatever he’s found, its safe.”

Angela walked over to Dash and hugged him. “You’re amazing,” she whispered, then kissed his cheek. “We’ll be back as soon as we have the information.”

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