Page 73 of So Close

“I’ve reviewed the surveillance footage. The man is unquestionably a professional.”

My employer exhales harshly. “Of course he is.”

“You should have it already.”

He’s quiet as he watches. “The Bugatti should be easy to trace,” he murmurs, with the absentmindedness of split focus.

“We’re working on it,” I assure him.

“He tracked my car?!” He swears viciously as he crosses that piece of information in the written report. “How did that happen?”

“We’ll check the footage of the penthouse garage, but it would have been easier to attach it while we were out in the city on any number of occasions.”

“Why toy with her like this?” There is helpless fury in his voice. “Tracking her. Taunting her with those flowers.”

“A message. Only she knows what it means and whether it was intended for you or her.”

Danica approaches, her full breasts and slender hips swaying as she walks with seductive grace. She pushes the door open, her lips curving in a feline smile as she sets a tumbler of whiskey with a ball of ice on the patio table.Lunch in thirty minutes, she mouths, before slipping back inside and shutting the door. Although I’ve just enjoyed her thoroughly, my cock stirs at the lushness of her figure so tantalizingly displayed. I’ve been with her for days and have scarcely been separated from her body the entire time. As pleasurable as that has been, I cannot help but feel I’m not where I should be.

“You don’t think I should trust her,” Mr Black states. “Have you seen the way she looks at me, Witte? She’s no threat.”

The assessment is too blithe. Hasn’t their relationship been mostly agonizing for him? His grief was so terrible only the single-minded focus on transforming himself into a man of substance had kept him going. He would not have that great a distraction again. If Lily broke his heart this time, I don’t believe he would survive it.

I catch Danica’s eye as she moves through the open-plan kitchen. She is a lavishly tempting creature gliding elegantly through the space, a seductive wraith trailing a gossamer white train and lustrous silver hair that drifts like fog around slender shoulders. She gives me a come-hither smile, her gaze languid and hot.

Is anything as intoxicating as being the object of desire for a stunningly beautiful woman? Is any man capable of being rational in that circumstance? Before meeting Danica, I would’ve said heedless love and desire were the folly of youth. I’d believed myself past all that nonsense. Can I judge Mr Black, lecture him, when my circumstance mirrors his?

“Let me tell you about Lily,” he says tightly. “Ryan texted me one day, inviting me to spend an evening at his place. It’d been a few weeks since we’d hung out because I was avoiding her. I couldn’t stand even the possibility of seeing them together. I knew she was at least half in love with me, and it drove me insane that she stayed with him just to keep me at bay. She tried to gaslight me, to convince me I was seeing a reaction from her that wasn’t there, but the love was obvious every time she looked at me. So was the fear.”

Abruptly my first sight of her on the street in the city takes on a different connotation. Does her fear stem from her feelings for him rather than fearofhim? Is such a thing possible?

“A hard choice for a woman to make,” I murmur, my thoughts spinning. “You are both exceptional men.”

“Not then, I wasn’t. Ryan was already making moves with LanCorp, but it was only a pipe dream for me to buy what remained of Baharan.” He sighs heavily. “I accepted his invitation because I missed his friendship, but I also wanted to see the photos of her he had at his place. That’s how starved I was for the sight of her.”

I glance at Danica. I, too, turn to photos of her when being together isn’t possible. At times, memories alone are not enough to appease the ache of separation.

“I showed up right on time,” he continues. “Maybe even a little early. The doorman knew me and knew I was coming, so he just waved me by. I took the elevator up. Ryan’s front door was propped open by the deadbolt. I walked in and was about to call out when I heard sounds coming from the bedroom.”

The pain in his voice is a deep throb that affects me acutely.

“I should’ve walked out,” he goes on, his voice rough and raw. “I walked to the bedroom instead. I couldn’t stop myself. She was there, under him. They’d barely undressed. She’d lifted her dress, he’d dropped his pants, and he was in her, moaning like he was losing his mind.”

He pauses for a long moment before continuing. “She was looking straight at me when I reached the doorway, and there was zero surprise on her face. She had her hand on the back of his head, holding it against her shoulder and turned toward the far wall so he wouldn’t see me.”

“Mr Black, I don’t –”

“She planned it, Witte. All of it.”

I don’t want to hear any more. It’s my job to put myself in his shoes, and with Danica in front of me, that’s far too easy. She and I are of an age and beyond classifying our relationship. I’m monogamous; I’ve never asked if she affords me the same courtesy. She is a sensual woman, and I’m not often available. I never visit her unannounced, but it’s possible that if I did, I would witness a scene like my employer described. The thought alone torments me.

“She’d used his phone,” he bites out, still furious. “Set the time. Called the desk downstairs. Propped the door open. And stared at me with dead eyes while he fucked her in front of me.”

I shift on my feet, repulsed. I see the picture he’s painting with his words. The Lily he speaks of is a woman I don’t know. She cannot be the one who looks at him with such fervent longing and love.

But she could be the woman to whom a professional killer sent flowers and romantic sentiments.

“Her goal was to end us before we began. Because even though we hadn’t seen each other in weeks, our intense attraction was still growing. It was only a matter of time. Ryan had been telling me he felt like she was easing him into the friend zone. She was declining sex with him and limiting their time together. It made it so much worse that I’d been building up hope of her coming to me soon.”

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