Page 33 of Close to the Edge

“How long were you together?”Where did you meet? I hope he was a lousy kisser and even worse in bed.

Jesus, Caleb. Get a fucking grip.

“Six months.”

Not long by any stretch, but long enough for me to be mildly jealous at the thought of some guy having a claim on her.

The waiter’s arrival gave me a moment to examine that jealousy, grimace with disgust at myself for sticking steadfastly to my second and third rules.

I watched her pick up a roll of sushi with her chopsticks and dip it in teriyaki sauce. I did the same and we ate in silence for a while.

“Who ended the relationship?”

She froze. I couldn’t stop myself from staring at her glistening mouth, wondering how it would feel when I slid my cock between her lips.

I looked up. She was staring at me. Her cheeks heated up as she accurately read my thoughts.

“Answer the question, Lily.”

She dropped her chopsticks, her face tightening again. “I did. And you’re wasting your time with this. Scott isn’t the one doing this.”

“I’ll be the judge of that—”

“No! I know what I’m talking about so please drop it,” she hissed.

“Not until you tell me why any guy whose veins aren’t filled with ice water would quietly walk away from you?”

Her lashes swept down for a moment, then rose again, a challenging fire in her eyes. “Not every guy I come into contact with is a potential stalker.”

“Scott wasn’t just any guy, though, was he? What aren’t you telling me, Lily?”

She remained silent for a long stretch. And I waited her out, biting down my impatience.

“Because Scott wasn’t just a guy I met at a party. Chance paid him to seek me out.”

Shock bolted up my spine. “What? Why?”

She swallowed and her hands balled into small fists. When she lifted her gaze her beautiful green eyes were far too haunted. “Because he wanted...wantsto control me.”

Jesus. “Again, why?”

“What does it matter?” she snapped. “All you need to know is SDM and Chance need this algorithm. It’d be absurd for him to jeopardize it by having someone stalk me, so just...just take my word for it that it’s not Scott, okay?”

I didn’t voice the world’s worst cliché right then because I didn’t want to piss her off even more, or sound like a hormone-addled teenager but, fuck me, she was so incredibly gorgeous when she was mad I lost the ability to think clearly for a minute.

I let her take the deep breaths she needed to calm down.

“You slip into Bostonian when you’re agitated, you know that? It’s cute.”

She looked adorably nonplussed before she shook her head. “Nothing about any of this iscute, Mr. Steele.”

“I disagree. I wonder, do you sound like that during sex, too?”

Green eyes snapped fire at me. “You’llneverfind out.”

I couldn’t help myself. I had to touch her again. I reached out and traced the curve of her lower lip with my finger. Soft. Firm. Satin-smooth. “Are you sure about that, Lily?”

She inhaled sharply and her eyes turned a shade darker. “Can we not turn everything into a sexual tennis match? It’s really exhausting.”

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