Page 6 of Pervade Montego Bay
This was the plan, so easy to implement: Push her away and draw Xavier closer. Have her fall out of love with me and fall deeper in love with him.
My heart twisted in an unfamiliar way, but I ignored the pang of loss and bravely glared into the abyss.
“You like it dark, right?” That was something I could work with. “I’m going to do very erotic things to you.”
She blushed wildly.
I let out a sigh of resolve. “Xavier knows me. He knows what I’m capable of. He knows what I like.”
“What you like?”
It made me smile. “I will spoil you in the same way Xavier liked for me to spoil him. Does that appeal to you?”
She looked uncertain.
Xavier had once blackmailed me by starting a life with her so that I’d take him back. She didn’t need reminding of this painful fact. His plan had backfired when he’d fallen helplessly in love with this woman.
“Xavier will always crave me, Emily. Crave what only I can give.”
The cruel remark made her flinch. All I had to do was crank up the viciousness and watch her crumble.
“You want him to be jealous of me?” She looked astounded. “Why would I consent to something like this?”
“It’s the only way back to him.”
“In London, you told me you didn’t want us to end.” She sucked in a deep breath. “That you loved us…”
“Such a sentiment isn’t in my repertoire. Nor do I have any use for it.”
“You did say it!”
“We need to bring him in.”
“I won’t betray him.”
“This is about you asking for his forgiveness.”
“What sorts of things are expected of me?”
“You want to know Xavier completely? You want to know why he’s addicted to the things I can do to him? I’m offering you this insight.”
Emily was thinking it over, and looking so damn sensual. It was the way her mouth parted, the way she licked her lips to wet them as she mulled over whether she could deny herself what I was offering.
“Xavier stays here sometimes,” I said. “Did he tell you that?”
She shook her headand scanned the workspace as though trying to imagine him here. A hurt expression flashed across her face. He’d teased her with my connection to Jamaica, but she’d never taken the bait to explore the matter further. Never asked the important questions, like why here.
“In this very house, Xavier and I agreed to always do what is right. Not what is easy, but what serves the greater purpose.”
“That’s why you started Pervade?”
Her calling MI8 “Pervade” had always been endearing. I helmed a directorate of Military Intelligence that secretly existed. I’d hijacked the organization after MI6 had tried to take me down. Then elevated myself to a position where I controlled every aspect of British society.Pervade, as Emily liked to call what I did for a living, was not far off from my job description. I owned the government. Hell, I owned several.
Yet she was the ultimate thrill I would never get over.
“You should never have betrayed him, Emily.”
“You threatened what we had by saying it was temporary.”
