Page 85 of Wicked Sin

“Really?”

“I’ve told you more about my past than I’ve ever toldanyone, Luke. Yes, I trust you. And it’s fine if you don’t trust me. I’m used to that. But this is my life that’s on the line, not yours. So I also trusted Wilson, and you’ll just have to deal with that.”

“Is that so? I’ll just have todealwith it?”

Now I’m pissed off again, too. “How much of your anger is jealousy?”

His jaw flexes. Ah, my old friend the angry tick is back.

I lean in, my breath dusting his cheek. “You worried I’ll have to fuck him to pay for this protection?”

Before I know what’s happening, I’m pressed up against the wall, Luke heavy and big against me. “I would kill him if he tried,” he growls. “Nobody forces you to do something like that ever again.”

“Except you?” I push against him, wanting him to push back. Wanting him to kiss me and take me, show me that I haven’t ruined everything between us with my secrets.

But it’s the wrong thing to say.

The absolute worst thing, because I’m the worst person.

His face goes white. “No, Taylor,” he grounds out as he pushes away from me. “Fuck.” He turns and heads for the hallway.

“Where are you going?”

“Out,” he tosses over his shoulder.

Worry twists ugly in my chest. It doesn’t go away even when he stops and slowly turns. The look on his face is inscrutable, but not good.

“You’re right. I am jealous. And that’s not okay. I’ll be back, but I need to do some thinking on my own right now.”

I stare after him as he leaves, arming the security system on his way out.

Well, fuck.

27

Luke

I don’t go very far.I feel so fucked up right now that driving would be a bad idea.

On the one hand, I know it’s just a pager from a trusted friend.

On the other, that trusted friend is one step removed from being a criminal, part of a vast international conspiracy ring to manipulate governments. To people like them, Taylor is completely disposable.

Why would she put her trust in them?

Why wouldn’t she put her trust in me?

But she didn’t know me a few days ago. When we went to Washington, I was a stranger who judged her for everything she was and everything she’d done. Of course she grabbed on to any small crumb a known element could give her.

I head up the canyon behind my house, climbing the path that leads to the open hills. There’s a rock up here that I sit on sometimes, to go and think, to talk to the memory of my dad, or to be alone. Today it’s the last one. No good thoughts come to me. I don’t know what I’d say to my dad, either.

Sorry I held a woman against a wall. You would have taught me better than that. You’d kick my ass for that.

I’m coiled up tight. Restless. There’s something not right about this video leak. The timing is suspicious, Parker was right about that.She trusts them.

Maybe I need to read the dossier they have on Lively. Maybe I need to ask if they have one on President Best.

And now we’re getting into dangerous territory.

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