Page 38 of Tempt

“Then why am I here?” I took a deep breath to give myself some confidence. “You’re keeping a lot of secrets from me and now you’re asking for more. If you really want me to stay then I need you to start talking.” It scared me how much I didn’t know.

He rested his forehead on my shoulder, his lips leaving soft kisses against my skin. “Then maybe I should stay quiet.”

“And force me to leave?” Such stupidly flawed logic. He knew I wasn’t dumb enough to stay—even for phenomenal sex—with someone who was dangerous and keeping secrets. So if he refused to clue me in, I’d have no choice but to end things. “You’re not that weak.”

He stiffened.

“I deserve to know what I’ve gotten myself in to, and whether or not I should stay.” Was my life in danger by being near him, or just my heart?

After a long moment Theo took me by the shoulders and gently turned me around to face him. “You’re right, you do deserve that much.” And then he finally started talking.

I didn’t sleep that night. We sat half-naked on his couch until the sun came up. I knew he still wasn’t telling me everything, it takes time to divulge a lifetime of details, but when the sun came up that morning I had a much better idea of who Theo Sutherland was.

I also knew I was that much more in love with him… and that he was right.

I shouldn’t have stayed.

Chapter 14

Isat in stunned silence on the leather couch in Theo’s office. Still wrapped in his light blue shirt, I was slightly surprised to realize he was buttoning a fresh white shirt as he placed a steaming cup of coffee in front of my face. “Coffee.”

I stared through the curls of steam reaching up from the white mug in his hand. “So he wants revenge?” I shifted my gaze up to meet his.

He stared past me before giving a very quick nod. I took the coffee and curled my feet underneath me while I watched Theo finish buttoning his shirt and tuck it into his black trousers. “I suppose revenge is the simplest way to say it.”

“He’s insane.” That was the only word I could come up with for what Theo was describing.

He sighed heavily and dropped onto the couch beside me. “I don’t know what the technical terms would be, but yeah. Toni is completely obsessed with one thing, and that thing is making me pay for my sins.”

The blood in my veins felt colder than usual. As if this conversation had sapped the warmth from my soul. “And there’s nothing you can do about it?”

He stared out at the sun rising over London. “Sometimes I think he’s right. That I should let him punish me.”

Thankfully the cup in my hands was hot. I wrapped my fingers around it trying to absorb every ounce of heat. Over the last few hours Theo had explained a lot. What he’d chosen to share was almost as enlightening as what he chose to keep to himself. He was surprisingly open about his mother, explaining how she’d run away and that she now lived happily in Zurich with her partner of five years.

But he never said anything about his father. Or Nicki.

He did mention his brother, Michael, who lived in New York City, but traveled the world as a freelance photographer. There was a glimmer of jealousy and longing in Theo’s eyes when he talked about Michael.

“You were so young, Theo.” Fifteen—even for a genius—was entirely too young to grow up.

He shook his head. “Not that young. I was old enough to know what I was doing, and old enough to be held accountable for it.”

And that’s what scared me a little. The teenager Theo described wasn’t anything like the man sitting beside me now. I didn’t know that other man. A man who’d used all that immense genius to steal, deceive, and destroy.

Theo was a criminal and I’d had no idea. It hadn’t even occurred to me that the quiet genius who owned my building would be anything so…dangerous. It was a reminder that most things aren’t as they seem. We’re all putting on masks, pretending our lives are one thing when really they’re another. Everything is an illusion.

It turned out that Ava’s version of Theo’s “lost years” was closer to the truth than anything else. And despite a gut instinct that told me it was true, it was still a shock to hear all the details coming straight from Theo.

“So you just let him stalk you?” I was still pretty fuzzy on the details.

He barked a laugh. “What else am I supposed to do? It isn’t exactly as if the police are going to help.”

Theo had taken a page out of his mother’s playbook and run away at the age of fifteen, after his first college graduation. He and a friend from school—Darcy Higgins—had fallen in with a group. Normal fifteen-year-olds caused trouble by drinking or painting graffiti on buildings, but when you’re a genius, apparently, your version of trouble is a bit more sophisticated. They started off with basic cyber terrorism. Taking down a bank for a day.For fun. Erasing all the accounts at a phone company (even the backups.) Sending a virus to a software company they didn’t like.

The boys caught the attention of a semi-notorious thief, Dan Christie, who recruited them to do some work in exchange for a very large sum of money. Being the young, stupid kids that they were, they saw opportunity.

For Theo it meant escape from his father. He wouldn’t have access to his trust fund for years and having already finished college, the kid was ready to escape his father’s clutches. Only problem was, Donald wasn’t signing off on Theo working for anyone but him, and no one was willing to cross him.

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