Page 85 of Tempt

“Yes,” I murmured. My heart was beating so fast I could feel it. Having Theo pressed up against me with so much emotion and doubt filling the space between us was making me light headed.

He looked down, his dark eyes boring straight into my soul. “Then you won’t love me after I tell you this.”

I couldn’t breathe. His words were so final and I wanted to cut back just as hard. Hit him with enough impact to knock some sense into him. “Or maybe you don’t really loveme. At least not enough to trust me.” I swallowed down the bile that rose in my throat, forcing myself to say exactly what Theo needed to hear. “And I don’t know that I want to love someone who doesn’t trust me.That’s not love.”

He squeezed his eyes shut, but not before the broken look in his eyes was burned into my mind forever. I wanted to suck all the words back into my mouth just so I never had to see that look again.

But I didn’t have time. Joe pounded on the door behind me and I jumped straight into Theo’s chest in surprise.

“Theo! Open the door. Now.”

I’d never heard Joe sound so informal or so tense. Despite all the things we’d just said to each other, Theo put his arm around me and pulled me into his side as he opened the door. “What is it?”

Joe looked like James Bond with the cold way he looked over us both like an assignment instead of people. “Dan’s out.”

“That’s two days early,” Theo said, his arm tightening protectively around me.

Joe nodded. “And he’s moving fast. We don’t have much time.”

My heart rate skyrocketed. Dan was out of prison? And clearly, it had been Theo’s doing. The plan was in motion.

Theo stared at Joe for several long seconds, the wheels in his brilliant head turning a million miles an hour. Then suddenly he released me, his hand sliding to the small of my back and pushing me forward. “She has all her things. Get her out of here.”

Joe immediately pulled me through the door before I had a chance to speak or think. I wrenched my arm out of his hand in time to see Theo close the door. We locked eyes for the briefest of moments. His were cold and hardened, like the man I loved had disappeared—replaced by the man he used to be. A cog in a wheel. An instrument in someone else’s machine. In love or not, he had a part to play and it was time for me to go.

He’d made his decision.

Chapter 31

“C’mon, Joe. You’ve got to give me something. Anything. It’s been two days. I’m freaking the fuck out.” The only connection I’d had to Theo since the night Joe dragged me out of his flat was Joe standing guard everywhere I went.

No phone calls. No notes. No information of any kind.

I was quickly turning from worried to pissed off.

“I’m sorry, Miss Riley. There’s nothing I can tell you.”

I’d dragged him into my flat by threatening to go running down the street naked. He knew I wasn’t serious, but he also wasn’t willing to take a chance that I’d do something else stupid.

“You’re not one of those dudes with the tall hats that stands in front of the…” I was exhausted and half-crazed. Words had ceased to make sense and I was flailing my hands around in a sad attempt at describing the Queen’s Guard. “The… place where the Queen lives.”

Joe frowned. “Actually, I was.”

I collapsed onto the stool in utter defeat. I wasn’t going to get a damn thing out of Joe. I wish Martin were here. At least with Martin I stood a chance. He liked me. He liked the way Theo and I were together. He liked it when I melted his cold little bodyguard heart.

But not Joe. Joe was unmovable. And apparently trained to be so.Dammit all!

“I can’t live like this. Is he freezing me out because he’s too busy to let me know he’s alive, or because he’s so mad about…” I bit my lip and stopped talking.

Joe’s cheeks flamed. Yeah, that’s what I thought. He’d heard our fight. Might have even heard me say I didn’t love Theo. We’d been so caught up that neither of us heard our phones going off and Joe had no choice but to come upstairs and knock.

“I cannot comment on the state of Mr. Sutherland’s feelings towards you, Miss Riley.”

“I know you heard us, Joe.”

“And I’m sorry you were not able to finish your disagreement.”

I felt nauseous. I’d barely eaten in days and this conversation was not helping things.

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