Page 90 of Tempt

He frowned. “You always have a choice.”

“I didn’t know what this was.”

A smile pulled up on his lips. “Darlin’. You and I both know you’re not that dumb. You knew. And all you had to do was tell Seth you weren’t coming.”

He was right and there was no sense in playing games. I’d been waiting days to see him again and I didn’t want this to devolve into a fight before I had a chance to apologize. “You have me here, what do you want?”

“Joe told me how upset you were and I wanted to make it right.” He held out his hands. “I’m alive and well. You can stop worrying and making Joe’s life hell.”

I ignored the teasing in his voice. This was no time for teasing. He’d practically disappeared and ignored every one of my phone calls. Because I, genius that I was, had tried to break his heart. “I’m sorry for what I said.”

He froze. The silence echoing off the walls it was so loud. “Did you mean it?” I didn’t miss the pain in his voice as he spoke.

I’d put that pain there. “You’re not that dumb, Theo. You know I didn’t.”

He blinked, but didn’t move.

“Is that why you’re refusing my calls?”

He averted his eyes. “Partially. We both said things we shouldn’t have that night and I thought it best, under the circumstances, to focus on Toni and Dan.”

I’d buy his lie if he weren’t the same man who had trouble getting through an afternoon without texting me. “Please don’t freeze me out. It’s killing me.”

“Allison.”

Notdarlin’. Notbabe. Not evenwoman.

Allison. My heart lurched and landed in my throat. “What?”

“I think it best you keep as far away from me as possible.”

No.My reaction was instantaneous and came from the deepest darkest places inside my soul. The place that simply loved and craved the man standing in front of me—regardless of any other circumstances. “I love you, Theo. Please don’t do this.”

He squeezed his eyes shut and made a fist with his hand. I wished he were naked so I could see the rippling of tension hidden beneath his clothes. The raw power and passion that he kept so carefully in check.

All the things I loved so desperately.

Then his eyes snapped open and he stormed toward me. “Come.” He took my hand, but it sure as hell wasn’t lovingly. It was rough and almost painful.

Desperate.

He led me down the hallway past a very surprised group of bodyguards and into another room. A dark, dank room in the belly of the bottom floor. Two armed men stood to the side to let us in.

At first I was hit by how much colder this room was than the rest. Then I was struck by the darkness. A single lamp lit up the center of the room where two men were strung up by their hands with chains. I recognized the one on the left. It was Toni, unconscious and bloody. The man on the right I assumed was Dan Christie.

Theo was standing so close he was practically on top of me. Normally I’d wrap my arms around his middle and burrow into his strong chest. But not today. Today he was so angry and frustrated I wanted to run away.

But I didn’t because that’s what he wanted me to do.

Instead I stood firm and kept my face neutral. He could try to shock and scare me until he turned blue—it wasn’t going to change anything.

“You remember when I gave Toni that beating? You remember how different I was? Take a good long look in front of you.” His accent was thick and deep, his breath whispered across my exposed ear and sent a shiver down my spine.

I turned so that we were eye-to-eye. “I remember,” I whispered.

He didn’t look at me the way he normally would—the way he usually crawled inside me so that we were connected in every way possible. Instead his eyes slowly studied my face—as if he were memorizing every detail. He swallowed. “What I’m about to do…you’d never be the same if I showed you.”

We were so close, but not touching. I could feel his warmth and energy colliding with the edges of mine, sending wave after wave of need through me, taking my breath away. “And what about you? Will you be the same?”

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