Page 47 of Sweet Deception
And an idea strikes.
How to get a few seconds reprieve from Darren’s watchful presence…
I stand and scoop Piro up into my arms, scratching behind his left ear with my pointer finger.
Darren’s head whips around. “What are you doing?”
“Piro needs to use the facilities.”
That disarming and slightly chilling grin slides across Darren’s handsome face. “Sit, princess. I’ll let him out.”
“He can’t go alone.” I pitch my voice higher to feign anxiety. It doesn’t take all that much effort. “He doesn’t know this place.”
Darren stares at me, then shakes his head.
He strides out of the kitchen, through the dining room, and into the foyer, and I follow close behind. We both gaze at the locks on the front door, another dead bolt that requires a key. All the windows are similarly locked and barred.
Whatever shall we do?I try to keep the smug anticipation off my face.
“I’ll take him out back,” Darren says, shifting to me.
He extends one of his big hands, and after several seconds, I realize he expects me to pass Piro over. With internal struggle at play, I gently place my baby in this killer’s hands.
He sets Piro on the ground as he spins around and walks down the hallway. I’m once again amazed by how my kitty follows him, happy as a clam.
I tag behind to get back to the kitchen.
Once they’re out of sight and the back door opens and closes, I zip back to my post at the island. As quickly as I can, I log into my cloud account and check on the decryption process I left running before I fled my apartment several hours ago.
It’s still not done.Damn.
I tab through my work email and discover several new security audit requests from my clients. I mark myself as temporarily unavailable for new jobs. My clients will have to wait.
When the squeal of the back door opening carries into the kitchen, I log out of everything and return to my search for information on the summit. A moment later, Darren and Piro enter the kitchen.
I expect my captor to get straight back to his cooking efforts, but instead, he plants himself behind me while he hovers over my shoulder. “Find anything?”
Bozhe moy, his scent, his heat, his voice… It yanks me right back to the night we met. “Not much yet.”
Thankfully, he accepts that and returns to his culinary exploits. I really am starving. I’m going to start gnawing on the countertop if he doesn’t whip up something soon.
One long hour later, Darren comes back to the island with two bowls on top of plates. Homemade vegetable soup and turkey sandwiches that appear surprisingly gourmet.
I’m not in any position to be picky, so I dig in. Wow, Darren is an excellent cook. And it’s not just the starvation talking. This…is really delicious. Food someone would pay to eat somewhere.
Not that I’m going to confess that.
He sits beside me as we dine in silence. I continue to peruse the dark web, scouring through sketchy chat rooms and underground forums for any clues about the summit. This is how I found out about the Gallagher wedding, so I know there has to be chatter somewhere. But compared to this event, finding info on the double wedding was a piece of cake.
Together, we munch, slurp, and search, his shoulder next to mine. Even after we’ve cleaned our plates and he’s cleared them, Darren comes back to sit beside me.
I want to tell him to leave or busy himself doing something else because his proximity is too difficult to ignore and robs me of my concentration. But I clamp my mouth shut and let my fingers type and toggle around for dear life instead.
Darren and I lock side glances more than once, stirring up that electric tension between us. We’re close enough to kiss, and I’m scared of what might happen if he doesn’t find something better to do—and quick.
This unwanted attraction we share…the truths and lies and suspicion… it’s all taking a toll. We’re both desperately trying to gauge how much the other one knows while beating back our mutual attraction. The situation is enough to exhaust anyone.
Eyes stinging from fatigue and tunnel vision, I finally come to a message in a forum with attached images. I hunted for mentions of the modeling agency, and it brought up a familiar thread that I’ve already combed through several times.
