Page 15 of Vengeful Seduction
“There was another man.” I opened the bottle of water, drinking a little bit of it down. “She walked out, and I never saw her again. I don’t want to see her again. She destroyed my dad.”
She nodded, and I drank more water that I didn’t really want, just to give myself a chance to get myself back together.
“So, when my dad died in the car accident, I felt like …it’s stupid.” I looked at her and then glanced down at my hands, which clenched at the water bottle desperately.
“Tell me, if you want to,” she invited, and her voice was soothing. I could tell she was a hell of a nurse—she had the caring act down.
No one was as sweet as she was pretending to be. I didn’t buy it. She might act like Pollyanna, but I didn’t think—not for a second—it could be genuine.
“I felt alone. Like I had to do everything on my own.” I sighed softly. “That’s why I didn’t go see my grandfather. I knew he was going to leave me, too, but now …”
For a second my voice cut out, and I had to wait for a second for it to come back before I could speak again.
That was weird.
My emotions that I kept in check were coming forward. I wasn’t sure I liked that.
She patted my thigh reassuringly. “That’s okay, David. I know it’s hard and it hurts. Please, go on.”
She was so fucking sweet and understanding that it made me crazy. “Now it’s true. I have no one, and it’s my fault.”
She had let go of my hand when she had reached to get a drink of her own bottle of water, but she took it again now, and I frowned a little bit.
What was up with this lady, anyway?
It was almost convincing. If I didn’t have a sort of instinctive distrust of women, I might have even believed she was as pure and sweet as she was trying to appear.
Those green eyes of hers—a man could drown in them. If he let himself …which I had no intention of doing.
Her fingers tightened around mine, and I had to fight to keep myself from showing a reaction. I had wondered what would happen if she didn’t fall for this act, but I didn’t think that was going to be an issue.
Not when I was pretty sure I’d figured out her game.
“Anyway,” I said, forcing a brave smile. “That’s all in the past. I’m doing okay now. I got through college and my tech business is doing better every year. I just …I guess I just wanted you to know why I was such a jerk to you.”
She gave my fingers one more gentle squeeze, then let go of them. My hand felt empty and odd. “No, I was glad to hear it. I’m glad you told me.”
Time to disarm her a little bit more. I looked deliberately around the small apartment and then spoke, as though hesitant. “You don’t need to live here anymore. You could move into grandpa’s house. It’s yours, isn’t it?”
I wanted her to think I was fine with her taking what my grandfather had left to her. Why not show that by gently pushing her to do it? If I played my cards right, soon she would not even remember how I’d reacted the day at the reading of the will.
Let her think I wasn’t even interested in the money. She would soon think it had just been the stress of losing someone I cared about that had caused it. It was even partially true. The money I cared about only insofar as it could help me get revenge on her, and, of course, I wanted it to really launch Black Tech into prominence.
“I didn’t think about that,” Kaye commented, and I could almost believe it. I thought she was probably just caught up in appearances. She didn’t want people to talk about her and say she was nothing but a femme fatale.
The gold digging, money-grubbing whore.
“You should move,” I repeated and rose to my feet. I’d done enough for one day, I figured. “And, if you’d like, I’d like to see you again.”
The more I thought about it, the surer I was. It didn’t make any sense at all that my grandfather would leave everything to her. Not unless she was very good at getting people to do what she wanted.
“So you think that she actually manipulated your grandfather into it?” Brent asked. I’d gone right to his house after leaving Kaye’s, with both of us promising to stay in touch. I thought she would probably even move like I’d suggested. That would be a good thing because I wasn’t sure I could stay in that teeny apartment without getting claustrophobic.
I was going to be seeing her quite a lot, after all.
“Yeah, I do. But it gets worse,” I said, looking at him gloomily. “I’m pretty damn sure she was setting her sights on my money next.”
“Oh my God. Are you serious?” Brent asked, and I thought back to the conversation, nodding my head emphatically.
