Page 13 of A Very Killer Christmas
I watch her face with fascination as I speak. I’ve never been this open about myself, and as an expression of disgust and terror fails to appear on her face, my blood flows south again.Dammit.
While I try to mentally deflate my growing erection, she chews on her bottom lip, watching me with those big, curious eyes. “Wait. You said… five, sixjobsa year? Are you a contract killer? How many people have you killed?”
There isn’t a trace of judgment in her voice. I stop wrangling with my arousal, because it’s a losing battle.
“Gerard was number seventeen. And yes, I kill for money. Everything I earned is hidden away in untraceable offshore accounts.”
I’ve never been able to boast about this, and finally saying it out loud makes me feel all warm and smug. Her big eyes grow even bigger as she stares at me.
“You seem very proud of that,” she finally says.
“Course I am. Come on, I’m a self-made wealthy man at twenty-nine. That’s objectively impressive.”
She shakes her head slowly, squinting at me with doubt.
“But youkill people. You’re a wealthykiller.” She enunciates every word slowly like I’m a dimwit. “And you can’t spend that money, can you? You’d have to, I don’t know, launder it. And… wait. Did you say you killedseventeenpeople? How comeyou haven’t been caught? Because judging by your performance tonight, you’re not very good at this.”
I almost blurt outI love you.Almost. Only because I manage to bite my tongue do those words remain unsaid.
But I mean them. This woman is utterly mesmerizing. Her brain works in ways so far outside the norm, and she doesn’t even realize that.
I had only one long-term relationship in the past, and it was serious enough that I considered telling my girlfriend the truth about me before I proposed. For months, I would ponder how to broach the topic of my second job. I spent hours analyzing each scenario. Finally, I decided to break up with her.
Because the only logical reaction from her would be complete disgust and horror.
That was when I accepted I could never be completely honest with a woman. Even if I married and had children one day, neither she nor them would ever learn the full truth about me. The perspective of living in deception until I died made me stop dating entirely.
I was certain there wasn’t a woman in existence who would accept me. Or so I thought.
Prudence doesn’t scream or look at me with fear. She doesn’t condemn me. Instead, her mind turns to practical matters, like money laundering. My imagination explodes with visions of thefuture in which she is by my side, helping me set up the right sort of business and criticizing me if I plan to do something stupid. She would do that, too. She’s not afraid of speaking her mind.
“Today is an anomaly,” I say with a grimace, because she’s right. I made a mess of things. “I watched the target for a week to learn his routine. He’s in the middle of a divorce and all the information I gathered pointed at him being alone tonight. It was perfect, too. He had no meetings scheduled until after New Year’s. If I got lucky, no one would have discovered he was missing for over a week. He doesn’t have children and keeps to himself. His work is his life.”
Prudence lets go of my sweatshirt and shifts in my lap until she can watch me comfortably without twisting her neck. My heart gives a painful thud.God.Any other woman would have run away.
“But he wasn’t alone,” she says, eyes narrowed like she’s trying to understand what happened.
I shake my head. “A woman was there. Probably a lover. She saw me, and I… Well, it’s shameful. I panicked. I’ve never killed anyone I wasn’t paid to assassinate. She just stood there, staring at me, and I knew I had to kill her or at least tie her up to make my escape, but I couldn’t. So I left. And she called the cops.”
Prudence hums, her eyes far away like she’s lost in thought. I shiver hard when her fingers brush my nape. She flinches and pulls her hand away with a startled look.
“Sorry. I don’t know why I did that.”
“Touch me all you want.” I cringe when I hear how needy it comes out, practically begging her.
When she recoils, looking at me with wide, confused eyes, I force myself to stay calm even as I tell her the painful truth.
“Look, I… I never got to talk about this. Nobody knows what I do. It’s been horribly lonely, you know? And now suddenly, you’re here, and you’re not running away. You lied to the cops to save me, and I know it’s sick, but I want to tell you everything.”
She considers me for a moment, then nods warily.
“That’s actually great, because I have a ton of questions to ask you. For example, did you wet your bed when you were young?”
Chapter 6
Prudence
He stares at me with utter disbelief, his dark, thick eyebrows raised high. I swallow an urge to laugh. My insides feel sweet and weightless like candy floss, and I have a ridiculous notion that if it wasn’t for his arms around me, I’d float away.
