Page 73 of Only the Devil
Her lips scrunch, and I know I’m right. I’m not the brightest, not nearly as brilliant as the sexy coder across from me, but I’m pretty fast on the uptake.
I reach for her hand. The battle she’s fighting is one that she’s gonna have to wage alone. But I’ve got a good sense where she’s going to net. She’s just gotta get there first.
I stretch out on the sofa, positioning her to my front with the blanket over her. She’s chilled, and while I can’t fight this battle for her, I can hold her and keep her warm.
She curls against me, resting her head on my outstretched arm, and I press my lips to the back of her head. She rolls, so she’s facing me.
We sit there, taking each other in, inches away from each other.
“There’s no future to the class action lawsuit. It’ll never see the inside of a courtroom.” She’s solemn, and it feels like she’s talking to herself as much as to me.
“That’s not why you’re doing this.”
“But he knows my connection. I’m not going to get anything now. I’m exposed.”
“But he wants you to stay?”
Her upper teeth sink into her lower lip as she slightly nods. “He really wants me to build the tool. You know, the one monitoring what short sellers are doing. Picking meme stocks that are about to explode. Or nose dive. It’s not illegal. But it’s scammy.”
“He’s not a good person?” I phrase it like a question, but I know the answer.
“No, he’s not. And while he didn’t threaten me, the fact he brought up my connection at all… He’s scared of that class action lawsuit, which makes me think he’s guilty in a way that he knows he’ll lose in court—if it ever sees the inside of a courtroom.”
“Do you think he’d kill?”
Her lips purse. She closes her eyes and lifts a shoulder. I’ll take that as a yes.
“And you’re still thinking about leaving ARGUS? Staying at Sterling indefinitely?”
Her dark eyes open, and I can see she’s torn. There’s a war going on inside her tonight. I know damn well what she should do, but there are some battles it’s best to side-step.
“Thank you.” She speaks so softly she more or less mouths the words.
“For what?”
She never answers, instead choosing to reach between us, her fingers finding the hem of my shirt. Her touch is tentative at first, then more sure as she slides her palm up my chest.
“Daisy.” Her name comes out rough, full of bottled-up tension, bottled because that’s not what I sense she needs.
“Don’t.” She shakes her head, her dark eyes fierce. “Don’t make me think about it right now.”
I understand. The weight of the decision she’s facing, the moral compromise—it’s all too much. And sometimes the only way to quiet the noise in your head is to get lost in something else entirely.
Her lips find mine, urgent and desperate, and I taste the remnants of her internal war. She’s using me as her escape, and I’m more than willing to be used. If that’s what she needs, I’m game.
I shift, pulling her fully against me, the throw falling away as her legs tangle with mine. She makes that soft sound in the back of her throat that drives me crazy, and my hands find the curve of her waist beneath her T-shirt.
“Jake, I need—” She doesn’t finish the sentence, but she doesn’t need to.
I know what she needs. The same thing I need when the weight of keeping her safe feels impossible. The same thing we both need when the world gets too complicated and the lines between right and wrong blur.
Each other.
Her fingers work at my shirt with practiced efficiency, and I let her strip it away, let her map the scars on my chest with reverent touches. When she looks at me like this—like I’m something precious instead of broken—I can almost forget about this mess, about Sterling, about everything except the way she feels in my arms.
“We don’t have to talk,” I murmur against her temple as she presses closer. “Not tonight.”
Relief flickers across her features before desire takes over completely. Tomorrow she’ll have to decide whether to take Sterling’s blood money. Tomorrow we’ll have to figure out if he’s a killer and what that means for her safety.
