Chapter Thirty-One

Chapter Thirty-One

“Is there a way to find out who sent that message?” I asked as we lay in bed facing each other. We’d gravitated to my room—well, I supposed it was our room now—after we left his office. Once he’d given a very disgruntled Blue a little attention, Dane had joined me in the shower before then slipping into bed with me.

He pursed his lips. “I would imagine that your carrier can tell you the origin carrier of the text message, but if the sender used a VPN or some random computer in a public place, your carrier might not be able to determine their ID. I’ll do what I can to find out who sent you the message.” He twirled a lock of my hair around his finger. “My money’s on Heather.”

I felt my brows dip. I’d personally been leaning toward Travis and Hope, since they’d been so uncharacteristically quiet lately. “Why her?”

“Because I still believe she sent you the flash drive. The pictures were mentioned in the text message. I didn’t tell anyone about them. Did you?”

I shook my head. “No.” I had to keep so many secrets about my marriage that it hadn’t even occurred to me to confide in anyone about this.

“Then whoever sent the flash drive must have also sent the spoofed text.”

“Heather was seriously pissed last night. She’d have wanted to get even, and she’d have been raring to do so. Especially since she’d soon lose her blackmail money.”

Dane nodded. “Then again, Owen was just as furious. It’s possible he’s behind this.”

I frowned. “He was angry at first, sure, but he looked resigned when he left. I think he’ll back down now and let this whole thing go.”

“Hmm.”

“You don’t think so?”

“If someone told me I couldn’t have you, I wouldn’t resign myself to that.”

“Because you’re like a dog with a bone. I suppose it’s possible that he did the spoofing thing out of spite. I mean, his ego would have been smarting after some of the things you said—especially your claim that you’d have lured me from him, like he didn’t have what it took to keep me.”

Dane shrugged, skimming his fingers down my arm to curl them around my hand. “It was only the truth.”

I snorted. “Um, no, it wasn’t. You would not have bothered to lure me from him.”

“Oh, I absolutely would have.” He brought my hand to his mouth and nipped the tip of my finger. “Make no mistake about that.”

“Bullshit. We’re only together now because you dragged me into a fake marriage. If I’d already been married to someone else, you couldn’t have used me as your fake wife, so we would never have gotten to this point. Things would have remained purely professional between us.”

He lightly tapped my nose. “Wrong. I’d have made a move on you eventually whether you were single or not. If you’d been married, I’d have probably already done it by now. Because I would have hated the thought of you belonging to someone else.”

“And you’re so certain I’d have succumbed to your advances?”

“Yes.”

“Arrogant bastard.”

He raked his teeth over my palm. “You wouldn’t have been unfaithful to him—you’re too loyal for that. But you’d have left him and come to me. I would’ve made sure of it. I’ve told you many times before, I always get what I want. I wanted to make my business globally successful. I did. I wanted to purchase a house like this. I did. I wanted to make you my wife. I did.”

“To get your hands on your trust fund,” I pointed out, my stomach clenching when he sucked my finger into his mouth. “You fully intended to divorce me at a later date.”

“Initially, yes, I did. But that changed. I decided to keep you, and I was resolute that I’d find a way to make you want to stay with me. I swore to myself I’d make you mine.” He licked a circle around the pulse point on my wrist. “And I did.”

“But are you truly sure you’ll be happy in a relationship, Dane?” I asked, my voice low and soft. “You’ve been on your own for a long time.”

“I like being alone—it helps me recharge; I don’t think that will ever change. But I don’t prefer it anymore. I don’t prefer it over your company, anyway. Remember the day you went to visit Simon after work without giving me a heads-up? The same day that Heather later turned up here?”

“I remember.” It was the day after he and I had fucked on his kitchen counter.

“Coming home to find that you weren’t here … It was the first time that the house had ever felt empty to me. I’d gotten used to you being here. I hadn’t realized how much I liked having you around until that moment. I knew then that I was in trouble. Especially since I’d lost control and fucked you the night before.”

“You were pretty pissed at me that night.”

“I was pissed at the thought of you leaving o-Verve.” His dark eyes drifted over my face, hot and possessive. “I wanted you the second I first saw you, but I don’t get involved with my employees, as you know. I had the option of firing you so that I’d be free to pursue you, but I knew you’d want nothing to do with a man who cost you your job. Besides, you seemed to be what I needed in a PA.”

“And business always comes first to you.”

“It did. Now you come first. But back then, yes, I put o-Verve before everything else. I normally don’t hire women I’m attracted to, but I told myself it wouldn’t be an issue. It turned out I was wrong. Even so, I kept you as my PA all those years because I liked having you close. I came to think of you as a permanent fixture in my life. One I could trust. One I could rely on. One that never let me down. One that never left when the going got tough.”

I swallowed and bit my lip. I really never would have guessed he felt that way. I would never have even thought that he held me in more regard than he did his other employees. Dane just wasn’t a person who let others matter. They had to somehow make themselves important to him. I hadn’t realized I’d done that.

“It didn’t occur to me that you’d leave o-Verve after the divorce,” he went on. “I fucking hated the thought of you going anywhere. I didn’t want to lose you. Then you started ranting about how no other man would want you if you worked for your ex-husband. I was furious that you’d even want another man touching you. So, yeah, I lost it.”

“And you were determined that there wouldn’t be a repeat of that. But then New York happened.”

“When I walked into your hotel room and found you standing in your underwear, all I wanted to do was toss you on the bed and thrust deep inside you.” He breezed his thumb over a tiny scar on the heel of my hand. “For me, sex was always just sex. Uncomplicated. Basic. Physical. Easy to resist. It never meant anything. It was just a release valve. But there was nothing uncomplicated about being inside you. It was … different. Better. So intense it was addictive. It meant something, because you mean something to me. And I knew if I took you again, I’d keep you.

“I wrestled with myself over it all day. I told myself I didn’t want a real wife; that I didn’t want the same things out of life that you did; that I was better off alone. But then you said something that sealed your fate.”

I felt my brow furrow. “I did? What?”

“A woman at the conference asked you if you’d imagined when you first started working for me that we’d get married one day. You said, no, you hadn’t seen it coming; that you never thought you’d ever get involved with your boss but that some things were just inevitable and fighting them was plain pointless.”

I swallowed, touched that he remembered; that my words had affected him.

“Of course, I knew you were giving her what you thought would be a typical answer, but I also knew you were right. I knew that even if I resisted you that night, I’d take you again eventually. I didn’t have it in me to keep on fighting it, just as I didn’t have it in me to let you go when the time came. So I figured it was senseless to resist you anymore.”

The guy really was a master at hiding his emotions, because I hadn’t sensed any such struggle going on inside him. “That night in New York was stellar, so I’m glad you gave in.”

His mouth curved. “Stellar?”

“Yep. I really wanted to hurt you when you wouldn’t just let me come, though. But that’s a regular thing.”

“You come harder when I make you wait.”

Yeah, I totally did. “Even so, I’d rather not wait. Or stay quiet—that was hard.”

“It was meant to be. You were going to walk out on me.” His gaze darkened and pinned mine. “You’re lucky I’m not into doling out pain or you’d have received the spanking of your fucking life.”

“In my defense, I thought you wanted a divorce.”

“You should have known better.”

“What was I supposed to think when I saw divorce papers on your desk?”

“I wouldn’t have expected you to assume they were a gesture. But you should have at least been confused. You shouldn’t have automatically thought I wanted you gone.”

“Let me reiterate that I didn’t know you cared for me.”

“You didn’t suspect it?”

I twisted my mouth. “Okay, I thought you might care for me a little. But I also think you care a little for the koi fish in your pond.”

Dane sighed. “Yeah, I hold you in the same regard as I do my fish,” he said, dryly. He grabbed me by my nape and tugged me closer. “Kiss me before any more stupid shit comes out of your mouth.”

I frowned. “Hey, that was—”

“I said, kiss me.”

I sniffed. “Maybe I don’t want to.”

“I don’t care. Kiss me.”

“You don’t care?”

“No.” He bit my lower lip. “Give me what I want.”

“I’m not in the mood to—”

He took my mouth, tangling his tongue with mine, sweeping away any further objections I might have made.

I melted into him with a soft moan and slid my hands up his solid chest. Mine. He was really mine now. I still hadn’t quite wrapped my head around it. I felt a little dizzy from all the little revelations he’d thrown my way.

Feeling pressure on my feet, I looked down to see Blue trying to wedge herself between my legs and his. I shuffled backwards slightly to give her some room. Tail up, she slinked her way between our bodies and rubbed the side of her neck over his chest.

I sucked in my lips to stifle a smile. “I think she’s jealous that you’re giving me attention.”

Blue plonked her small furry self between us and curled up in a ball.

His mouth tightened. “She’s not sleeping with us. If we let her do it once, she’ll try doing it every night.” He edged out of bed and picked up the cat. “Don’t meow at me,” he told her, heading for the closet. “You’ve got your own bed. Use it.”

I heard him whispering something to her as he disappeared into the closet. I would bet my life he was nuzzling her and apologizing for moving her.

He returned to the bed with a sigh and sank his head into the pillow. “That damn cat’s a pain in my ass. She’s settled now. She’ll stay in there.”

“Hmm.” I decided not to tell him that she’d just sprang onto the bed behind him. He’d find out as soon as she started scent-marking—

He flinched. “The fuck?” He looked behind him and let out a low growl … to which she started licking his face. His nostrils flared. “It’s not funny, Vienna.”

“I’m not laughing.”

“You are. Just not out loud.”

And knowing I shouldn’t only made it harder to stop. “She just wants to snuggle her hero.”

“I don’t snuggle.”

“You snuggle me.”

“I’m a man. Men don’t snuggle.” Exhaling heavily, he rose from the bed, scooped her up, and disappeared into the closet again, lecturing her the entire time as if she could understand every word.

I rolled over and checked I’d put my phone on silent mode. The mattress dipped behind me as Dane returned and spooned me. I might have pointed out that he was pretty much snuggling me, but then he would have moved. Plus, I wasn’t sure it counted, since he was cupping my breast.

Blue leapt onto the bed in front of me and tilted her head.

I felt my mouth quirk. “Um, Dane? We have company. Again.”

“Tell me you’re kidding.” He lifted his head and cursed. “We’re just going to have to shut her in the closet, because I’m not doing this dance with her all night long. Do you get me, cat? You’re not staying in here.”

Blue sat back, hiked up one leg, and began licking her ass hole.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.”