by Cynthia Eden
“You thought I was blackmailing you.”
Uh, yes.
“You thought I recorded us fucking a year ago, and that I had the video—that I was going to show that film to the world so that I could get a dig at your bastard of a brother and your father?”
Cat nodded. She also forced herself to release his hand and to slide back—as far back as she could go because the man’s fury was palpable.
Her shoulders hit the leather seat behind her.
Jason didn’t move. “I didn’t record us.”
“Someone did,” she whispered right back. Why, why had that video surfaced after a whole year?
“And if I had recorded us,” Jason continued, as if he hadn’t even heard her, but Cat knew that he had, “I damn sure wouldn’t ever let anyone else watch it. You were for me, Cat. Only me.” His voice roughened. “You still are.”
Wait, had he seriously just said that? His voice had been little more than a growl so Cat wasn’t sure. Her fingers slid toward the door near her left-side. “Okay, so there seems to have been a…um, misunderstanding here.”
“You went to the Playhouse to meet me.”
“Yes.”
“You went to a sex club to meet me.”
She’d just said as much. Her eyes narrowed on him. She wished there was more light back there! “I went because I thought you were blackmailing me! It wasn’t like I was going there to—to have sex with you!”
“If you were going in a sex club, love, then you were certainly going to get fucked.”
Was the car slowing? She couldn’t tell for sure. Maybe. “Tell your driver to stop. I want out.”
He stretched out his legs and seemed to cage her in even more. “What did you plan? That you’d offer me sex in exchange for not releasing the video?”
This was way out of control. “The video has you in it, too! You need to be worried! You can’t want the world to see—”
“To see me taking you?” She thought he shrugged. “I don’t want people seeing you, but knowing that you’re mine…that’s a secret I’ve kept too long. Maybe it’s time everyone learned that truth.”
“Stop it,” she snapped at him, pushed too far. He acted as if what she’d revealed didn’t matter. She’d been terrified when the video first appeared, and now that she knew Jason wasn’t behind the blackmail…how am I going to stop that video from being released? It could be all over the Internet by morning.
Jason would just get hyped more. The Bad Boy of Britain would have struck again. She’d get slammed and labeled as the sister who’d slept with the enemy.
Silence filled the vehicle. It stretched as more miles passed. That silence was wrecking her nerves. “Let me out of the car, now,” Cat ordered him. She tried to sound imperious and not scared, but she was pretty sure she sucked at that attempt. “I have to go back! If I don’t show up tonight, he will put that video up.”
The car was finally slowing. Yes! She lunged for the door handle. Jason just tossed out his hand, a move that was lightning fast, and his fingers curled around her wrist. “You’re not getting away again.”
She had to get away. “It’s my life we’re talking about! Someone back there—someone wants to destroy that life.”
His hold tightened on her. “I won’t let that happen.”
Laughter broke from her then. Wild, angry. “Right…as if you weren’t the one who tried to destroy me the last time I was in Vegas.” There was a reason she’d stay away for so long. That reason was currently rubbing the inside of her wrist with his callused fingertips.
The limo stopped.
“Let me go,” Cat said. She knew the words sounded like a plea. What did he want? For her to beg?
Very slowly, his fingers unfurled from around her wrist. She hesitated. Cat had actually thought that would be so much harder. But, right…he’s done with me. I’m done with him. Her chin lifted and she shoved open the door. Her sneakered heel hit the pavement and—
Cameras flashed all around her. Voices shouted.
Her jaw dropped. The limo had stopped right in front of a long, red carpet that led into the Archer’s Arrow Casino. A huge crowd of reporters surrounded that carpet and they were all taking pictures of her.
She wasn’t as recognizable as her brother—Cameron was usually in nearly as many tabloids as Jason—but—
Jason slid out behind her. He put his arm around her waist and he turned her toward him.
“What is happening?” Cat demanded, but suddenly, his tux made sense. A terrible, horrific sense.
“My new restaurant opened tonight,” he told her, golden eyes gleaming as more cameras captured their image. “Thanks for helping me celebrate, love.”
Then his lips took hers. He kissed her right there, on that red carpet, in front of the reporters and the crowd, and Cat realized that it didn’t matter if the video of her and Jason leaked out.
Jason August was staking a claim on her right then. Right there. Kissing her for the world to see.
By dawn, they’d be the ones in the gossip pages.
By dawn, her brother would know about her relationship with Jason. Her father would know.
Cat shoved her hands against his chest. The guy was freaking unmovable. He just kept kissing her, and she would not let her toes curl. Slowly, slowly, his head lifted. “Too long,” Jason whispered.
She shook her head. “Why?” Didn’t he realize what he’d just done to her?
“You can thank me later,” Jason told her and the guy flashed her a wink. He kept her hand in his and turned toward the crowd with a smile on his too-handsome face. After a few more photos, he started guiding her along that red carpet. She caught sight of a TV star sliding out of another limo just a few feet behind them.
This couldn’t be happening.
But, oh, hell, it was.
The secret she’d tried so hard to keep for the last year was about to rip her world apart.
Chapter Two
Jason waved to the crowd that had gathered in front of his restaurant. It was a gala evening for the rich and powerful…so many had turned out for the opening event, just as his publicist had predicted.
And even though he’d been planning this moment for months, Jason sure as hell wanted to be someplace else right then. If the restaurant hadn’t been opening in his good friend Drake Archer’s casino…I’d damn well be elsewhere.
Cat was beside him. Furious. Glaring. Gorgeous. She’d tried to slip away again and again as they made their way through the crowd, but he’d just tightened his hold on her wrist. He’d gone a whole year without her at his side. A year. Did the woman actually think he’d just let her slip away once more?
“Thank you all for coming out tonight,” Jason said and all eyes shifted to him as he stood in the middle of the restaurant. “Enjoy the food, enjoy the champagne, and be sure to spend one hell of a lot of money before you head out!”
Laughter greeted his announcement. He lifted the flute of champagne he held in his right hand, kept his left firmly around Cat’s delicate wrist, and saluted the crowd.
Drake Archer stood in the back, with his arm curled around the shoulders of a lovely redhead. Drake lifted his champagne flute, as did the others, and Drake inclined his head toward Jason.
There, old friend. Now my debt to you is paid in full.
Because Drake Archer wasn’t some simple businessman. The world was wrong on that score. Drake had secrets—dark and dangerous secrets—secrets that Jason shared.
Jason downed his champagne in a quick gulp. He’d almost missed this opening for her. But some things couldn’t be helped.
He shoved the empty flute onto a waiter’s tray. Then he focused on what mattered. Cat. “You’re supposed to drink after a toast,” he admonished her softly. “You know it’s considered good luck.”
Her eyes were slits of blue fury. Beautiful, bright blue. Only Cat had eyes that shade of blue. “I’m not in the mood to give you luck.” Her voice was a low snarl.
He lea
ned toward her. Her scent, light strawberries, wrapped around him. Oh, but he did enjoy strawberries and champagne. His lips brushed against the shell of her ear as he whispered, “Love, you just helped me celebrate the launch of my newest restaurant. Everyone saw you, standing right here with me. Don’t you think it’s a little late to get angry now?”
Her slender body was tight with tension. He could help her to ease that tension. He leaned back a bit so he could see her gaze once more.
“I’m not your ‘love’, Jason. Never have been.” She lifted her champagne and tossed it right in his face.
He blinked at her. Never know what to expect with that woman.
The champagne dripped down his face and onto his tux.
Voices died away as others realized what had just happened to him.
“I did enjoy the champagne, though, and I hope you did, too.” Her voice was high, carrying easily to the folks who were now staring at her in shock.
Did the woman even realize that she’d just given them all the best restaurant opening ever?
Gossip was gold in this business…particularly, in that city.
He licked at the champagne that slid over his lips, and Jason wanted to be licking her.
“Let me go,” Cat told him as she rose onto her toes and pressed her body close to his. “Or I will give you a scene so big that you won’t ever forget it.”
Oh, now that sounded interesting. He’d always loved the fire he saw just beneath her skin. Everyone else mistakenly thought Cat was the controlled Donnelly sibling. Her brother Cameron was supposed to be the renegade. Jason knew the truth. “Dare you,” he taunted.
Her lips parted and—
He kissed her again. Ah, there it was. The strawberries to go with his champagne. His whole body ached for her as he locked his arms around her and held tight. Let her go?
Never.
He made a habit of not repeating mistakes from his past.
Cat’s leg moved then, shifting a bit against his. Unless he missed his guess, she was about to knee him in the groin.
Love that fire. But, since he had other plans for that particular part of his anatomy, Jason let her go.
She sent him another blue-flamed glare, then Cat spun on her sneakered heel.
The crowd erupted into cheers, as if he and Cat had just choreographed that little scene. Jason ignored all those people. He’d done his part for them. Now it was time for what he wanted and needed.
So he stalked after Cat. Folks appeared in his path, slapping him on the back and congratulating him. One even gave him a napkin to help dry the champagne.
Jason barely slowed as he kept his eyes on his prize.
Cat had just cleared the entrance to the restaurant. Did she think that she’d be able to vanish into the casino? Not happening. His business was done, so that meant they could leave, together.
Only Cat didn’t seem to be in the mood to wait for him. Pity. He mopped away the champagne and followed her into the brightly lit casino.
Cat stood out from the other women. And it wasn’t because she was wearing jeans while most of the women in Archer’s Arrow wore glittering gowns or too-short dresses. Her dark hair slid over her shoulders, and when she glanced back—no doubt, to see if she’d ditched him—he saw the perfect curves of her face.
Cat wasn’t classically beautiful. She was so much more than that. Her face was made of glass-sharp cheekbones, full, sensual lips, and bedroom eyes. The woman was sexy. Sultry.
And scared.
I hate her fear.
“Cat!” He called out to her because the game needed to end.
She just increased her speed. She started running for the casino’s main door.
Running was a mistake, of course, because that would just get her caught by the security guards in five, four, three—
They have her.
He’d expected that outcome. It was the only reason he’d let her slip away…because he’d been so certain there was no escape for her.
“Gentlemen,” he closed in on the group of guards—and Cat. “Sorry for the trouble. My date and I are leaving now.”
Cat’s shoulders stiffened. “This is truly the night from hell,” he heard her mutter.
His lips twitched.
The guards recognized him and they backed off. Well, most of them backed off. One guy hesitated. “She was running like she stole something…”
“No, she was just eager to get home with me. Right, love?” Her cheeks were such a lovely shade of red. Gorgeous.
He didn’t take her wrist again. He offered his arm instead. And he waited.
“Why are you doing this?” Cat demanded, her voice low and rough. “Do you enjoy humiliating me?”
Never.
The guards were gone. They’d finally all backed away.
Jason cleared his throat and tried to proceed semi-delicately. For her. “Despite the fact that you…ah…shared your champagne with me, the world now thinks that you and I are a couple. We came together, we’ll leave together. And if we look happy when we leave…” He kept his offered arm up. “Then the Press will say we are just passionate lovers.”
She swallowed and glanced away from him.
“This way,” Jason continued because he didn’t like the look of pain and embarrassment on her face. He never wanted her to hurt at all. “This way, if any sex video does leak, it won’t be news. It will just be a video of two lovers—and any power that the blackmailer had over you will be gone.” He’d just taken that power away by announcing their “relationship” to the world.
But Cat still hesitated. “What about my family? The business?”
He locked his jaw. “This isn’t about them. I’m protecting you.” As far as he was concerned, her brother could go and—
She took his offered arm. Her fingers curled lightly around him. “Please get me out of here. I need this night to end.”
He’d get her out, but the night was only beginning.
He turned away so that Cat wouldn’t see his smile.
Oh, the plans he had for them…
For her…
***
When the limo pulled away from the curve in front of Archer’s Arrow, the man on the motorcycle revved the engine and shot out of the shadows.
Catherine Donnelly and Jason August.
He’d given that bitch instructions. She’d been told exactly what to do that night.
And going out on the town with Jason Asshole August sure hadn’t been on the agenda.
Did she think she held the power? That she could screw him over? He’d destroy her life. Break her.
Then she’d learn.
She had no loyalties. No morals. She was as bad as the rest of August’s groupies. No, she was worse. A whore who’d sold out her own family for a fuck.
The limo was cutting through the town. She was in the back of that limo, with August.
Screwing him again?
He’d offered to keep quiet. He’d been willing to make the past vanish, but Cat—she’d lied. Tricked him.
There would be no more deals for Cat.
There would only be punishment.
She’d pay. So would August.
Then he’d be the one with the power. He’d be the one with everything.
I know all the secrets. And I will use them to rip your world apart.
***
Jason took Cat back to her hotel room. She’d expected him to drop her off in the hotel’s lobby, but no, the man rode up the elevator with her and was a silent shadow as she headed to her room on the sixth floor.
She should talk to him. Say something. But Cat had found herself tongue-tied ever since they’d left Archer’s Arrow.
Did all of that really happen? She felt as if she were stuck in a really bad, unwakeable nightmare. I threw champagne at him…in front of a roomful of the Vegas elite.
Her fingers curled around the keycard. “I, um—” Cat broke off, not really sure how to proceed. Mostly because she didn’t even know wh
y he was still there.
“I want to see the video.”
Her eyes widened. “Why?”
“To make sure it’s real.”
Her heart raced at that. “You think I’m lying?” Now that was just insulting. It wasn’t as if she’d ever been the one to lie in their rather twisted relationship.
“I think a blackmailer sent you a video, and now I want to see if it’s a doctored video or the real deal.”
Oh, so he didn’t think she’d been lying. She fumbled a bit and managed to get the door open. He followed her inside, then shut the door with a soft click. The guy immediately made the hotel room feel a hundred times smaller.
She did not look at the bed as she hurried toward the desk and booted up her laptop. Cat was far too conscious of Jason’s presence behind her. Her shoulders were stiff with tension as she typed in her email password.
“You should have called me,” Jason murmured as he closed in behind her. “As soon as you got the email.”
“I thought you were the one sending it, remember?”
“All the more reason to call me.”
She’d been afraid of calling him. Mostly, she was afraid of him. Did he realize that?
The file was open. “There,” she said. Cat didn’t intend to click play. He could do that part and—
He did. He stretched over her and his finger tapped on the keyboard. Their image filled the screen. In that video, he was leaning over her on the bed. Her nails dug into his back. His mouth went to her throat as she arched up against him and her bare thighs curled over his jean-clad hips—
The image faded to black.
“It’s real,” Cat said. She knew it with one hundred percent certainty because she could still remember how she’d felt when he put her on that bed. When her thighs had been trembling and she’d tried to clasp him. When he’d bit her lightly on the neck and her nails had sunk into his skin.
“Bastard,” Jason snarled.
She swallowed. “That bastard was waiting on me tonight.” She slipped away from the laptop and put some much needed distance between herself and Jason. Cat had to ask, “How did you even know I was at the Playhouse?”
