Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 99191 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 496(@200wpm)___ 397(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99191 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 496(@200wpm)___ 397(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
She shivered a little and wrapped her legs around his waist, holding him to her. “If that’s your argument against underwear, I think I might be convinced.”
He chuckled against her skin. “I’ll keep that in mind next time I want to persuade you to see things my way.”
Then just like that, his desire disappeared. I didn’t tell her. He hadn’t meant to keep his meeting with Romanov and Halloran a secret, but he’d been busy putting things into place and…
No, that was bullshit.
He knew Charlie wouldn’t like it that they were working with the enemy, even if it was to bring down the person responsible for almost killing his sisters and her. She was in this game for Romanov, and if she wouldn’t even have agreed to date him without that in the picture, he didn’t like his chances of explaining the situation without her reacting poorly.
“What? What aren’t you telling me?”
He realized he’d gone tense and cursed himself for not watching his reactions. If he told her it was nothing, he’d be lying to her, and that wasn’t something he wanted to do. It wasn’t something he could do if he wanted to earn a place in her life. Fuck.
Aiden pressed a kiss to her neck and backed up. He couldn’t break the news to her while he was still inside her.
They dressed in silence, and the nervous looks she kept shooting him only made him feel guiltier. There was no fighting it. He’d fucked up, even if he hadn’t had a choice in the matter. I should have talked to her the second the plan changed. He could pretend that the reason he’d left her out of the loop was because he wasn’t used to having to answer to another person, but it was bullshit. “I need you to hear me out before you react. Can you promise me that?”
“What the hell kind of question is that? If you’re asking in the first place, you know damn well that I can’t promise that.”
Yeah, he did. There was no backing out now, though. So he sat down and explained the situation, trying like hell not to notice the way her face fell as the story came out.
I fucked up. I fucked up big time.
* * *
“Let me see if I’ve got this straight.” Charlie was so angry, she could barely get the words out. What he’d just told her…“You contacted me because you wanted Dmitri Romanov. That is the only reason I agreed to this.” But now, if Keira and Aiden were to be believed, Romanov was partially responsible for saving her life. That was fine. He could play the savior. That didn’t erase what he’d done to rip her life apart, piece by piece.
She paced, the deck not nearly large enough to work off her growing rage. “Now you’re working with him. Not pretending to be his ally while scheming behind his back, but actually working with him.”
“Temporarily.”
“You can say that all you want, but the more you work with him, the harder it’s going to be to finish this.”
The look of regret on his face made her stomach drop. “There might be no removing him after this.”
“Excuse me?” That was the only reason she’d agreed to this, and now he was reneging on the deal?
“The Eldridges are worse than I’d anticipated—and I anticipated them being complete monsters. Romanov is bad. There’s no question about that. But he’s also a known quantity. If he’s gone, it paves the way for another power player like Alethea Eldridge, or worse. I can’t allow that.”
Rationally, she understood Aiden’s logic, but if she’d been operating on rational, she wouldn’t have agreed to this charade in the first place. She turned and nearly ran into him. She danced back a step. “Just…give me space for a few minutes.” For longer than a few minutes.
Good sex didn’t negate this withholding of information any more than Dmitri Romanov being not a total monster to Keira negated all the bad things he’d done.
Was still doing.
“You’re talking about murder, Aiden.” Murdering Mae Eldridge because she was responsible for the drive-by. “I should have never come here. If Mae didn’t think I was your fiancée—”
“You aren’t the cause of this. If she wanted to kill you and you alone, she wouldn’t have done it like that. She knew Keira was there, and so she wanted to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.” Aiden shook his head. “This isn’t about me, and it’s not about you. It’s a political hit aimed at both the O’Malleys and Romanov.”
That was just it. Charlie didn’t know if she could live in a place—with a man—who got into bed with enemies to take out other enemies. She’d allowed herself to forget, to focus on the good that they were doing and ignore all the rest. To ignore the truth. The law had no place here, and she was mostly convinced that she had no place here. “I can’t do this.”