Fuck it. Why pretend? She was on to him, anyway. She knew what kind of man he was, ever since he'd taken her to bed. And he liked it that she knew. Twisted and dangerous though that was, he liked it that at least one person on earth had a clue who he was inside.
He settled into the chair and pulled up the vehicle beacon display. The Stone Island boat was finally heading towards Severin Bay. He pulled up the ferry schedule, calculated the length of a ferry ride, then the cab ride. Then he was going to find exactly what part she was playing in this game. He'd never fucked information out of a woman either, but hey, like Connor said—there was a first time for everything.
Chapter 12
Maybe she could keep down chicken soup, if she was lucky, and some stale crackers.
Raine leaned back against the seat of the cab, exhausted. Her body was beginning to protest going so long without food, but a mental inventory of her larder was not inspiring. She didn't have the energy to contemplate shopping, or cooking, or a restaurant. Even the idea of sorting through a pile of take-out menus seemed too much to face.
She had to nurture herself better. She couldn't run on nerves alone. Each day was getting crazier than the last. The loony bin and the padded cell lay at the end of that road.
She wandered through the house once she got home, throwing off her coat and kicking off her shoes as she went. She didn't even bother to flip on the lights. The brief attack of hunger was already passing, and now she felt too tired to eat. She headed for the bedroom. First a shower, to warm her up, then her floppy fleece pajamas, and then—
“Where the fuck have you been?”
She leaped back from the door, cowering against the wall of the corridor. Her heart thudded against her ribs. The eerie blue glow of a laptop screen seeped through the bedroom door.
Seth, of course. Who else. She reached in the door and flipped on the hanging lamp.
The wingback chair he was slouched in looked too fussy and small for his long body. He was all in black like the cat burglar that he was; black jeans, a black sweatshirt, his thick scrub brush of black hair sticking every which way, like he'd been running his hands through it all day. His eyes were shadowed with exhaustion, but they blazed at her with unnerving intensity.
She shook so violently she had to clutch the doorjamb to stay upright. “You scared me practically to death!”
He made a few keystrokes and snapped the laptop shut. He slid it into the bag and glared at her. Not shamefaced in the slightest. As if she were the one in the wrong. The outrageous, presumptuous bastard.
“That settles it” She marched into the room. “The next man who scares me out of my wits jumping out of the dark at me—dies. Fm sick of it. Do you hear me? No excuses, no explanations. I am not speaking figuratively. Do you understand that, Seth?”
He didn't even blink. “Yes.”
“Yes?” Her anger bubbled and fumed. “That's all? Just yes?”
He got to his feet. “Yes, I understand that. Let's move on to what the fuck you've been doing for the past sixteen hours.”
She was so furious, his looming and glowering didn't even intimidate her. “What business is it of yours? You have no right to ask! You have no right to even be here! I should be calling nine-one-one!”
“After yesterday, I have every right.”
The cool conviction in his voice maddened her. She wished she hadn't discarded her shoes. She needed the extra two inches to face him down. “Let me explain something to you, Seth, because we're not communicating very well,” she said. “If I had a boyfriend, I would of course include him in every aspect of my life. I would call him, and e-mail him, and leave cute little text messages on his cell phone. I would keep him informed of where I'm going, when I'm getting back—”
“Yeah. Exactly. That's what I—”
“But I don't have a boyfriend, Seth” she yelled. “I don't have a phone number, I don't have a beeper number. I don't have a clue! What I do have is a problem. A big, nasty-tempered problem who invades my privacy and jumps out of the dark like a horror movie monster! A man who thinks he owns me just because we slept together!”
“For the record, that wasn't just sleeping together.”
“Oh no? What was it, exactly?” she demanded. “Enlighten me, please. Remember, I don't have your vast experience in these matters.”
“It was ... it was more.” He shoved his hand through his hair and shook his head. “It blew my mind. And there was no sleeping involved. In fact, I haven't actually slept since I met you.”
“Oh, please. I'm so flattered! I'm so incredibly hot in bed, you just can't help yourself? Sleep deprivation has driven you so far out of your mind that you feel justified in breaking into my house? What is it with me, Seth? Why does everybody seem to mink that the normal rules of civilized behavior don't apply with me? Have I got a sign on my back that says 'anything goes'? “
His breath hissed through his teeth. “Christ, Raine. I've been sitting here on a bed of nails wondering what that bastard was doing to you, and you're mad because I forgot to give you my phone number?”
She stared at him. “How did you know I was at the island?”
“I called the office! If you'd been there, I would have asked you out to dinner! But you weren't there! You were off at Lazar's fucking private island!”
She sat down on the bed and dug her toes into the thick carpet. “Why would you think that Victor would hurt me?” she asked gently.
“Oh. It's Victor, now, not Mr. Lazar, hmm?”
She brushed his words away with a wave of her hand. “Don't be ridiculous, please. Just answer the question.”
“He handed you over to me yesterday like you were a professional, Raine,” he said hoarsely. “He threw you to the wolves, and he did it for run. For fun. Why not again, if that's how he gets his kicks?”
Her mouth dropped open. He had been worried. Frightened for her. She was so touched that for a moment, she forgot how angry she was. “Victor Lazar did not force me to go to bed with you,” she told him gently. “I had already decided on my own to seduce you, if I could.”
He snorted. “If you could. Hah.”
She lifted her chin. “I went with you because I wanted you. I am not as helpless and stupid as you seem to think. Today, I negotiated contracts for Taiwanese pharmaceuticals, Indonesian teak flooring and textiles, Baltic timber and Norwegian cheese. I also formatted the annual report and typed letters and e-mails to the entire world, in five different languages. It was a very normal working day, Seth. I was not called upon to provide sexual entertainment for Victor or anyone else, so put your mind at ease.”
He opened his mouth, but she held up her hand. “I'm not finished yet. You have to follow the rules. Like knocking on locked doors, for instance. That's not too much to ask. And this jumping out of the dark and scaring me to death, that's a terrible habit. I won't tolerate it.”
“Like a dog pissing on the rug?”
She forced herself not to laugh at his sour expression. “Exactly,” she said. “People should try to follow the basic rules of civilized society. Particularly... lovers.”
The silence in the room was absolute. His gaze bored into her face, as focused as a laser. “Does that mean we're lovers, men?”
This was the moment of truth. She had felt it coming since his visit that morning. It was time to either dive off the cliff into deep, unknown water, or turn and run like hell. She squeezed her eyes shut, head spinning with a tingling rush of vertigo. She opened her eyes and jumped. “I don't know, Seth,” she whispered. “Are we?”