‘Goodbye.’ Miller tosses his phone onto the table without care or attention and places his arm around me.
‘William knows,’ I mumble into his neck, only just comprehending the last few moments’ conversation. ‘He knows what’s in that footage?’
‘I guess he suspected. Charlie has only confirmed it. There have always been rumours about a night at the Temple that resulted in the death of a man by my hand, but that’s all it was. No one knew the circumstances and no one knew if it was true. It’s like the best-kept secret of the London underworld.’
Miller wrestles with me a little, encouraging me away from him. We’ve been stuck together so hard and for so long, it feels like he’s ripping a plaster slowly off my naked skin. I hiss a little, then grumble my protest, but he just smiles fondly. I have no idea what there is to smile about. Reaching up timidly, he gently strokes across my forehead, moving into my hair, pulling it away from my face. ‘I’m amazed you’ve still not turned to dust, sweet girl.’
I smile a little, searching his face. ‘I’m amazed you’re resting your naked bum on your dinner table.’
He reins in his smile, trying to scowl. ‘My table couldn’t be any more polluted than it already is, thanks to my beautiful girlfriend.’ He stops and seems to consider something for a moment. ‘Are you still my girlfriend?’
Albeit insanely inappropriate, I can’t help smiling brightly at my beautiful love. ‘Are you still my boyfriend?’
‘No.’ He shakes his head and takes my hands, bringing them to his mouth and kissing each of my rings and my knuckles in between. ‘I’m your slave, sweet girl. I live and breathe for no other purpose but you.’
I pout as I look down at his waves, his lush lips making side-to-side brushing motions over the tops of my hands. I don’t like the word slave. Especially following what I’ve just witnessed. ‘I prefer boyfriend. Or lover.’ Anything but slave.
‘As you wish.’
‘I do.’
He forces his face up to mine and gets nose to nose with me, searching my eyes. I feel like he’s feeding off the light he claims to find in them. ‘I’d do anything for you,’ he whispers. ‘Anything.’
I nod, feeling my irises burning from his concentrated gaze. ‘I know.’ He’s proven that. ‘But you can’t go to prison.’ He can’t fight for his freedom and then get locked up. It would be insane to consider that as a potential out. Seeing him once a week for . . . however long it might be won’t be enough.
‘I couldn’t survive a day without losing myself in you, Olivia Taylor. It’s not an option.’
Relief makes me dizzy. ‘So what now?’
He cuddles me fiercely before roughly releasing me and wiping at his cheeks. His face takes on an edge of determination, and when I should expect this to settle me, I find it unnerves me. ‘I need you to listen to me carefully.’ His palms rest on my shoulders, holding me in place. My heartbeat quickens. ‘Charlie thinks he has me cornered. He thinks I’m going on that date and trusting he’ll hold his end of the deal. And just in case you have any doubt racing through that mind of yours, he would never have upheld his end of the bargain.’ He taps my temple gently, giving me high brows.
I don’t like where this is heading. Miller looks too determined, and I can see with clarity him trying to inject me with some, too. I’m not sure he can. ‘What are you telling me?’
‘I’m telling you that I’m going to the Temple. I’ve accepted Charlie’s out, and—’
‘No! I hate to think of you with her.’ I know that’s the least of our problems at the moment, but possessiveness is getting stronger by the second. I can’t control it.
‘Shhhh,’ he hushes me abruptly, placing a finger over my lips. ‘I thought I told you to listen carefully.’
‘I am!’ I’m going to lose my mind. ‘And I don’t like what I’m hearing!’
‘Olivia, please.’ He takes my shoulders and shakes me a little. ‘I need to go on that date. It’s the only way I’ll get into the Temple and close to Charlie. I won’t be touching that woman.’
Close to Charlie. I withdraw, wide-eyed. ‘You really are going to kill him, aren’t you?’ I don’t know why I’m asking. He’s told William. I heard it with my own ears, but maybe I thought I’d wake up. This is the longest nightmare ever.
‘I need you to be strong for me, Olivia.’ His grip increases, almost to the point of pain. He pushes his lips to my forehead and breathes in deeply. ‘Trust me.’
Seeing the pleading in Miller’s eyes jars something within me, and then the flashbacks from the repulsive footage replay over in my mind. It only takes a second for me to recall the overwhelming need I felt to see Miller hurt that man. To know justice had been done. I want this to be over. I want Miller to be mine now. And then Miller’s words. They make perfect sense now.