“Yes.” She crossed the kitchen to look out the window, although the view was only a brick wall. “You’re too much of a variable, Austin. Always working an angle, looking for a way to manipulate a situation to your advantage. Manipulate me. How do I know you won’t decide to join forces with…with this former acquaintance of yours, and play me instead?”
“I never said he was an acquaintance. I said I knew of him.” Her jerky shoulder roll told him she’d been trying to catch him in a lie. Good. He would expect nothing less. “I assure you, my assistance will leave no doubt as to where my loyalties lie. If you feel different at any point, you can cut me out.”
“Generous of you,” she murmured, drumming her fingers against the side of her thigh. “You have to know accepting help from you won’t be easy for me.”
“Oh, I’ve thought of that.” He spread his hands. “I think of everything, you see. Give me the barest detail of your vendetta against this man and I’ll share how I plan to reward you for trusting me.”
“Reward me?” She threw one of those amazing laughs at the ceiling. “God, I’m going to regret this, but I’m too curious to pass up that undoubted gem.”
A smile threatened at the corners of his mouth, but he contained it. “I’m waiting.”
Polly paced silently a moment. “The man at the club last night.” She brushed her hair back with a trembling hand. “He took away someone very important to me.”
The onslaught of rage took Austin off guard. He didn’t do rage. His keel stayed even, steady, through good times and shit times. But somehow knowing Polly had been wronged by his ex-partner in a truly despicable way made him want to bury his fists into the Sheetrock walls of his flat. Although he suspected it wouldn’t help a whit. Austin took a long, slow breath through his nose, attempting to find purchase before speaking. “Who did he take away? How?”
She shook her head. “You said the barest detail.”
Austin ground his teeth together. “Fine.” He probably shouldn’t go near her while white-hot ire infused his blood—he’d never experienced the feeling before, but suspected it would make him prone to mistakes. Or revealing too much. Even that hint of her pain, however, had brought vulnerability rising to her surface, and it magnetized him. Made him long to ease whatever jagged edges had been left behind by the evil man he’d spent so many years learning from. See if his own rough edges corresponded with hers. They did. He knew they did. “Would you like to hear about your reward now?”
Even his voice sounded unnatural. If her sharp intake of breath was any indication, she’d noticed. Noticed the change he felt taking place in himself. Before he registered the movements of his own feet, Austin was across the kitchen, stopping less than a foot from Polly, soaking in her body heat with greediness he didn’t bother to conceal.
“Y-yes.” She attempted sarcasm, but he didn’t buy it. The awareness in her gaze as it strayed to his mouth gave her away. “I’m dying to hear what you could give me that I’d consider a reward.”
Fuck it all, too many secrets fought for precedence in his brain. Untruths. This one thing, this bloody attraction to her—he couldn’t hold it back anymore. Slow seduction hadn’t worked. She was too headstrong. Too stubborn and cemented in her convictions. Which is why his casting aside of pride momentarily—in the name of greater glory—had to be done. She needed to call the shots? He would let her. Hell, his body had given him every indication that he would even enjoy it immensely.
The only one who saw right through him was Polly. She didn’t let him get away with his transgressions. Didn’t give in to his charm. There was something deliciously tempting about baring his guilt over the past to Polly without admitting it out loud. She felt the need to punish. And he needed to be called to the floor for his actions. Exhilaration followed on the heels of admitting it to himself.
Austin breathed deeply of her citrus scent and closed his eyes. “I’m aware that taking assistance from me will be a hardship for you. Until now, we’ve had an even balance of power, but I tipped the scales in my favor last night by inserting myself into your operation without consent.” He reached out and gripped her right hip, brushing his thumb across the exposed swath of skin above her waistband. When her quickened breathing told Austin she wouldn’t pull away, he tightened his hold and yanked her body against his. “My intent is to balance the scales once again by having a physical relationship with you, Polly.” He sucked his bottom lip through his teeth. “Which is a weak description for wanting to ring your tight, sexy bell so loud they’ll hear it in Russia.”
She didn’t manage to contain a whimper, and he memorized the sound like a covetous bastard. “I don’t…I don’t see how that balances the scales.”
The moment of truth had arrived, and he couldn’t let the opportunity pass now that he’d glimpsed a sliver of clarity. Focusing on her brown eyes a moment, he ignored the innate urge to hide anything that could be considered a flaw—an urge he’d been indulging so damn long—and laid his cards down on the table.