“Reitman? What’s the connection…” Polly stiffened, no longer meeting his eyes. This was it. This was when she bolted for the door, cursing him to hell. The masochist she’d stirred to life inside him shouted at her to do it! Just so it would be over and he wouldn’t feel the awful anticipation of watching her disappear down the hotel corridor. “Don’t say it out loud,” she whispered. “I know what the connection is, but don’t say it out loud.”
“All right,” Austin said, not understanding her reasoning, but trusting it. And Christ, he was too relieved at her remaining within his reach to question a bloody damn thing. “But there’s more, Polly. I retaliated.” Austin removed the single surveillance photograph of Reitman, wherein he appeared to be looking straight at the camera. Straight at Austin. Reminding Austin of exactly how he’d retaliated, violating one of the oldest rules in any book. He’d involved the man’s family, something he couldn’t explain to Polly yet. Not when they were on such shaky ground already. “Suffice it to say, I didn’t let Reitman get away with what he did, and he obviously hasn’t forgotten.”
“Dammit, Austin.” Polly pressed two fingers to her forehead. “If Derek hadn’t brought this case to us this morning, would you ever have told me?”
“No.”
She laughed without humor, before lapsing into silence. Thinking. Austin gave her the quiet, even though his nature argued that he keeping talking, pushing, convincing. “So, it’s not just me chasing Reitman anymore,” she finally said, her voice sounding dreamlike. Far off. She stood, close enough that his hands itched to reach out, pull her into his body to absorb the warmth she represented. “It’s both of us.”
Austin nodded, the beginnings of hope stirring in his chest. “You still want to work with me on this?” Not that he’d been about to give her a choice, but it would be much easier if she was aware of his presence on her side.
“I’d be stupid to turn down your help.” She appeared at a loss for what to do with her hands, lining up the edges of the pictures and replacing them in the folder. Nervous. And why wouldn’t she be after the story he’d told? The past he’d revealed? “Any way I can succeed in accomplishing why I came to Chicago, I’ll do it. Reitman pays for what he did to my family—that’s the end game. You have just as much at stake as I do now. Maybe more. So you stay in the picture.”
If that was how she chose to reason it out, Austin would take it. He’d take whatever she gave him, if only she didn’t shut him out. “Reitman will be at a charity dinner Saturday night.” He grabbed hold of her momentary flash of pleasure at the news. “That gives us some time to plan.”
Polly narrowed her eyes. “You already have a plan, don’t you?”
“The beginnings of one,” Austin admitted. “Charles—Reitman, that is, is likely playing the scorned investor with Isobel, both of them having been taken for a ride by yours truly. However he plans to lure her into another investment, we need to distract him with a better score.”
“How does that get my father’s money back?”
“I’m working on that bit. Magic isn’t always instantaneous.” He took a chance by stepping closer, giving her the half smile that usually had a woman’s panties dropping to her ankles. “Sometimes it’s slow and…thorough.”
She barely spared him a glance, skirting him toward the door, obviously intent on leaving. “Call me when you have something. In the meantime, I’ll be—”
Austin beat her to the door, wrapping an arm around her waist to tug her back against him. “Stay, Polly. You want to stay.”
“No, I don’t.” Her tone resonated with frustration she’d obviously been trying to hide. “Working together is one thing, but I can’t…be with you now. Not knowing what I know.” Her breasts heaved just above his forearm. “Jesus, Austin. You spent years with the man who robbed my parents of their life.”
He released a warm breath against the back of her neck, satisfied when goose bumps formed in its wake. “When we’re in this room, we forget what happens outside and do only what we understand. That’s what we decided yesterday.”
“Then you shouldn’t have told me you were…his ex-partner in this room.”
“I told you in this room on purpose.” He nudged aside her T-shirt with his lips and laid an openmouthed kiss on her shoulder. “This is where we’re honest with each other. About everything.”
He raked his teeth over her ear, earning him a shudder, but still her muscles remained stiff. She slapped a hand onto the door handle, but didn’t turn it. “What you told me? It’s all I’ll think about now.”
“No. I won’t let you think.” He flattened his palm against her belly, pressing down just enough to force a whimper out of her. “I brought you a gift this morning, too. I just didn’t think you’d appreciate me giving it to you in front of everyone.”
Austin knew beyond a shadow she hated asking, but her inquisitive nature got the better of her, thank God. “What is it?”
His knees almost dipping under the weight of victory, Austin removed the silk rope from his pocket and slipped it into her hand. “Make me suffer, sweet.”
Chapter Thirteen