I expected her to argue but she simply nodded, grabbed her toiletry bag, and walked past me to leave the bedroom. She stopped in the threshold and said, “You can’t touch me.” She slammed the door, leaving me alone to stare after her. I could tell by her demeanor that I had fucked up royally last night, and if we ever got past this, I’d be paying for it for a long time.
I took her spot on the edge of the bed and waited until she finished her shower. When she returned, her eyes avoided me as she moved about the room, clutching the towel closely around her. She was hiding herself from me and it pissed me off more than her silence.
“Lake.”
She stiffened before giving me her full attention. “Yes?”
“Why did you go back?”
Chapter Eight
LAKE
“Why did you go back?” I was beginning to expect the unexpected so when he asked me a question that seemed out of the blue, I wasn’t really surprised, but I was confused. “Q said you slipped into the facility through the back entrance. You must have gone back because how else did your signature get on the logs?”
There was murder in his eyes, and I wasn’t sure if the truth would only provoke his bred nature to the surface. “I never left.”
“Explain,” he growled. I felt the single word like an ache in my bones.
“I waited until Q left and then went back.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“It’s what I said, Keiran.” God, I felt so exposed. Without clothes, I was even more vulnerable and he looked ready to either fuck me or murder me.
“What happened?”
“I got spooked. Q… he left a message on the wall that said ‘For John’—in blood.” The veiny throb I’d come to identify as an indicator of Keiran’s breaking point made its first appearance, and I wondered if I’d just made things worse. “I suppose he didn’t tell you.”
He didn’t bother to answer and continued to grill me. “And?”
“I ran down the wrong hallway. A nurse caught me. She knew I hadn’t signed in because I wasn’t wearing a visitor’s pass.”
“Why didn’t you run?”
“With a dead body down the hall? I would have been implicated months ago.” And maybe I would have if it hadn’t been for the company’s lack of foresight on effective filing. Months of logs were missing altogether or stored in the wrong places. If it hadn’t been for the investigation, the issue might never have been brought to light.
“Continue,” he ordered.
“There’s nothing else. I signed in, and when the coast was clear, I left.”
“It never occurred to you that the log would implicate you? That it was all one big fuck-up from the get go?”
“Every day since then, but he’s dead now. That’s all that matters.”
“Until you’re in prison and I—I—” He made a noise that terrified me and then shot up from the bed to pace.
“You what?”
“Forget it. So Quentin killed him, and you’re his accomplice. Where do we go from here, Lake?”
“You’re asking me?”
“You seem to think you’ve got the murder game all figured out. You tell me.”
“I never claimed this would be easy. I never wanted to lie to you, but if you want me to say it, then no, I couldn’t trust you. You’re violent, reckless, and unpredictable.”
I held my breath and waited for the explosion that never came. The only sign that he’d heard was his darkened pupils. Wordlessly, he disappeared only to reappear minutes later.
I was doubly confused when he shed his shirt and reached past me to toss it and grab a bottle I hadn’t noticed he had laid on the bed. I tried to get a better look, but he captured my chin between his fingers and held my head. Time seemed to stretch as he silently studied me. I knew him well enough to know he was challenging me without uttering a single word. I lifted my chin and matched his gaze. I wouldn’t back down. Whatever game he played, I’d play it harder.
“You told me I can’t touch you,” he said slowly.
“My birth control—”
“Kneel.”
“Excuse me?”
Instead of repeating, he anchored his hands around my arms and faced me away from him. He then flattened his hand on my spine and forced me down. I struggled but he restrained me until I couldn’t struggle anymore.
“Shhh. Don’t speak. I can’t control myself if you speak.”
“This is control?”
“No, Lake. This is me taking control.” The towel—my only shield—was peeled away from my body effortlessly. I couldn’t see anything but the sheets trapped under my body. I listened to the sound of his harsh breathing as the smell of his freshly washed skin infiltrated all of my senses.
“Remember what I promised you?”
“You’ll have to be more specific.” I sensed his smile as he ran a hand down my spine to my bare ass. He stopped there and I tensed.
“I told you I would take you here…” he slipped a finger between my legs to tease forbidden areas, “when you were ready.”
“Yes.” Was I consenting or acknowledging his promise? God, I wished I knew, because he slid his knee, forcing my legs wider.
“I can’t wait that long,” he whispered.
Oh, fuck. Did he mean—