“She claimed to love me, said she was interested in my career, concerned about my well-being. Even encouraged me to see a grief counselor about my mother. But the moment the counselor cautioned me about jumping into a relationship so soon after Mom’s death, she found a way to shut that down. Told me the counselor was against us. And stupid-ass me believed her. Fuck.” He loosed a harsh bark of laughter. “I was so goddamn dumb and needy.”
“Stop it.” For the first time since he started relaying his story, she spoke, scooting closer and grabbing his hand in both of hers. He turned from the window, dipping his head to stare down at their clasped hands. “The fact that you recognized you needed a counselor is brave. You actually going? Even braver. That she manipulated you into stopping, using your trust and love to further her own agenda, is her shame, not yours. So don’t you dare take that on you.”
He lifted his gaze to hers. He didn’t nod, but he didn’t refute her, either. Mycah took that as a win.
“We were together a year and a half, although that was a year too long. In that time, I never met her family, although she promised I would, I just needed to be patient. She did take me around her friends, though. Bought me new clothes, dressed me up, trotted me out to the clubs, bars, parties. Though she said she cared about my career, if my work interfered with her social events, she resented it. Even tried to sabotage it by calling my supervisor and insisting I be placed on less demanding projects, and expecting to be obeyed since she was an investor. See, she believed her money and pedigree would solve any problem or situation. Including me. Because I was her toy to play with, dress up, bend and, when the time came, to put on the shelf.”
“Achilles.” Part of her didn’t want him to finish. But again, not about her. Not about the hole he ripped in her chest with each word. So she didn’t say anything else. Just continued to hold his hand.
“I finally ended it, but not because I woke up or got fed up. Only because a coworker who knew we were dating took pity on me and emailed me the engagement announcement in the Tacoma society pages. Her engagement announcement to the heir of a financial empire.” His mouth twisted into a sardonic caricature of a smile. “When I confronted her about it, she waved it off. As if her upcoming marriage meant nothing. Because to her, it didn’t. She expected me to remain her fucking side piece. As I’d been all along, I just hadn’t known it. And she actually appeared shocked when I told her hell no. Seems no one had told her that before.”
He sighed, pinched the bridge of his nose, then tunneled his fingers through his hair, dragging the strands back from his face.
“I grew up in the roughest parts of Seattle, considered myself street-smart. I’d been through—” something hard...haunted flickered in his eyes “—some shit. But the first time a beautiful woman other than my mother showed me compassion, attention, I lost myself. I became someone I didn’t recognize. And I’ve never forgiven myself for it. I don’t know if I can. Because if I do, I’ll forget and I’ll do it again. I can never go back to that place. Ever.”
The vow came out impassioned, almost furious. But that fury was reserved for himself, the man who’d fallen for a woman who had betrayed him.
Mycah understood that kind of betrayal. The path of it might be different, but that pain? Oh, she was very familiar.
And it could break a person’s spirit. Their belief and trust in other people. In themselves.
“What was her name?” she asked.
He studied her for a moment, head cocked to the side. “Yvette. Why?”
“They say if you give the devil a name and say it aloud, he—or she—no longer has power over you.”
He snorted softly. “That’s what they say, huh?” He shook his head, a faint smile lifting the corner of his mouth before disappearing. “Yvette.” He said her name again, lower this time, and if she hadn’t been so tuned in to him, she might not have caught it. He hiked his chin at her. “What’s the name of your devil, Mycah?”
A spark of panic flared in her chest. Oh, God, where did she start? Easy. She didn’t. Because she was afraid if she did, she wouldn’t be able to stop.
“I don’t have any.”
“Liar,” he murmured, calling her out.
His arm shot out, curling around her waist, hauling her across his thighs. He arranged her so she straddled him, and she moaned, her sex notching against his rapidly hardening cock. But before she had time to roll her hips and get ready for round—what, three or four?—he cradled her face between his hands and tipped her head down so she had no choice but to meet his unwavering scrutiny.
“You, Mycah Hill,” he said, sweeping his thumb over her cheekbone, “are a liar. But that’s okay. We’ve had enough revelations for one day. But when you’re ready, I’ll be here. And you’re going to tell me. Because we both know you have demons. You let me know when you want to name them.”
Then he took her mouth.
And took her under.
And she let him.
Ten
“Iswear, one day you’re going to have to explain to me why you prefer this office in the basement when there’s a perfectly good one with fucking windows on the executive floor.”
Achilles sighed as Cain strode into the office, scowling as he surveyed the workspace as if it were the first time he’d seen it. Which it wasn’t. His older brother just never let pass an opportunity to bitch about the size and location. For some reason, it really irked Cain that Achilles preferred to be down in the IT department instead of on the thirty-second floor with Cain and Kenan.
When he asked, Achilles gave him his rote answer of feeling more comfortable with the people who “spoke his language.” And it wasn’t a complete lie. But neither was it the truth.
He couldn’t tell Cain, or Kenan for that matter, that even something as inconsequential as taking an office next to them and appearing as a unified Farrell front constituted bonds he wasn’t comfortable forming. Not when he had no intention of strengthening or tightening those bonds.
Not when he planned on returning to Washington in a matter of months.
Doing so would just make it that much harder to cut ties when the time came. And if losing his mother and Yvette’s betrayal had educated him in anything, it was that love hurt.
