Colleen was the weak link here. They were using her to get to him.
Tristan King could disappear if he wanted to, thanks to his algorithm that wiped the internet of his very existence.
She said, “Look, Tristan, Mr. King, if you see a chance to get yourself out of the situation, no matter what the consequences are for me, you should take it. Like he said, they can come for me whenever they want. There’s no real way I can escape them. I’m a lost cause.”
“I will get us both out of this.”
She sighed because the truth was humiliating. “You don’t have to pretend like I’m important to you. I’m just some dropout sales clerk that you felt sorry for, and I’m just an easy lay.”
Tristan looked up from where he was fastening his cufflinks. His bright blue eyes narrowed with anger, and he strode across the room like he was about to attack her.
Colleen stepped backward, and her heel scraped the wall behind her.
But he still advanced on her, his eyes furious.
16
A Celebration
Tristan
“What did you say to me?” Tristan walked toward her, covering the carpet with long strides.
Colleen’s fawn-like eyes widened as she backed away from him and held her hands up in front of her chest with her fingers splayed. “I’m just saying that you shouldn’t drag yourself down with me if there’s no way I can get out of this. If you can make them let you go, you should.”
“I would never leave you behind.” He loomed over her, staring down at the wisp of a woman who had plastered herself to the hotel room wall. He braced himself with one arm above her head and leaned down to get right in her face when he said, “I protect what’s mine.”
Anger set her jaw. “I’m not yours. I’m just a chick you picked up after you got her fired and felt guilty about it.”
Jesus, that wasn’t what he’d meant, probably. “You’re my responsibility,” he growled.
She frowned right back up at him. “Dude, I am no one’s responsibility.”
“Yes, you are, and I don’t back down from my responsibilities. I will protect you, and I will make sure you get home safely with no strings attached.”
Tears glistened on the lower lids of her eyes. “I’m not worth the trouble you’ll get into. I’m nothing to you. I’m nothing to anybody. I’m just an out-of-work sales clerk and college dropout. If I die, no one would give a shit or even notice I was gone.”
Tristan wanted to punch whoever had put that thought into her head. “You’re nothing to me? I’ve been practically tying my hands behind my back and grinding my teeth on a strip of leather every time I’m around you to stop myself from taking you to bed, especially after last night. Every time you move next to me, every time your clothes rustle, I remember the scent of your skin and how you taste on my tongue. You’re kind and beautiful and sexy, but I hadn’t realized how hot you were until you walked into the living room in this dress. But even so, I’ve been plotting how to get you into bed ever since I saw you in that game store. When you walked into my room last night, I was freaking ecstatic.”
Colleen was blinking rapidly as he spoke.
But she nodded.
A scent of baking sugar and flowers emanated from her skin, and he wanted to bury his face in her throat to breathe it in. “My plan for this trip was to dress you like this every night and wine and dine you.” He allowed himself to examine the way the golden silk clung to her voluptuous breasts and dipped into her curvaceous waist and hips that he wanted to dig his fingers into. “I’d planned to take you to movie premieres and exclusive restaurants and charity balls, not rescue you from some damn Russian mobster.”
She nodded again.
He reached for the glimmer of hope in this darkness. “I wanted to show you the world, not threaten your life.”
She was almost panting, her breasts straining at the silk of her dress, and puffs of her delicate breath fluttered over his lips, which were only inches from hers.
His voice dropped to a growl. “If I get us out of this, when I get us out of this, I will dance with you in the palace of the Prince of Monaco and sit beside you as we watch ballets and operas from box seats and rock concerts from backstage. We’ll walk the streets of Paris and ride the gondolas in Venice, and then I’ll take you back to my penthouse at the Waldorf-Astoria or my yacht in Monaco and fuck you senseless.”
Her eyes half-closed, and he knew she must be imagining their bodies connecting and moving as intensely as he was, and the fantasy of his body thrusting into hers propelled him forward to capture her lips with his mouth.
She was petal soft and tangerine sweet under his lips.
His other arm snaked around the plushness of her body and dragged her against him.
