She hops off the pool table and heads to her clothes,never once breaking eye contact with me. “No. Don’t do that. Tell me why, Nix.”
“Why are you in this business?” I demand of her. “Why do you need the videos?”
As she steps into her dress, her frown only deepens. “I told you; I need the money.”
“Why?”
I watch as she seals her lips.
I tsk mockingly. “I’m not the only one keeping secrets, Charlie.”
Her eyes turn into narrowed slits. “Do you really want to know?”
I raise my eyebrows at her in challenge.
Clothes on, she pinches the bridge of her nose, contemplating whether she’s going to rise to my challenge or not. Eventually, she drops her hand and looks me square in the eye. “My husband died and left me with nothing. I’m just trying to survive.”
I blink at her, surprised that she went with the truth – partial truth, anyway – and I just can’t help it when I ask, “And the cop job doesn’t pay enough?”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Charlotte Mitchell
My heart stops beating. Every cell in my body prickles with awareness.
Cop.
Oh my god, he knows, and by the blank expression on his face, he’s known for a while.
I am absolutely fucked.
A fine sweat breaks out across my back that has nothing to do with the sex. Was that why he was mad at me? Why he made sex almost hurt? Was it because I’m not who I said I was?
I swallow thickly, but my mouth is as dry as the desert. “You know?”
“I know,” he whispers angrily, his face hardening. And that post-sex bliss? It’s gone as if it were never there.
Shit. Shit, shit, shit.How much does he know?
As I panic, he gets dressed in his pants but leaves his chest bare. Then, he takes a step in my direction, andunsure of what’s going to happen next, I back up, bumping into a couch. He could kill me in a second if he wanted to. One minute, I’d be here, and the next, I’d have a snapped neck with his cum still drying on my thighs.
“Now that your secret is bare, who are you really, Charlie?” It was said in such a deadly tone that I feel true fear curl in my chest.
I shake my head as tears threaten in my eyes. Angry tears because I was sure I’d never be made. Sad tears because that look he’s giving me isn’t one I want directed at me. Not from him. “I don’t know,” I answer honestly because I don’t.
“A cop.” He takes another step, and I try to back up farther, but I have nowhere to go. “A liar. A porn star.Her.”
“Yes,” I murmur, wanting more than anything to drop my gaze from his. But I don’t. I hold it firm because, even though I might die in a few seconds, I still want to have some sense of dignity before I go.
I swallow thickly again and add to his list, “Broke. Scared. Unsure. Confused. Ever since I met you, I have no idea who I am.”
His eyebrows dip, and oddly, his voice softens. “I told you when you went into this that you’d find out who you are.”
I don’t question his mood switch. Instead, I say, “I thought I knew. I was wrong. This girl who stands in front of you? She has no idea who she is.”
The step he takes toward me isn’t as threatening, and I look up as he approaches me. “Strong,” he continues. “Independent. Loyal. Stubborn.”
“There’s that too,” I whisper so quietly that the crackling of the fire nearly swallows my words whole.
