date: April 18, 2:23 PM
subject: On that subject…
So unbelievably much…In every single way.
And all his control unraveled in a second, as his skin heated up, and his heart beat faster, pounding against his chest with the aching want to have her in his arms again. Resistance was futile, so he banged out a reply, saved it in his drafts, and told himself he’d see if he still felt the same way that night. When the work day ended he went to the gym to pound the punching bag until his shoulders were as sore as they’d ever been.
On the way home, he pulled out his phone, opened his drafts and made a decision.
Chapter Seventeen
from: [email protected]
date:April 18, 5:23 PM
subject:Which brings us back to…
So why then? Why did you leave?
from: [email protected]
date: April 18, 8:48 PM
subject: Truth
I was afraid.
from: [email protected]
date: April 18, 11:24 PM
subject: Truth is good
Of what?
from:[email protected]
date: April 19, 2:03 AM
subject: It can be…
Of getting close.
from: [email protected]
date: April 19, 7:48 AM
subject: Re: It can be…
Don’t be afraid.
from:[email protected]
date: April 19, 11:19 AM
subject: Re: Re: It can be…
But I am…
from: [email protected]
date: April 19, 5:59 PM
subject: Promise
I won’t hurt you.
from: [email protected]
date: April 19, 10:03 PM
subject: Promises, Promises
That’s easy to promise. Hard to deliver.
from: [email protected]
date: April 19, 11:08 PM
subject: Question
Are you going to let the fear control you?
Good question.
Was she going to let Charlie control every aspect of her life? Right now, from his perch at the back table in Mr. Pong’s, he stared at her like she was a gnat on the bottom of his shoe after she gave him his money. The stack was flimsier than usual, but at least she’d won some.
“Get out of here,” Charlie said to her in a cold, calculating voice. “You tire me because you take too long.”
“I won for you tonight,” she pointed out, but then what was the point? Charlie was in a nasty mood, and maybe it had to do with her, or maybe it had to do with another one of his pawns underperforming.
“Hardly. This is hardly enough,” he said, fanning out the thin stack in her face, smacking her on the nose with the bills. She flinched, surprised that money could wound that much.
As she left the Chinese restaurant, nearly bumping into a man with a well-lined face and sad eyes who stared longingly at the sign for Mr. Pong’s, she pondered all the fear in her life. She was afraid of Charlie, of the veiled threats of hurting her, hurting Kim, and taking more and more of his business until he was satisfied. Though men like him never had their fill, did they? She was scared for her sister and wanted desperately to protect McKenna’s hard-won happiness with Chris. Most of all she was terrified of screwing up. What if she couldn’t win the rest of the money? Would be in Charlie’s clutches forever? Time was running out, and she pictured him snapping chains on her forever somehow, so she’d never ever escape from him.
She didn’t know what would happen.
All she knew for sure was this fear sucked. This emptiness stung. And the only thing that had felt remotely good and real in her life was opening up to Clay. She’d been living in a cocoon of her own necessary lies for so many months, that the sliver of truths she could share with him was freeing.
from: [email protected]
date: April 20, 2:02 AM
subject: Good question
I don’t know…I don’t want it to…but I can’t stop wanting you either.
from: [email protected]
date: April 20, 7:32 AM
subject: New side of you
Don’t stop wanting me. This is the most open I think you’ve been.
from: [email protected]
date: April 20, 9:52 AM
subject: Blame it on email
Do you like it?
from: [email protected]
date: April 20, 3:22 PM
subject: Love it…
I like nearly everything about you except when you run from me.
from: [email protected]
date: April 20, 11:08 PM
subject: Run the other way?
Would you rather I run to you?
from: [email protected]
date: April 21, 6:03 AM
subject: Yes I would
I would like you on your knees for that smart ass comment.
from: [email protected]
date: April 21, 9:32 AM
subject: Love that Position
I would get on my knees for you. You know that. I would get on my knees and take you in my mouth. Under your desk. While you were in a meeting. I love tasting you. So. Much.