Chapter Seven

A few minutes might have passed, perhaps an hour. Jewell didn’t know, because after Blake spoke of her brother, her heart had stopped and her breath had lodged in her throat.

“But you didn’t believe me about my brother,” she finally managed to say.

“I didn’t,” he admitted.

“What’s going on, then?” she asked. “I’m lost, Blake.”

“Let’s just say that I did a little bit of research, Jewell. I have found out quite a lot.”

“Why are you doing this to me? This is your idea of a cruel joke, isn’t it? Do you find my pain amusing? Hell, that’s a stupid question. You’re all about causing pain.” He finally released her and she jumped up and began pacing as she waited for him to respond.

He stood up slowly and approached her with measured strides, intimidating in his muscularity, his massiveness. She backed away but soon found herself once again against the wall with Blake blocking her in, trapping her.

“I don’t joke around,” he said, his words low and ringing with the sound of truth.

“But …”

“I discovered you weren’t deceiving me, and I found out everything about your brother. As I told you, I have access to him.”

“I’ll ask again, Blake. How? And what is the price you want from me? And what does that mean?”

“Does it make any difference?”

His words were a clear challenge, and all the fight left her. “No.” And it didn’t make a difference. She would do anything to see Justin. Hadn’t she already proved it the minute she’d agreed to work for Relinquish Control?

He rested his fingers against her hip. “Are you going to continue to defy me?” he asked her.

“Yes.” She was surprised when the word emerged from her throat. Why would she risk this?

She wouldn’t. Before she could correct herself, he leaned against her and brushed her mouth with his.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he said, his words vibrating against her lips.

“I didn’t mean that. I will do whatever it takes to get my brother.”

“I didn’t say I would give him to you. I said I have access to him.”

“What in the hell does that mean?”

“I want answers, Jewell.”

“What answers?” she snapped. There was a long pause before he spoke again.

“You will find out,” he told her. Again, more riddles.

“Fine, Blake. You win. You can have what you want,” she said, though everything in her fought against even saying those words.

“Don’t become boring, Jewell.” He pressed his thickness against her. “Don’t make it too easy to figure you out.”

“I don’t think that’s something you’ll ever have to worry about, Blake, because I can’t even figure myself out, let alone allow you to figure me out. None of this is right, and none of it is predictable, but I guarantee you that no matter what you do, you will never own me completely.” She shouldn’t continue fighting him, but it was almost as if another person were speaking.

“That’s where you’re wrong, Jewell, very wrong. I won’t settle for less than all of you.”

Her body felt molten. Even though she didn’t want to want him, even though she knew he was a monster, she also knew how good it felt to lie in his arms. She wanted him and she hated him for it.

“You’ll be very disappointed, then, Blake. But you’re a man of your word. You have clearly paid for the rights to my body. And because I know you do have the power to get access to Justin, you have bought my obedience. But having my body and even having me desire you doesn’t mean that I’ve agreed to give you any other part of me.”

“I can have anything I want, Jewell.”

“Not quite, Blake. You can have anything that money can buy.”

“It bought you,” he pointed out.

“Actually, you just rented me, and not all of me at that. I hope you know that I find you despicable, and that I do indeed hate you.”

His eyes flashed at the words and the tone she used, and she waited for her punishment. She had to learn not to respond when he goaded her, or her time with him would be unbearable, because no matter what she could possibly do to him, he could do it to her ten times as painfully without breaking a sweat.

“If I believed that, we would have a problem.”

He reached into her hair and tugged it hard. “You’ll dye this back to your natural color immediately.” Before she could respond, he crushed his lips against hers. She fought him for a moment before all thoughts evaporated from her mind. This was the power he had. No matter how angry he made her, a few seconds in his arms and she was fully under his spell.

When she’d submitted to him totally, that’s when he released her. She slowly opened her eyes and saw unmitigated triumph in his expression, and once the fog cleared from her muddled brain, she stiffened.

Okay, this wasn’t working. She’d known that he’d always win in a power struggle, but her emotions kept getting in the way. She needed to go a different route when dealing with Blake. But simply to answer him right now required her to pretend to possess an unconcern she didn’t at all feel. And yet she barreled ahead.

“I hope you don’t take my passion as anything more than my body responding, Blake. I can despise you and still desire you. After all, you were a pretty good lay.”

He let her go and turned his back to her, leaving her to lean against the wall and hope her legs wouldn’t fail her.

After a few heartbeats, he swung back around and smiled at her, giving her no idea what he was thinking about.

“You’ll eventually learn more about me, Jewell, about what ‘makes me tick.’ We obviously haven’t spent enough time together if you really think I’m so easily discouraged. But that’s okay — we have all the time in the world to get to know each other.”

“We have thirty days,” she countered. “And what about my brother? Do I have to please you before I get to take him home?” It took everything inside her to say the words without scorn.

Blake moved back to the couch and sat down as if he had no other place in the world to be.

“Don’t worry about it. In the end, you will see your brother. That’s what you want, isn’t it, Jewell?”

“Of course that’s what I want,” she growled. After finally pushing away from the wall, she went in for another round of pacing.

“And you have proved that you will do whatever it takes to make that happen.”

She didn’t trust the calm she heard in his voice, in the way he said those words. It didn’t take a genius to see that this was simply the eye of the storm. What she couldn’t figure out was what was in this for him. “What do you get out of this, Blake?” she finally asked.

The smile that turned up his lips was her first sign that she wasn’t going to like his next words any more than she’d liked anything he’d had to say so far. In fact, she’d probably like them less. The confidence emanating from him intensified that sick feeling in her stomach.

“We’ve gone over this ground before. I get anything I want, don’t I, Jewell.” It wasn’t a question. It was a statement — and one he had no doubt was completely factual.

“No, Blake. No one gets everything they want,” she told him. “I’m not arguing with you. I’m simply telling you the truth.”

He just threw her another smile, one making it clear that her words hadn’t put him out one bit. It seemed that nothing she could do or say would throw him off the high horse he always rode. When he stood up, she waited for his next assault, but instead of coming toward her, he was heading away.

“What are you doing now?” she asked when he looked to be exiting the room.

“I’m done for the night. We’ll discuss this more tomorrow,” he said, and he kept on walking.

Before she was able to say another word, she heard the front door open and close. He’d left. With shaking knees, she proceeded down the hallway in her apartment, found what had to be her bedroom, and sagged onto the bed, not bothering to change, not bothering to open her eyes again once they drifted shut.

Blake Knight had reappeared in her life with a hurricane-like force, disrupting everything in his path. But he wasn’t going to grow weaker as he continued on his journey, much less calmly drift back out to wherever he came from. No. That wasn’t his style. He would return again and again until he got what he wanted.

For now, that appeared to be her. And there was nothing she could possibly do to stop him.