“Where are you going?”

Cam bristled at the question. “Out.”

Alex knew what he’d overheard. “You’re meeting someone. It’s your partner, isn’t it?”

“I don’t have a partner,” she said coolly.

He frowned. “You know what I mean. That Nate guy. You’re meeting up with him.”

She didn’t deny it.

His frown deepened. “You can’t,” he said flatly. “No one can know about this.”

She tried to move past him but he blocked the doorway, keeping her from leaving her bedroom.

“I’m not fucking around,” he said. “This isn’t something for you to solve. I told you because I wanted to be honest with you. For once in my life, I wanted to be honest about something.”

The words were weighted. She had no idea what it had been like to live with so many lies. And they’d all started with her, the day he’d lied to her about not loving her anymore.

She blinked, and he could tell he’d thrown her off balance.

“I need to figure this out,” he said firmly. “Not you. Me.”

Something flashed in her eyes. “And I told you, I want to help.”

“You can’t.”

Her lips thinned. “Watch me.”

She tried to slip past him, but he braced his arms against the doorframe, blocking her in. And yeah, it hurt like hell to stretch his arms that way. The muscles in his chest screamed as they stretched across his sore ribcage, but he held firm.

“Let me go,” she ordered.

His eyes raked over her. “No.”

“I know where you hurt,” she said. “One punch to your chest and you’ll be on your knees.”

He stood firm. “Do it.”

They were playing chicken with each other. He knew it, and he was pretty sure she did, too. He couldn’t be 100 percent sure that she wouldn’t level him with a well-placed punch, but he knew he’d cave to her. Eventually.

“If I had my handcuffs, I’d slap them on you so fast you wouldn’t know what hit you.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Handcuffs?”

Her eyes shot sparks as she nodded.

Handcuffs. His body immediately responded, and not in fear.

“I can think of a few ways I’d like to use handcuffs,” he murmured, his gaze dropping to her hands. He could immediately picture locking the metal around her wrists, attaching them to a bedpost. Taking his time kissing her, touching her, making her writhe with pleasure.

She froze. “What?”

His gaze returned to hers. Shock registered on her face, but he saw something else hidden in her eyes.

Desire.

She swallowed thickly. “What did you just say?”

He thought about repeating the words he’d just mumbled out loud. He wanted to say it louder, see her cheeks bloom with color, watch her chest rise and fall as she processed his words…and their implied meaning.

Her phone was still clutched in her hands and she held it up. “I can make a call right now. Make a call that ends all of this.”

Whatever he thought he’d seen in her eyes was gone. The anger, the resolve, was back.

She wasn’t messing around.

“You’d do that?” he asked. “Turn me in after everything I’ve told you?”

“Yes,” she said without hesitation. “If I have to, I will.” She paused. “But what I want to do is leave for a little bit. Explore a couple of options.”

“What kind of options?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “But right now we have exactly zero, so I figure if I make any progress, it’ll be better than where we’re currently sitting. Right?”

He didn’t respond.

“I won’t do anything without telling you first,” she said.

He looked at her with narrowed eyes. “But you’re going to talk to someone. To Nate.”

She didn’t deny it.

“Cam, no one else can know.”

“I won’t tell him,” she promised.

“So why are you going?”

She opened her mouth to respond, then shook her head. “I just… I need to go.”

He didn’t know that he believed her. But he didn’t really have a choice.

“Remember when you told me that I needed to trust you?” she asked.

He nodded.

“Well, guess what? You need to trust me, too.”