Sinful Secrets

by Cynthia Eden

  His lashes swept down. “I knew the instant you came back to Vegas.”

  Chill bumps rose on her arms. “How?”

  “Because I had a standing order out regarding you…if you came back to my town, you were mine.”

  She shook her head. “That…that’s not possible.” An order? Her chill bumps just got worse as she backed away from him…and as her knees hit the edge of the bed.

  He turned and watched her retreat. She’d never been good at reading Jason’s expressions. The man was too adept at hiding his emotions. “With the right amount of money, anything is possible.” He took a step toward her.

  “Why would you care if I came back to Vegas?”

  His golden eyes gleamed. “You know the answer to that.”

  No, she didn’t. If she’d known, then Cat wouldn’t have asked the question.

  “A whole year,” he murmured as he edged ever closer to her. “And you only come back to me because you think I’m blackmailing you.”

  Her heart was racing. She was starting to get a feel for his emotions then, all right. He’s furious.

  “Is that what it takes to get you back in my bed, Catherine? Blackmail?”

  Catherine. Not Cat. Her full-name sounded sexy when it came from his lips—even if he was furious. And he was so close now. The heat from his body seemed to wrap around her.

  “Because if that’s all it took, I would have blackmailed you months ago.” He was so close, but not touching her. Not yet. “If it meant getting my wife back, I would have done anything.”

  Her racing heart stopped at those words. “I’m not.” Her voice was a bare breath of sound.

  “Oh, yes, sweet, you are. You are mine.” He reached into the inner pocket of his tux and when his hand lifted, he had made a fist.

  Cat shook her head. “It wasn’t real. W-we were drunk…”

  “I wasn’t.”

  His fist uncurled. A plain, gold ring was nestled in his palm. “I knew exactly what I was doing when I made you mine.”

  “That place…” The chapel with all of the hearts and the terrible music. “It was just a sham…”

  He shook his head. He caught her hand. Held it in his…and slipped the ring back on her finger. “It was real, and you are mine.” His jaw hardened. “And I swear to you, I will destroy the bloody bastard out there who is trying to hurt you.”

  Tears stung her eyes. The ring seemed to be a heavy weight around her finger. “Why did you keep it?”

  “Because I don’t let go of the things I want.” He was still holding her hand. “You finally came back to Vegas. To me.”

  She shook her head.

  “Yes, to me. You won’t slip from me into the darkness again. You won’t slip from me at all.” He bent his head toward her. He was going to kiss her. He thought they were just going to pick up where they’d left off?

  “No!” She hadn’t meant to shout, not really. Her hands shoved against him.

  He didn’t move so much as an inch. The guy was strong. She could feel his steely muscles beneath that tux.

  “I left for a reason, Jason. I stayed away…for a reason! You think I don’t know what you did?” She was so angry she wanted to lash out at him. To make him hurt, just a little bit like she’d hurt. “I saw the text you got on your phone. Even as you were making love to me, even as you were making me think—” No, stop, don’t say it. She cleared her throat. “You were about to force my family to go out of business. You were aiming to wreck Donnelly Dining, and I was part of your game. Your big master scheme. Underbid my brother and father on the new restaurant locations—take away their only hope of survival, and then—”

  “You were never part of any game.”

  Liar.

  “I saw the text,” she said again. That text had changed everything. She’d heard the little peal of his phone, and she’d looked over at the nightstand instinctively. But what she saw on that text had led her to his briefcase…a case he’d tossed aside so carelessly earlier that night. “And I’m the one who went to Cameron and told him about the offer you were going to make.” He’d turn from her now. Fair enough. She wanted him to know that she’d betrayed him, too. One betrayal for another. “I stopped your plan. It was me. They underbid you and you—”

  “You chose them.” Anger hummed in his words, but then he gave her a smile. Cold. Hard. Like a shark’s. “You won’t make the same mistake, love.”

  “Jason—”

  “This time, it will all be different.”

  No, it wouldn’t be. “You need to leave now,” she managed to say because her knees were starting to tremble, and so was her voice. “I have to…I have to call Cameron. I need to tell him—”

  Jason just laughed. “Let him be surprised.” But his laughter held a bitter edge. There was so much tension between Cameron and Jason. A quiet fury that she’d never fully understood.

  But if it came down to a war between Jason and Cameron… “He’s my brother.” Her twin. She might not always agree with Cameron, but she wouldn’t turn on him. “And I said…you need to leave.”

  His gaze slid down her body. She felt that stare like a caress on her skin. “Are you sure that’s what you want? For me to leave? Because the last time we were together in a hotel room, you…wanted…so much more.” He pressed a soft kiss to her neck. “Don’t you remember?”

  Only every time that I close my eyes. “Go, Jason,” her voice was too husky.

  He slowly pulled away from her. And in that instant, the mask that he wore so often—so well—it finally slipped for her.

  The careless playboy was gone.

  Only the danger and darkness remained. The core of the man he really was.

  “Some fucker blackmailed you. He took a video of us together, when we should have been damn well alone.” The upper crust British accent that usually underscored his words had vanished. Now he spoke with a harder, rougher accent. “You think I’m walkin’ away? That I’d let you be targeted? Your enemies…they’re mine, and I won’t be leavin’ you unprotected. Not ever again.” He sucked in a deep breath. Seemed to gain some of his control back. “Now, until I find out who is screwing with us, you aren’t being left alone. You don’t know what the joker could have planned next. Neither do I.”

  She didn’t want to know what might happen next.

  “You want my hands off you? Fine. They’ll stay off. For now. But I want you safe…so get your bag and let’s get the hell out of here. Because I plan to tear this whole town apart until I find the man who thought he was going to hurt you.”

  Staring into his eyes, she believed him. He would tear Vegas apart.

  But she still hesitated. Just…leave with him? That hadn’t been on her agenda.

  “Come with me, Cat.”

  That wasn’t a plea. More like an order.

  “Trust me to keep you safe. Trust me to figure out who is playing with us.”

  Jason had the power to unmask the blackmailer. She knew it.

  Cat didn’t speak as she slowly packed up her few belongings from the room. Her mind was spinning, and honestly, she didn’t know what to say or what to do.

  I have to talk with Cameron. I can’t hide the truth from him anymore. Not from Cameron or her father.

  She wasn’t normally part of the family business. A deliberate choice on her part. She didn’t want to be involved because that cut-throat world wasn’t for her, but that didn’t mean she would just stand back and watch her brother’s dreams plummet. To Cat, it was all about her brother. He was the one that mattered. Her father…he’s a stranger to me.

  She stood there, her bag in her hand, while Jason took her laptop.

  “I need to tell Cameron,” she forced herself to speak. “I have to…I have to see my brother tonight.” Because she couldn’t just vanish with Jason. That wasn’t her plan. “I want you to take me to Cameron. He needs to hear from me about what happened, not the Press.” She would stay with Cameron. Not Jason.

  His jaw hardened, but Jason
gave a grim nod. “If that’s how you want to play it. Personally, I don’t think your brother or your bastard of a father really deserve anything from you.”

  The fury, the hate that he seemed to have for her family gave Cat pause. “Why?”

  “They aren’t who you think.” His lips twisted. “Neither am I, but you’re about to learn that truth, too. Pity. I bet you’ll wish you’d stayed in the dark before this is all over…”

  “Jason?” The ring was still on her finger. She needed to take it off. She started to pull on it—

  “Don’t.” A sharp order. “After everything else…don’t.”

  Her hand stilled. “What do you want from me?” She just didn’t understand him.

  Already in the doorway, he paused and glanced back at her. “Everything. And that’s exactly what I’ll take.”

  Chapter Three

  She left the hotel with Jason August. Just strolled right out with the sonofabitch.

  His hands tightened around the handlebars of the motorcycle as he watched Catherine and August. Disappointing, Catherine. So very disappointing.

  The motorcycle’s engine growled. August had a laptop case and a small black bag in his hands. Her bag? She must be planning to spend the night with the bastard. Fury pumped through him.

  The driver hurried out of the limo and rushed toward August.

  Catherine walked into the street, moving around to the side of the limousine. There wasn’t any other traffic on the road, so the woman must have felt safe out there—

  There is no safety for you. Not any longer.

  He’d waited for her at the Playhouse. She hadn’t shown. She’d betrayed him again.

  She’d pay.

  He shot straight toward her, driving that motorcycle as fast as it could go.

  ***

  Cat heard a loud growl and she turned toward the sound. A bright light hit her, and stunned, she realized that a motorcycle was barreling toward her.

  It was coming too fast down a street that had appeared empty seconds before.

  It was aiming for her.

  “Cat!” Jason roared.

  She was already trying to get out of the motorcycle’s way. She ran back toward the sidewalk, but the motorcycle veered after her. What was happening? Cat screamed, because behind that bright light, she could see the dark form of the driver and his bike. She could all but feel those tires crushing down on her body—

  Jason grabbed her. He locked his arms around her, and they hurtled through the air just as the motorcycle raced by them. The growl of its engine filled her ears. That growl was terrifyingly close because the driver hadn’t braked. Hadn’t slowed down at all.

  Jason hit the cement first, his body cushioning her fall, but in the next moment, he spun and had her positioned beneath him. His body surrounded her, protected her. Cat stared up at him as her heart thundered in her chest. Jason’s head was turned as he stared after the fleeing motorcycle.

  “Bastard,” he snarled.

  That bastard was roaring away from them.

  Jason’s head jerked toward her. “Are you hurt?”

  Cat shook her head. A few bruises didn’t matter.

  His hands slid over her body, as if he didn’t quite believe her, and he checked her carefully for injuries.

  “Jason, no, I’m all right.” Shaking, terrified, but alive. Thanks to him. “Th-thank you.”

  He stopped his pat down. His gaze held hers. “He aimed for you, love.” Jason rose, pulling her along with him and holding tightly to her arm. “He aimed for you.”

  She shivered at the menace in his voice—and because he was right. That motorcycle had followed her onto the sidewalk.

  “He must’ve been drunk,” Jason’s driver, Tim, said as he edged closer to them. “Fool. You see them drunk idiots all the time in Vegas—”

  “A drunken bastard wouldn’t have swerved to hit her…and sped up the whole time.” Jason maneuvered her toward the back of the limo and, right then, Cat was only too eager to escape inside that vehicle. “Get us home, now.”

  “Sir.” The driver slammed the door.

  Cat realized that her breaths were coming in sharp pants. “Nothing like that…has ever happened to me.”

  “Someone trying to kill you?” His fingers were still wrapped around her inner wrist. “I’m glad to know it doesn’t happen often.”

  “Does it happen a lot to you?” Cat blurted.

  He shrugged.

  Shrugged? A shrug wasn’t an answer.

  “More than you might expect,” Jason finally told her.

  Cat’s jaw almost dropped. He was a restaurant magnate, for goodness sake! Not—

  “I’ve told you before, we all have secrets,” Jason added as the limo pulled away from the curb.

  Cat wasn’t so sure she wanted to know Jason’s secrets. “We should…we should call the cops.” Wasn’t that what happened in situations like this one? “He could hurt someone else.”

  Jason shifted beside her, moving slightly on the leather. “You were his target. I don’t need the cops. I’ll find him, and I’ll stop the bastard. No one comes after what’s mine.”

  This was wrong. Everything was spinning out of control. She didn’t belong there, with him, with his…ring on her hand. With his body pressed to hers. With some crazy jerk nearly mowing her down with a motorcycle.

  “T-take me to my brother’s place.” That had been her destination BM. Before Motorcycle.

  Jason had told the driver to take them home. She couldn’t go to Jason’s place. She—

  “Someone blackmails you and then a dumb fool on a motorcycle comes at you…and you really think I’m just going to turn away from you? Drop you off on Cameron’s doorstep and not look back?”

  Her heartbeat still hadn’t slowed down. “I have to call him.” She had to explain, before pictures of her and Jason started appearing in the local media.

  “You give your brother more credit than he deserves.” But he released her hand and gave Cat his phone to use.

  She quickly dialed her brother’s number. Sure, it was heading past 2 a.m. right then, but he’d answer. He hardly ever slept and…

  He didn’t answer.

  His voicemail picked up. So much for going to his place. She didn’t have a key to his home and she sure wasn’t going to camp out on his doorstep. Not when she was still shaking. Cat fumbled a bit then managed to say, “Cameron, it’s me. I, um, you’re going to see some things—maybe in the paper, maybe online—about me and J-Jason August. I can explain everything, okay?” Well, not really, she couldn’t. She’d try. “Call me. On my cell, not at the hotel. I’ve checked out. I-I’ll be with Jason—”

  Jason took the phone from her. Hung up before she could finish. “He doesn’t deserve the loyalty you give him. The guy’s a prick who—”

  She stiffened. “Don’t talk about him like that.” He wasn’t a prick. Cameron was the only person in the world who’d ever really given a damn about her.

  “Cat—”

  “When I was ten years old, my parents were having a big party at their house in the Keys.” They’d always loved their parties. Entertaining is part of the lifestyle. How many times had she heard her father say those words? Party after party…homes filled with strangers. Bursting at the seams.

  Only she didn’t like crowds. Never had. “All of the people made me nervous.” They always did. So many faces. Adults who hadn’t wanted to be bothered with a little girl. “I slipped away. Went down to the beach.” She could still smell that crisp ocean air. She’d loved the water back then.

  Jason had gone quiet beside her.

  “I thought I saw a dolphin in the moonlight.” She could still see it in her mind, breaking through the waves underneath the full moon. “He seemed so close, and I just wanted to touch him.”

  Beside her, Cat felt Jason stiffen.

  “I didn’t realize I’d gone out so deep, not until I heard Cameron screaming my name.” She’d turned back to look at him. He’d been
on the beach, and the same moonlight that had let her see the dolphin had shown Cat her brother’s terror-filled face. “He was the last thing I saw before the waves hit me.”

  “Fuck.”

  “He got me out of the water. I woke up, choking, crying, on that beach and he was the only one there.” Her parents had still been at their party.

  She’d been alone…with Cameron.

  She shoved back the memories. “So don’t call him a prick! He’s my brother.” He might not be perfect, but neither was she. Not by a long shot.

  When she needed him most, Cameron had been right there. For most of her life, he’d been the only one there for her.

  Except…tonight, when a motorcycle had come crashing toward her, Jason had been there, shielding her. The knowledge unsettled Cat. “What are we going to do?” Cat heard herself whisper. “You…you really think someone is out to get me?”

  His silence was her answer.

  After that incident with the motorcycle, how could there be any doubt? Fear grew within her. “Why?”

  “Because you’re important…very important to two powerful men.”

  To Cameron.

  To…Jason? Impossible. A man didn’t let someone who was important to him vanish for a whole year.

  “Nothing is going to happen to you,” Jason growled out the words. “I swear it.”

  In the darkness, she wanted to believe him.

  But she knew he was very, very good at telling lies…

  ***

  Rage churned within Jason’s blood as he hurried inside his penthouse. The glow of the Vegas lights poured through the giant windows that gave him a million-damn-dollar view of the city. He ignored that view and focused on the only thing that mattered.

  Catherine.

  She stood just inside his doorway. Her arms curled nervously around her stomach. That motorcycle had come too close to her. Its growl had drowned out Jason’s shocked roar. He’d been afraid. Desperate.

  I got to her. She’s safe. She’s here.

  Finally, in his home.

  But not in his bed. Not yet.

  It’s where she’ll be soon.

  He yanked off his suit jacket. Tore at the buttons that seemed too tight on his shirt and tossed his bowtie.