If Sawyer had found her, how many others had recognized her? What if her family had seen the photo?
The panic that had held her in its grips earlier returned with a vengeance. “Were you watching me earlier?”
He frowned and ran his hand across the blond stubble lining his jaw. “No. I didn’t get the chance to observe you in your natural habitat before running into you. Why?”
“No reason,” she said quickly, not wanting to pull him into the mess of her life. “Just tell me what you want, so I can get back out there. I’ve got a wedding reception to run.”
He stalked closer, bringing with him the scent of bergamot and orange. It was a scent she’d know anywhere and one she’d forever associate with Sawyer. He still used the same shampoo. It shouldn’t surprise her. After all, it was one of Hayes Industries’ most popular products.
“I want to know what you did with the money you took from our joint bank accounts. Someone worth millions wouldn’t work as a secretary at a law firm or go into public relations. You shouldn’t need to work. You should be living in a house rather than a small condo and own a car that doesn’t have more than a hundred thousand miles on it. And you only have ten thousand in your checking account, three thousand in your savings account, and nothing else worth a dime.”
She swallowed over the lump in her throat. “You did your homework on me, didn’t you?”
“Didn’t do it the first time with you, but I won’t make the same mistake again.” His lips curled into a cruel grin. “Nowadays, I always make sure I know exactly who I’m taking into my bed.”
Her heart shattered into a million pieces. It shouldn’t hurt her to hear that he had lovers. After all, she’d left him more than four years ago. She couldn’t have expected him to stay celibate for that long.
It didn’t matter that they were still legally married.
Or that she hadn’t taken a lover in all that time.
“I don’t have your money. And I can’t tell you what I did with it.” She peered up at him, flinching at the indifference on his face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. But I did what I had to do. I was a con artist.”
He went as still as a statue, his expression as stony. Then his chest convulsed with laugher, shocking her with its force. “Hurt me? I didn’t give a shit about you leaving. Only my pride took a hit, because I hadn’t realized what a lying bitch I’d married. And when you left, I realized what we had wasn’t that great anyway. I mean, you were a great fuck, but I wasn’t cut out for monogamy. You did me a favor by leaving.” He gently pushed her up against the shelves, knocking a couple books to the carpet.
Her stomach clenched painfully. She shouldn’t allow his words to hurt as much as they did. After all, he had a right to be angry.
The ten months she’d spent with Sawyer were the happiest she’d ever known. From the day they’d officially met, they’d been inseparable. Within weeks, she’d moved into his home, and it hadn’t taken much longer for her to wear both his collar and his ring. It was a whirlwind romance intensified by their relationship as Master and slave.
They never seemed to run out of things to talk about. He considered her opinions and encouraged her dream of becoming a publicist, offering her a job within the Hayes Industries organization. He’d brought her sexual fantasies to life and never judged her for them. For the first time in her life, she’d been in love and loved in return.
For a while, she let herself forget that their relationship had been built on a lie. But her father had been all too eager to remind her. Once she became Sawyer’s wife and he changed his will, leaving his entire estate to her in case of his death, her father had revealed his true plan: Murder Sawyer.
Seeing no other options, she had done the one thing she could do to save Sawyer’s life.
She’d taken all the assets of Sawyer’s she could quickly get her hands on and had given them to her father. Then she had stolen her father’s black list—a journal documenting years of her family’s cons—as an insurance policy and left her old life behind, Sawyer included. Within those pages were details about some very dangerous people. People who would kill her father slowly and painfully if they ever got the chance. Just as she had taken the black list as her insurance, it had provided the same to her father against those who wished him harm.
Her plan hadn’t been foolproof, but she’d done what she thought was best at the time. She’d thought Sawyer would divorce her when she left him, but he hadn’t.
As long as she had the ability to inherit Sawyer’s estate, he was in danger. Now that he was back in her life, there was one more thing she could do to ensure his safety.