She took a step toward him, shock beginning to turn into anger. “I would never do that. If he broke the law, he has to answer for it. But he was a good man, Gabriel. He helped Mom after my dad died. He got her better, able to cope again. And he was good to me, too. God, he even tried to talk me out of investing in Tremain.” She faltered. “He said it was his mess and he’d handle it. But I … didn’t listen. I went ahead anyway because he hated asking for help.”
The hard look on Gabriel’s face eased a fraction. “This isn’t your fault. You invested in good faith.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that I put money into his company. And now Dad’s going to bankrupt himself and me in the process.” She swallowed. “I still don’t even know why.”
A silence fell, heavy and thick.
Honor turned. “I should go. No, I’m not going to warn him but I need to see him at least…”
“No. You don’t know what he’ll do if he thinks you know about all this.”
She glanced up at him. “He wouldn’t hurt me. I’m like a daughter to him.”
“People do all kinds of shit you think they won’t do, Honor. Especially if they’re threatened. Believe me, I know.” His eyes glittered, the darkness in them suddenly deeper and more infinite than she’d ever imagined.
Of course he’d know. If the rumors about him were true, he’d probably been an even bigger criminal than Guy was.
Than your father was?
Honor looked away, nausea clenching hard inside her. Secrets and more secrets. “I should see my mother,” she said. “I should ask her about Daniel…” She stopped because no, she couldn’t see her mother. What would she say? Did her mother know? God, maybe her mother was even involved, too …
Honor raised a hand to her forehead and closed her eyes, feeling even sicker.
She’d thought this was over. That after her father’s death there wouldn’t be any more shocks. And there hadn’t been until this. Until Gabriel had come into her life and broken it all apart, spinning it into chaos.
“Honor,” he said softly, as if knowing the thought the moment she had it.
She dropped her hand, opened her eyes. “I need to go.” She didn’t know quite where to go but she had to do something to regain control of her own damn life.
He turned, his big body squarely in front of her. “You should stay. I know this is a hell of a shock, but we have to discuss where we go from here.”
“Later. I can’t … I can’t deal with this right now. Okay?” She stepped to the side, only to have him step with her, blocking her exit.
Blinking, she looked up at him. The darkness in his eyes burned all the way through her. Right down into her soul. Fear tightened in her gut, the same kind of fear she’d experienced back in Vermont whenever he’d gotten close. Along with the sharp excitement that always came with it.
“You’re not leaving,” he said quietly. “Not until you tell me all you know about Tremain and your father.”
“I told you. They were friends.”
“I want more.”
Her mouth dried. “You can’t stop me from leaving.”
“Can’t I?”
“Unless there’s another handy button you can press to lock the door from here, then no, you can’t.”
“I don’t need to lock the door.” He didn’t move, didn’t come any closer and yet still it felt as if he was looming over her, overwhelming her. “Because you’re not going anywhere.”
Anger shot down her spine. He was the one who’d shattered her life. Who’d brought Alex back. Who’d revealed her father’s secrets. Who’d exposed the man she’d come to love like a father. Whose very presence cracked the armor she needed to wear in order to feel like she had control over her life.
She’d been right to be wary of him. He was chaos. Everything she didn’t need in her life. And she didn’t want anything more to do with him.
She stepped to the side again and he blocked her. Breathing fast, she feinted to the other side but he seemed to know exactly what she was doing because her side step only brought her up hard against his chest.
Honor gasped as his arm wrapped around her waist, holding her there. Her heart thudding, she snapped her head up, looking into his face. There was no mercy at all there. No softness. His expression was unyielding, his eyes almost black. “Like I said, you’re staying here.”
She wouldn’t demean herself with a struggle, especially since any kind of movement only made her even more achingly conscious of the leashed power in his big, muscular body. Of the heat pressed against her. The sheer force of nature that was their chemistry. She didn’t want anything to spark that particular conflagration, not now.
“So, what?” she snapped. “You’re going to bring out the spotlight and start water boarding me?”
“You don’t want to know what I could do to get you to talk.”
She gritted her teeth. “Look, if you’re wanting to know about Guy’s business activities, I don’t know any more than you do.”
“It’s not just his business activities. I want to know about his private life, too.”
“Why? What use is that kind of information to you?”
“Anything you can tell me will be useful.” There was a savage-looking glint in his eyes. “I was looking to invest in good faith, Honor. And if there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s people thinking they can fuck with me and my money.”
For a second, anger was stamped all over his brutally handsome features. A hot, molten kind of rage that, for some reason didn’t frighten her the way it should have. Mainly because she got the feeling that he didn’t often show genuine emotion. The only other time she’d seen anything like it had been when she’d taken him in her mouth. She’d caught a glimpse of it then, too, a flash of the real man behind his cold, hard exterior.
Desire began to tighten inside her along with a kind of panic. God, why was she feeling this now? After everything he’d told her? She was supposed to be getting away from him, not wanting to get closer.
“Let me go, you bastard,” she said, her breathing coming faster, harder. “I don’t have to tell you a thing.”
His other hand slid along her jaw, behind her ear, his fingers curling in her hair, forcing her head back. “Why are you protecting him?” His voice was a soft kind of growl that sent whispers of heat over her skin. “You said you wouldn’t.”
“He’s my stepfather,” she gasped. “He’s not a bad man and I won’t do anything that will see him hurt.”
“No matter if he takes you down with him?”
Honor closed her eyes. She didn’t want to look at him. Didn’t want to see the truth she knew she was going to have to face sometime. That Guy wasn’t the man she thought he was and hadn’t been for a long time. That he and her father had knowingly led a secret criminal life. A life that had also somehow destroyed Alex.
Too many links. Too many coincidences. Too many secrets.
“Please,” she whispered hoarsely. “Let me go.”
He didn’t move. Didn’t speak. Then the hand in her hair and the arm around her waist tightened almost imperceptibly. And his mouth covered hers.
Deep down, she’d been expecting it, a part of her longing for it. Craving it. In fact, it seemed to be the most natural end to their meeting. Heat to combat the icy grip of shock. God, one of the most intriguing aspects about Gabriel Woolf was that on the surface he could be so cold, like ice. Like granite. Yet, under that, he was a furnace hot enough to melt metal.
Certainly enough to melt her. Burn her to ashes.
Are you crazy? You can’t do this with him again.
Yes, she could. And she would. He was a drug she couldn’t refuse, an addiction she couldn’t resist. And right now, still reeling from everything he’d told her, all she wanted to do was get high. On him.
So she didn’t fight. She opened her mouth under his instead and let his kiss take her. Fill her up with desire and hunger. Replace all the shock and the questions with pleasure, with sensation. Anything so she didn’t have to think, if only for a moment.
He made a deep, hungry noise in the back of his throat, thrilling her right down to the bone. His fingers curled painfully tight in her hair, pulling her head back even farther, the kiss becoming deeper. Harder. Consuming her.
She dropped her purse and pressed her palms against the wall of his chest, loving the feel of hard, hot muscle beneath the cotton of his T-shirt.
He broke away all of a sudden, his eyes glittering, a stripe of color on his cheekbones. “What are you—” she began, only to have her question cut off as he took her hands and held them behind her back, locking his fingers around her wrists. Then he forced her against him again, gripping her chin in his free hand and taking her mouth in another annihilating, savage kiss.
Somehow it felt different from what had happened between them in Vermont. He’d been slow then. Almost methodical. But he wasn’t either of those things now. She could taste desperation in his kiss. Hunger. A wild edge that had her own desire stretched to the limits of control.