“I want you to let me go after I tell you this,” I told him in the most seductive voice I could manage.
“Nice try, Julia, but you know you I can’t do that.” He laughed hoarsely and grabbed my arms with his massive hands. He pushed me back away from him. There was no humor, no desire in his eyes. They were hard, stony. In fact, he looked like he was on the verge of another angry outburst.
“I don’t know if I should tell you, then,” I said. I felt like a prisoner in his MC’s headquarters. I wondered if he would ever let me leave, for any reason.
“Oh, you should,” he growled. “That is unless you want me to throw you down there with Dimitri.”
Panicked questions swirled around my head. Why was he turning on me like this? Was Dimitri right about Gage? Had he been playing me the whole time? Was I doomed to share Dimitri’s fate in spite of everything that had happened? I didn’t understand how this man who had seemed so caring could suddenly be so mean and cold.
“I’m waiting, Julia.”
I gave in. “Okay. Let go of me and let me stay out of the basement. If you can do those things, I’ll tell you. Since you won’t let me go.”
“Done, but you’re not leaving until this is over. I want to make sure you’re safe.”
I supposed that was the best offer I was going to get from him. I sighed. I realized I probably wasn’t going to get away at all, no matter what happened. The best I could do was to play along until I found an opportunity to leave on my own.
“He says the mayor is going to be part of a big drug deal that should be going down soon. He said Ivan’s arranging a massive drug deal that’s going to include the mayor and a few other corrupt government and law enforcement officials, but he won’t tell me who the others are.” I said it in one breath, giving up the only hope I had for leverage against my imprisonment.
“I knew I could count on you.” Gage cupped the back of my head and kissed my forehead. Once again, his demeanor was pleasant. I began to wonder if it wasn’t all just a game to him. Maybe Dimitri had been right after all.
Gage held me close to him and wrapped his arms around me. He kissed me, pushing his lips forcefully against mine. I didn’t return his kiss, and he gripped my hair, tilting my head back.
“You don’t want to celebrate?” he growled. “I can make you want to.” He placed a hand between my legs and started rubbing his fingers against my jeans.
His touch drove me crazy, and he knew that, but I couldn’t let him distract me. I couldn’t give in and pretend that everything was fine. I decided I wasn’t going to let him use sex as a weapon against me anymore.
“No, Gage.” I pushed his hand away from my crotch and pulled myself back from him.
“No? You don’t tell me no,” he said with a cruel laugh.
“I do now,” I informed him. “Besides, you have work to do. You’ve got the information you want. Now is not the time to distract yourself with sex.”
“But it is a good time to celebrate,” he argued, reaching for me again.
“No, it’s not. Nothing has happened. Nothing has been solved. You need to get your men together and do whatever it is you’re going to do.” I was shocked at the strength I heard in my own voice.
Then, in an effort to seal the deal and redirect his attention, I stepped closer to him. I ran a hand gently down the side of his face and spoke in his ear again.
“We can celebrate when this is over. I’ll be waiting for you, and I want you to do all those things you’ve been afraid to do to me because you think I’m too inexperienced.”
It worked. He looked at me with hope in his eyes, kissed me quickly, and headed out the door. He went down the hallway to the stairs without as much as a glance back. He knew—or thought he knew—that I would still be around when the job was finished, but, in reality, I needed the time to figure out how I was going to leave. Getting him off my back and out of my pants was the first step to getting out of here.
As he walked away from me, trusting me to be here when he came back for me, I couldn’t help but feel a certain measure of satisfaction that I’d completed my task. I sat down on the bed behind me and let the small sense of closure wash over me. I had finished my job for him, and I would be rewarded handsomely if the information checked out. I would be able to pay off some of my mother’s medical debt and start moving forward with my life, instead of always trying to live in the shadow of her dementia.
As long as she suffered, there would be new bills, but paying off the old ones would help immensely. I hadn’t said anything to Gage about it. Giving myself time to think about it, I realized we didn’t know each other all that well. It had been one hell of a whirlwind romance, but I hadn’t really let him that far into my life. He’d been in my body, and I couldn’t help wanting him back in there every time I saw him. Dear Lord, there was something so incredibly sexy about that man. He was everything I had never wanted, but with him, it was right. Gage Noll made the undesirable irresistible.