Trapped with the Tycoon(29)

“Did you search my house?” she asked, agony lacing her voice as she scooted back from him and clutched the sheet up around her neck as if she needed a shield of protection.

Braden swallowed the lie that could easily slip out. He wasn’t that guy, not with her. Not anymore. “Yes.”

Her lips clamped together as moisture gathered in her eyes. “And helping me go through my grandmother’s things. That was another way for you to search?”

He nodded as lead settled in his gut.

“That was why you flipped out when you saw me holding that tube.” Her eyes darted away as she spoke, as if she were playing the day back through her mind and realizing what he’d done. “You were in such a hurry to get back here, you wanted that opened so you could see inside it.”

“There was nothing in it.”

Tear-filled eyes swung back to him. “So now what? You need to do another search? Why didn’t you just ask me in the beginning?”

Another gasp escaped her seconds before a tear slid down her cheek. She didn’t bother to swipe it away, and that wet track mocked him. He’d done this to her. He’d hurt her, on purpose, but he’d had no other way initially. Not only that, he’d justified his actions.

“You hiring me wasn’t because of my abilities at all,” she whispered, scooting back. “You were using me from the start.”

Before he could defend himself—and what could he say that wouldn’t sound terrible—Zara sprang from the bed and started pulling clothes from her suitcase.

“I’ve been such a fool,” she declared as she pulled on a pair of panties. “You’ve been playing me for months. I refused to believe the rumors about your business, about how ruthless and conniving the O’Sheas are. Now I know the truth. I won’t let you use me again.”





Eighteen

Zara’s hands shook—from anger, from hurt, from the urgency to get the hell out of here. She couldn’t get dressed quick enough.

“You’re not leaving.”

Zara yanked a sweatshirt over her head. “If I have to walk home, I’m not staying with you another second. I refuse to be with a liar and a manipulator, with a man who claims to care for me, yet you lie about everything.”

Braden stood, grabbed a pair of boxer briefs and jerked them on before coming around the side of the bed. “There’s so much about my business I can’t share with you, Zara. We do what we have to do, and, yes, we use people, we’ve lied, we’ve cheated. But everything you and I have shared was genuine and real.”

“Real?” she cried as she turned to him, her hands propped on her hips. “How can anything be real when the trust was clearly one-sided? Do you know how hard I fought what was happening between us? I kept telling myself that we couldn’t get involved, that anything I felt for you was all superficial. Your power, your charm, everything about you drew me in, and then you went and showed me that sweet, caring side that had my guard coming down.”

Zara refused to give into the sting of tears. She blinked them away before continuing, because if he wanted honesty, he was about to get it.

“I believed everything you said to me,” she went on, her tone softening because the fight was going out of her. “I believed every touch, every promise. The fact that you sought me out to purposely use me cuts me like nobody else’s actions or words ever has. How did you plan on getting into my house once you hired me? Seduction? You succeeded. I guess this storm really played well into your hands.”

Another thought gripped her. “Shane warned me your family were liars and manipulators. I ignored him because I thought he was jealous. Looks like he might have had my best interest at heart after all.”

“Zara.”

He started to reach for her, but she stepped back, bumping into the small table her suitcase laid on. She skirted around it, never taking her eyes off him.

“Do you think I’m going to let you touch me? You did this. You destroyed something I was starting to hope for, something I’d already settled into. Damn it, Braden, I was falling for you, and you betrayed everything good that I had in my life. My self-confidence, my business, us.”

She let out a lifeless laugh at his pained expression. “There never was an us, though. There was you sneaking behind my back, using me, and then there was me being naive and hopeful.”

“Would you listen to me?”

Braden took a step forward and came within inches of her. Zara refused to back up, back down. She would put up a strong front before him if it killed her. She could collapse later in the privacy of her empty home.

“The deceit started when I hired you for who you were. I can’t deny that. And, yes, I wanted to find a way into your house by gaining your trust. But the moment I got into your house, the second I touched you intimately, something changed for me. I still wanted to find what I came for, but I also wanted you and not just in bed. You did something to me, Zara. I can’t let you go.”

He seemed so heartfelt, so genuine, yet none of that mattered because it all came down to the fact he’d lied and betrayed her.

“You have no choice,” she retorted, crossing her arms over her chest to keep more hurt from seeping into her heart. “You should’ve come clean before you took me to bed, because now all I think is you slept with me to gain my trust. You manipulated me, used my feelings.”

Zara glanced around the room and let out a sigh. Ignoring Braden, she pushed past him to gather her things from the bathroom. Her eyes darted to the garden tub where memories had been made. Never again would she be a fool over a man. She should’ve listened to her heart in the first place.

Grabbing her lotion, toothbrush, bubble bath and razor, Zara came back out and dumped it all into her suitcase. She didn’t care if anything leaked over her clothes; she had bigger issues at the moment.

With a swift jerk, she zipped up her luggage and turned back to Braden, who still hadn’t moved. “I want someone to take me home. Not you.”

The muscle in Braden’s jaw ticked as he nodded. “Ryker is still here. I’ll have him take you.”

Zara extended the handle on her suitcase and started for the door. When Braden reached for it, she shot him a look. “Don’t touch it. From here on out, I need nothing from you.”

Before she could open the door, Braden slapped his hand on it, caging her between the wood and his hard body. “I’m letting you walk away because you need to think about this, about us. But I’m not giving up on you, Zara. You know in your heart everything between us was real. You felt it in my touch. That’s something even I can’t lie about.”

Zara closed her eyes, wishing she could stop his words from penetrating so deeply into her heart. He’d already taken up too much space there. Surrounded by his heat, his masculine scent, Zara needed to get out of here where she could be alone and think without being influenced by this sexy man...a man she’d thought had a heart of gold. He only proved those men didn’t exist.

“Let me go,” she whispered. “I can’t be here. I can’t do this. Romance isn’t real after all, is it?”

When his hand settled on her shoulder, she nearly lost it. Because no matter what he’d done to her, she couldn’t just turn off her feelings.

“Don’t shut me out,” he whispered against her ear.

Steeling herself against his charms, his control over her, she shifted so his hand fell away. “You shut yourself out.”

“Let me get dressed and I’ll find Ryker for you.”

Zara threw him a look over her shoulder. “I’ll find him. I’ve already told you from here on out, you’re not needed.”

Pushing away, she opened the door and headed out into the hall. She’d never met this Ryker Braden had talked about, but surely she could find him and get the hell out of here.

She’d wait outside in the freezing cold if she had to. It couldn’t be any colder than the bedroom they’d shared.

* * *

Awkward was such a mild word for this car ride back to her house. And because the roads were still covered, the trip took twice as long.

Zara didn’t dare glance over to her driver. The man was built like a brick wall with coal-black hair and dark eyes. She could easily see why he was the O’Sheas’ go-to guy. He had that menacing, brooding look down perfectly. Fitting for being the right-hand man for a lying, cheating family.

And the scar running along his neck? The man had barely said a word to her other than “hi” and “the truck is over here,” but he had badass written all over him.

“I’ve never pried into Braden’s personal life.”

Zara jerked in her seat at the deep tone and the fact he was actually going to bring up the proverbial elephant parked in the truck with them. “Then don’t start now,” she countered.

“I owe him,” Ryker said simply before continuing. “He’s never brought a woman back to the house, so whatever is going on between the two of you, it’s serious. The O’Sheas are a private family. Other than the parties in the ballroom, no outsiders come into their home.”

And that told her more than she needed to know. They were all hiding something.

Zara stared out the window. “You may owe him loyalty, but I owe him nothing. He’s a liar.”