Page 24 of The King (Masterpiece Duet 1)
“Follow me,” he says, turning away.
I watch his broad back, the smooth white linen. He doesn’t wait for me. He doesn’t have to. I hurry to keep pace with him, entering a room with plush leather chairs and a tinge of cigar smoke in the air.
“Have a seat,” he says, pouring two fingers of amber whiskey into a crystal glass.
He sets it down in front of me. It makes a soft chink against the warm wood table.
“I’m not thirsty,” I blurt out, my hands twisting together.
His handsome face is drawn into stark lines. “Tell me what you came here to say.”
I had felt more sure of myself in the cab. In my bedroom, imagining Damon Scott’s glinting black eyes as he told me I’d be his. Now that I’m here, my presumption seems embarrassing. My naivete even more so.
“The debt,” I start, my tongue thick and ungainly. “I can pay with… Well, you know. That’s what I came here to tell you. That I’ll have sex with you.”
“I thought you were keeping your dignity?” he asks, his voice even.
If he’s surprised, he doesn’t show it.
This is what I figured out while talking to Brennan. That my pride isn’t about sex or money. My pride is about controlling my own fate. And that’s what I’m doing here—setting the terms. This is what dignity looks like for me. Owning my own body. Deciding how it’s used.
He looks down at his hands, the way they’re folded together.
When he looks back up at me, his dark eyes are haunted. “I’m not my father.”
There is a hot air balloon in my chest, large and rising. It feels uncomfortable to look at him, but I can’t look away. “I know you aren’t.”
“You said I was like him, and I understand why you said that. There are things that I do, because this is the world that I operate in. But I don’t hurt young women. I won’t hurt you.”
A strange sense of sorrow fills me. I shouldn’t be sad that he’s giving me time. I should throw a damn party. My heart stutters as if I’m losing something important. “Why not?”
“Does it matter? I won’t press your father on the debt. You have more time now.”
Unease moves through my stomach, because we’re back to his terms. “How much time?”
He looks away, giving me a glimpse of his hard profile. It makes me realize how much I don’t know about him. Does he have friends? Or family besides his father?
Does he have a woman upstairs?
“Long enough,” he says finally.
Tension tightens the air around us, a strange pressure that builds as the seconds tick by. I should take the reprieve with a smile, but I find myself more worried than ever. “Is everything okay?”
The second the words leave my mouth I wish I could call them back. I shouldn’t care about Damon Scott, even if he did protect me once. Even if he is the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen.
He glances at me, his dark eyes impenetrable. “No.”
One word doesn’t invite more questions. My feet are rooted to the concrete, my lips forming words before I’ve given them permission. “Damon.”
Something sharp flashes over his face. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Say my name.”
I blink, slow and uncertain. “Why?”
“Because it’s what I need to get away from. This game we’re playing, the stakes are higher now. High enough that I need to leave you alone. You’re not safe.”
Undercurrents swirl around me, like the rapids that once pulled me under. I can sense the sharp rocks looming, the darkness closing in. “I don’t understand.”
“I can’t want you, Penny. I can’t even like you.”
He wants me. “Because I’m fifteen?”
A harsh laugh. “That’s not why. Do you think that could stop me? Do you think the police in this town would lift a finger to protect you from me?”
A shiver runs through me. “Stop.”
He circles me on the pavement. “That’s the point. This has to stop.”
“You’re talking in riddles,” I say, turning to keep pace with him.
His voice drops lower. “That’s what you like, isn’t it? Riddles? Puzzles? Something that will keep that sharp mind occupied for even a second. There’s been so little of that. So little mystery, hasn’t there?”
I swallow hard. “You’re the one who made me like this.”
“I’m to blame,” he murmurs, his tone sure but not sorry.
“Where are you going?”
“That’s not important. The important thing is that I won’t be near you. You’re in danger as long as I want you. As long as I follow you, as long as I have people watching you. In danger. You’ll never be safe while I’m here.”
Anticipation beats in my chest. Maybe it’s wrong to be excited by a man like him. Maybe it’s disloyal to be interested in someone else. But Damon is right. He is a riddle I can’t solve, and I’ve had so few of those. He’s a warm, breathing puzzle with wooden parts and hidden clasps.
