She flinched at the word, but he didn’t stop.
“At the time, I didn’t know why, but now I get it.”
She curled away from him, hands still protecting her stomach, and it hurt him to see her like this, it did. But he had to know.
“What do they have on you?”
Her eyes snapped to his, wide with shock. “What?”
“You’re a lot of things, Vivienne. Brilliant, beautiful and ballsy as hell. But you do not have the computer skills to have done this to me on your own.”
Anger flared in her eyes and tightened her jaw. “You don’t know that. You have no idea what I’m capable of. You still think I’m that naive, wide-eyed girl who threw herself at you at a frat party. But I’m not, Wes. I’m not her. I haven’t been for a long time.”
Naive. Not a word he’d ever associated with her. She’d been optimistic, and determined and sexually explosive, but she’d never been naive.
She just hadn’t been this jaded. This brittle. The change was startling, and now that he’d seen it, he couldn’t believe he hadn’t noticed it before. “You’re not like I remember you.”
The idle observation startled a bitter laugh from her. “I guess it shouldn’t surprise me it took you this long to notice. I mean, that was always our problem, wasn’t it? Good at sex, bad at communication? Sorry to shatter your illusions, but we all have to grow up sometime.”
She brushed past him, and he let her, but he followed her out of the kitchen, through the living room, around the corner to the hallway that led to her bedroom.
He didn’t speak until her hand was on the doorknob. “And what made you grow up, Vivienne?”
She stopped dead at the question, but she didn’t answer.
She just shut down, wilted right in front of his eyes.
Vivienne’s hand trembled on the doorknob.
She wanted him to scream at her. To feel the anger he didn’t know was his right. To be furious at her for all her secrets and how they’d ruined his life.
Why wouldn’t he scream at her?
She could feel Wes at the other end of the short hallway, feel the burn of his gaze on the back of her neck as he started to approach.
Vivienne squeezed her eyes shut until colors danced behind her eyelids. She needed him to blame her so she could repent. But there was nothing, no punishment to absolve her guilt. Wes was angry, yes, but not at her. On her behalf. And that was more than she could take.
Forcing herself to turn around, Vivienne channeled the frosty demeanor that had held her together for the last six years and faced the man she’d ruined.
The concern in his blue eyes almost sent her to her knees, confusing the situation, melting her resolve. Wanting him. Missing him. It all got jumbled up as they stood there, and she grabbed hold of defensiveness, because angry seemed like a safer option than sad. Especially in the face of his pity.
“Don’t look at me like that. Like I’m innocent.”
She planted her hand on his chest, and Wes looked down at the point of contact before meeting her gaze, his eyes full of questions.
Angry sex had always been a forte of theirs. He knew she was provoking him, but he couldn’t figure out why. And that was good. She wanted him a little off balance. Not so in control.
With a raise of her brow, she gave him a hard shove. Hard enough that he took a step back, but still there was no anger in his voice. Just resignation. “What are you doing, Viv?”
“I did this to you.”
She moved to push him again, but he grabbed her by the upper arms, and just for a second, his fingers bit into her flesh before he loosened them. She was getting to him, the flash of pain proved it. A glimpse of the loss of composure that she craved.
“But not by yourself.”
She couldn’t atone without his censure. Couldn’t banish the black tendrils of guilt that snaked through her chest, wound around her lungs, squeezed her heart. There was no catharsis in his kindness.
“Why not? You don’t think I can hurt you? You don’t think I have the power?”
His hands tightened on her arms again.
Yes. This was what she needed. What she deserved for keeping the truth from him. His rage. She could feel it now, pulsing just beneath the surface.
“Who else knows you like I do?” she goaded. “Who else knows your worst fear is ending up like your father?”
She could feel the leashed emotion rushing through him, and the darkness of it called to her, made her blood run hot.
“I ruined your company. I put you in jail.”
The lash of her words had the intended effect. She could read it in the darkening of his eyes, the way his breathing picked up. His chest heaved as he stared at her. His fingers dug into her skin as he jerked her closer.
Vindication surged through her blood at the lapse of his control.
There was barely any space between them, but it was still too much.
“Stop it,” he warned, his voice low and dangerous.
“Make me.” Vivienne lifted her head a fraction of an inch, and when he didn’t move, she leaned forward and bit his bottom lip.
He sucked in his breath and went still, and then everything happened at once. Wes hauled her close, crushing her to him, first with his arms, and then she was pinned against the wall so tightly that it knocked the breath from her lungs. Rough. Perfect.
Vivienne clutched at his shoulders as he ground his hips against her, and when he grunted into her mouth, she was enraptured.
Elemental. Animalistic. She wanted him to use her. Wanted to use him right back.
Fucking to drown out the emotion that threatened to consume her if she let it.
Straightforward, and simple, and so damn good.
And if he wouldn’t give her what she needed, she’d take it from him. She’d
