Dungeon Games (Masters and Mercenaries #6.5)(47)

“Are you seriously going to spend the rest of the night not talking to me?”

He was too pissed to talk and his anger wasn’t all with Karina. He was pissed as shit at himself because he knew better. He knew better than to let himself really think he could have her for anything beyond a brief moment in time. What the hell had he been thinking? The minute he walked away from her she was in someone else’s arms. O’Donnell’s. God, he hated the f*cker.

And he was pretty sure O’Donnell knew her secrets. “Let’s just get upstairs. We don’t have long before we need to be at the club.”

“Why don’t we take the night off?”

He turned to her. “We have a job to do.”

“We can take a single night off.”

So they could what? So he could f*ck her and fall more for her and then watch while she played around with O’Donnell? “The club won’t be open Sunday through Tuesday. We can take plenty of time off then.” She was leaning against the car door, staring at him with big eyes. So f*cking pretty it hurt to look at her. “Unless you have something you want to talk about tonight? Is that it? Do you have something to tell me?”

Maybe if she was just honest with him, they could deal with it. She was so open when he was making love to her, but the minute he wanted to talk she clammed up. She turned it right back around and he found himself talking.

She was hiding something from him and it was starting to make him crazy.

He’d talked to her. Really opened up. He’d told her things he hadn’t told another person in the world, but she wouldn’t give him anything.

Was she using him? Was he just another in a string of men she played with? Would she expect him to be all buddy buddy with her after they were done? He wasn’t sure he could be friends with her.

“No, I just thought we could have dinner and maybe watch some TV. I don’t know, Derek. I’m just tired.”

And avoiding the subject. “You might be tired, but that won’t mean a damn thing to the guy who’s after you. I’m wondering how he knew about that e-mail when you seem to have forgotten it.”

She shook her head and he couldn’t help but think about how the setting sun hit her hair, bringing out the warmth of the color. It always seemed so dark, but when the light hit it just the right way, he could see some auburn in there. “I have no idea. Derek, I’m not trying to hide an e-mail from you. I really haven’t checked that account since Kevin died.”

“He died?” He’d asked her a couple of times about her marriage, but she’d put him off. Fuck, he’d been sleeping with her and she hadn’t even mentioned she was a widow. Her husband had died and she’d never even mentioned it to him.

“Yes. And he died years ago so you can see how long it’s been since I checked that e-mail.” She was so reasonable. So rational. Like it didn’t matter. Did he matter to her at all? “Hey, I’ll give you the passwords to all my accounts and then you won’t have to hack into them the way that Harris jerk did. I’ll let you look through my computer if it makes you feel better.” She put a hand on his shoulder. “Come upstairs, Derek. I was thinking about lasagna for dinner. How does that sound?”

She was trying to distract him again. This was what she did. When he tried to convince her to be real with him, she distracted him with sex and food. Anything except to talk to him. “How did he die?”

She shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about this. Come on. Can’t we just have a nice afternoon? You’re right. We have to work tonight. We have to go in and get it done. So let’s go upstairs and just relax until we have to go to the club.”

“What are you hiding from me?” He was sick of waiting, sick of hoping she would open up to him. He needed the truth. He couldn’t stand this. It was like walking through uncharted territory and never knowing when quicksand would swallow him up.

“I’m not hiding anything.”

He leaned forward. “I think you are.”

She pushed her finger against his chest. “Good for you, Derek. Hey, guess what? You’re a f*cking cop. Maybe you should do what cops do and investigate.”

This wasn’t working. When he put her in a corner, she just fought and kicked and scratched. He needed her to talk, needed her to want to tell him. He softened his tone, his stance. He crowded her a little, but not in an aggressive way. Maybe she would respond to his honesty. “Tell me about him, Karina. Tell me your secrets. How bad could it be? Alex told me I need to see you, but how can I do that if you hide from me? This is not how this relationship is supposed to work. We’re supposed to be honest with each other.”

And he’d given her that. He’d really talked to her. She might not have liked everything she heard, but he’d opened up. He’d talked about his past. He’d talked about what he wanted for his future.

He leaned over and kissed her forehead. “Please, baby. Talk to me.”

“Don’t call me that.”

His jaw tightened. He’d forgotten she didn’t like to be called baby, but now he had to wonder why. “Because he called you that? I can’t call you baby because you were his baby?”

Tears glistened in her eyes, but she didn’t shed them. “I don’t know.”

His hands came up, gentle as he pushed back her hair. “I don’t know if you won’t talk to me about him because you loved him too much or because you didn’t love him at all. I’ve stayed away from this because I would rather hear the story from you. Do you know how hard that’s been for me? I didn’t even know the reason you weren’t married anymore. I thought you were divorced. I didn’t know why the marriage broke up. Just tell me about him.”