Billion Dollar Bad Boy (Big City Billionaires)(53)

His teeth bruised me as his kiss smothered my mind. Pleasure and pain sponged through my skin. I was ready for war, not for this. I wanted to hate him, and in a way, I still did. But betrayal wasn't enough to lock my senses away from someone like him.

I gasped for air when he freed me. The fervor in his eyes was disorienting, I had the strangest suspicion that he was just as lost as I was. “You,” he hissed out, the word as permanent as a tattoo on his flesh. “I came back because of you.”

My blink was sluggish; I struggled in his grip, yet he just squeezed me harder. “That isn't an answer, I want a real answer!”

His whole face crumbled, I saw his molars as he shouted. “I couldn't stop thinking about you! Is that what you need to hear?”

Quicker and quicker, I was floating away from my own body.

What does he mean?

He spat out more words, each coming hotter—more furious—than the last. “I couldn't get you out of my mind!” Laughing, Silver cupped his temples and backed away. “And then you went and forgot about me.”

I slumped on the wall, my knees giving out until I sank to the floor. “I don't... I don't understand.”

“Neither do I.” Rubbing the bridge of his nose, Silver backed up into his desk so violently it shook. His nameplate fell to the floor, ignored entirely. “Why would a girl I'd met for a few mere minutes be hammered into my skull?”

He wasn't watching me. It was one of the few moments where he wasn't. Able to study the curve of his nose and the way his hair faded down his temples, I thought he looked exceptionally tired.

Then he jabbed his eyes back at me, and I jumped. “Do you want to know what I figured out?” he asked.

“Please,” I said on impulse.

He smiled with one side of his mouth. “I like that word on your lips.” His chest flared, like he was gathering himself. “This is what I know. That day we met—that fateful little moment? I was at the climax of finally getting the revenge I'd been desperate for. I had no intention of staying in this city once I was done. I was ready to forget everything.”

Every answer he spit just gave me new questions. I didn't want to stop the flow of information I was getting, so I sat on my hands and listened quietly.

Silver said, “A year after robbing those bastards, you still lingered in my thoughts. Fuck, it was frustrating!” Laughing without humor, he hung his head. He was speaking to the floor, or maybe himself. I felt like an observer. “You were no one, and I was becoming someone. I used money and my growing power to invest in more of both. It was easy, and finding women to distract myself with was even easier.”

A splinter of disgust stabbed into me. Stop. Fucking stop. I was here for answers, not to question if learning the truth would divide Silver and me even more. I didn't want to be connected! He'd wronged me... and I had to keep that in my heart.

I had to.

“No matter how many girls I screwed, though... at the end of everything, as I fell asleep or my mind wandered, you were there.” He lifted his eyes, burning me like an ageless sun. “You, Alexis Willow. The girl from my past.”

My blood flash-flooded my veins, making my heart pound.

In the recess of his voice, I sensed his sincerity. “I knew I had to make you my present.”

Clutching at the sides of my knees, I summoned pain, fear, anything to smother my rising delight. No matter how I tried, I couldn't get my rage to clog the path to my soul.

My voice cracked. “You came back just to be with me?” A wave of light-headedness made me sway where I sat. “How did you even find me?”

“I had your name.” He cracked a wider grin. “I've got some talent with using information, remember? I'm the infamous hacker that got away.” It should have felt like he was bragging. It didn't. “I've been watching you for so long, trying to grasp what made you so chronically addicting.”

“So you were stalking me,” I whispered.

“Yes. When you asked me that on our first date, I was surprised.”

First date? “I still don't understand. What did I do to you?” How had I affected this bold, impossibly forceful man?

Silver leaned forward. His fingers crushed the rim of the desk, knuckles turning white. “That day in the bank, do you remember what we talked about?”

“I don't know. I really don't.”

“Money, right?”

I breathed out through my nose. “Yes. You were robbing the damn bank, of course it was about money.”

He chuckled, and the sound made me stare at him. “Not my money. Yours. Alexis, you offered me everything you had.”

Had I done that? Digging back, I remembered what he meant. I'd handed him my bank info, imploring him to take the money I'd set aside. I'd wanted him to leave everyone alone, flee before an errant bullet was fired from him or a brave cop.

Silver gripped the desk harder, I waited for the wood to splinter. “You needed that money, didn't you?”

“It was going to be for college. For leaving the city.” Acid bubbled on my tongue. “I spent it all on therapy instead. It took me forever to handle my anxiety well enough to get a f*cking job.”

“Because of me.” It wasn't a question.

“Because of you, yes.”