“So you can find a bloody Dom?” The question came out on an angry huff.
“Why shouldn’t I? Am I not worthy of one?”
He stalked toward her, crossing the space in long, lean movements. “Now who’s manipulating whom? I had my hands inside your cunt not three hours ago, and now you’re asking me to find you another man?”
She was quite shocked at the vulgar word coming out of his mouth. He’d used dirty language around her but there had been tenderness to it. He was angry now, and he wasn’t trying to hide it. Penelope started to take a step back, but if she’d learned anything at all today it was that she needed to stand her ground if he was ever going to think of her as anything but a prop. “You did that because you wanted to establish our cover. Don’t act like you’re hurt because this is all about the mission.”
He stopped about a foot away, and just for a moment she thought he might explode. Just for a moment she thought he might need to, but he calmed, soothing out the rough edges of his expression and he was silky smooth again. She could already see him thinking, working up another strategy. “Of course. I’ll show you the rest of the place and then you can get started. I’ve arranged for us to spend the early evening with Charlotte and Ian and their friends. You can meet the crew and get used to them. I need to go and call Nigel.”
“You’re going to tell him about Champion?”
“Yes.”
But he wouldn’t tell him why he hadn’t brought him in. He wouldn’t mention that he’d passed out from lack of oxygen and a possible heart problem.
Should she make a call of her own?
They had some time. She could think about it. It wasn’t her place to worry about him. He’d made that plain. It was her place to do her job and that was to give him cover and translate what he needed her to.
“How are you going to explain the CCTV tapes? Surely he’ll see them.”
“I’ve already handled it,” he replied. “Taggart’s team includes its own tech. He called and she’s already broken into the feed at Liverpool station. I believe they’ll find that portion of the tape has damage to it. They won’t be able to view it.”
“How could she do that?”
“She’s quite good. I don’t ask tech how they do what they do. I just expect them to do it.” He was quiet for a moment. “I was trying to protect you.”
Finally something real. She’d heard him talking to his enemy. After she’d walked off, she’d stayed behind the wall and listened. Basil Champion was a horrible person who had tried to use her against him.
“Did you believe him? What he said about me? Not the part about me being a slag.”
His face went red, and she watched as his hands twitched. “I’ll kill him for that.”
“It’s fine, Damon. It was a refreshing change actually. Usually when people insult me it’s about the fact that I can’t get a date, not that I’m a dirty whore.”
“Like I said, I’ll kill him.”
She shook her head. She’d immediately understood what Champion was doing, but it seemed to have eluded Damon. “They’re just words. And he didn’t really mean them. He was doing the same thing you do. He was manipulating you. He was trying to get you as angry as possible so you would make a mistake. I meant did you believe him when he talked about me being dirty in a non-sexual way?”
He’d claimed he didn’t believe she could be working for The Collective, but had he really believed it?
He laughed, a release of tension. “No. Not for a second. If there’s one thing I understand, it’s that you’re not the betraying type.” His eyes focused on her again. “It’s why I want you.”
“For the mission.”
He remained silent, his look telling her what he wanted her to know.
If only she could believe him, but he was so good at giving a person what they wanted. If she was going to get out of this with a whole heart, she had to guard it herself. “I’d like to see the rest of the place.”
He gestured to the lift. “Of course.”
She followed him, wishing the lift was slightly larger because she was so close to him their fingers touched.
She forced herself to move away, not trusting that she wouldn’t hold his hand.
* * * *
Twenty minutes later, he’d shown her the guest floor. He walked beside her, putting off the time when he would have to tell her that she wasn’t staying on this floor. He didn’t want another argument. Since her pronouncement that she wanted to explore BDSM and find her own Dom, she’d been talking about all the ways they could pretend to be a couple without actually having sex.
Like he was going to allow that to happen.
The trouble was his charm wasn’t working. She seemed to see right through it. There had been a moment down in the dungeon when he’d been sure she’d seen right through him, past all his defenses, right down to the fact that he was still a lonely boy who’d been left to fend for himself.
It was pathetic.
“The common rooms are just ahead,” he explained.
“I’m sure they’re lovely. Everything is lovely, Damon.” Her eyes glowed with pleasure, and he wondered how difficult it had been for her in that tiny town house where everything had been utilitarian and drab. Even her bedroom had been spartan, with just a bed and a dresser and a well-organized bookshelf. He’d gone with the clean-up team himself because he’d wanted to see where she lived. Yet again, Penelope Cash proved elusive because he was sure that tiny dull room wasn’t who this woman was on the inside.
And he’d been right because she delighted in the theater of his home. She’d looked around the dungeon with wonder, and he’d wished they were here for different reasons. He’d love to chase her through the garden, catch her, drag her to the soft earth and hear her gasp when he penetrated her.
The woman might just drive him mad.
They were interrupted by raucous laughter coming from a large living area.
“Come along,” Damon said, his tone still serious. He’d been meticulously polite, showing her his building and explaining how it worked. There was a whole floor of offices and a large conference room where they would all meet tomorrow to go over the particulars of the mission. The second and third floors were part of the club, including privacy rooms for members who preferred to play without eyes upon them. The time they had spent together had been awkward, with none of the seemingly easy intimacy from before.