The Game (24 page)

I jumped out of his reach and stepped backward, holding out both hands. “I don’t care
what happens between you and Christine. You can get back together with her for all
I care. In fact, I wish you would so she would leave me alone. I just want to get
out of here and move on with my life.”

His face fell. What? Was he shocked? Jesus.

“That’s not what I want.”

“I don’t care what you want, Riley. Don’t you understand? Why is it always about what
you want? How about asking me what I want for a change?”

Mr. Parson stood and cleared his throat. “I’m going to let you two sort this out without
an audience. I just wanted to let you know how sorry I am for perpetuating this problem,
Ms. Decard. And I want all three of you to know that I’ll be working with the police
to locate my daughter and turn her in. I’m mortified and embarrassed beyond belief.
I didn’t raise her to be such a bitch.”

I flinched when he called his own daughter such a derogatory name. Deserving, but
still…

He nodded and turned to leave. “You’ve got my number, Riley, if you hear anything.
I’ll be in town several more days until this is wrapped up.”

“I do. And thank you, sir.” He followed Mr. Parson toward the foyer.

“I’m just sorry it came to this. I hope you two can work things out.” The older man
spun around and waved at me.

I nodded.

Parker reached out a hand to shake mine. “Sorry about all this. Give Riley a chance.
I know you’re pissed, but he’s a good guy, and I know he really cares about you.”
He smiled broadly and left me standing by the couch.

Great. Joy. I would be alone with Riley.

I crossed my arms and tapped a foot, wondering how long I needed to stay here and
endure more groveling before I could escape.

The front door shut with a resounding click that left us in silence.

Riley came back into view, his hands in his pockets. He leaned against the back of
the couch and stared at me. “You gonna give me a chance here?”

“No.” I shook my head. “I don’t see the point.”

He took a deep breath and righted himself. “Cheyenne, the point is I can’t imagine
letting you go. I know we haven’t been together long, but it feels right, and I want
to explore it further.”

“I guess you should have thought of that before you lied to me.”

“I never lied to you.” He narrowed his gaze.

“Semantics. And you know it.”

“Fine. But there was no way I was going to let that woman drive over you with a freight
train just because you thought you could handle it. You had no idea what you were
up against.”

“And you did?”

“No. But I had far more information than you did.”

“Then you should have shared more details.”

“I’ll admit that. I could have handled things better.”

“Call the presses.” I rolled my eyes.

Riley chuckled.

I was in no mood for funny.

He sobered. “She contacted me.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“Friday. Said she wanted to meet.”

“Did you?”

“Fuck no.” He furrowed his brow in frustration. “But that only made her angrier. She
threatened me.”

“How?”

“She wanted to make a trade. If I would break up with you and start seeing her again,
she would leave you alone.”

“Jesus.”

“Yeah, so I told her I’d think about it, and then I called Parker and told him I was
heading to Charlotte and he needed to arrange a meet with her father.”

“You told her you’d think about it?” My voice rose with each syllable.

“Cheyenne, I was lying. Give me some credit. I needed to get my ducks in a row, and
I didn’t want her to come after you over the weekend. It was a bit of a cease-fire
I suppose.”

“And you didn’t think I should know this?”

He blew out a breath. “I should have told you.”

“Ya think?” I wanted to scream.

We stood staring at each other for a long time.

“I should spank you.”

“You should find someone else who likes to be ordered around and spanked.” Though
I squirmed at the mention, pissed at my traitorous body for finding his suggestion
so sexy.

He inched toward me.

I backed up.

When he stopped, he continued. “She called me other times as well. I ignored her.”

“When?”

“Ever since that night we saw her at Sky. She would call and hang up sometimes. Other
times she would leave a groveling voice message. Sometimes sweet as molasses, other
times threatening or demanding. I knew she was cracked.”

I said nothing.

“When I found out she was suddenly your boss, I lost it. I knew she would flatten
you like a pancake and brush the crumbs off her hands as she walked away. I didn’t
want that for you.”

“And yet, it happened anyway.”

“I see that.” He held my gaze in a way that I found it impossible to break the stare.
“The police will find her. She’ll go to jail for this.”

“Must be embarrassing for you.”

He smirked. “Cheyenne, not in the slightest. I feel like an idiot for maintaining
a relationship with her for so many years and ignoring the signs that she was only
in it for the money. But other than that, I can hold my head high. At least I didn’t
marry her.” He shuddered.

“Yay for you. Can I go now?”

“No.” He stepped closer.

“Riley, we’re done here. Let me leave.”

“No. We aren’t done, and I don’t want you to leave. Ever.”

“Ever? That’s crazy. I can’t trust you, and I have about a thousand problems to solve
before I can leave town.”

“You aren’t leaving town.”

“You can’t tell me what to do, Riley. I’m a grown woman.”

“I can see that.” His gaze wandered up and down my body. “And I wish you would drop
your arms and stop trying to hide the details.”

I wrapped them tighter around myself. “Apparently we don’t always get what we want.”

“When did you get so stubborn?”

“When I asked you to stay out of my problems and you sent my proposal to my boss behind
my back.”

He was in my space now, and I’d backed up until I had nowhere else to go. My legs
were against the arm of the couch. He reached up and tucked a lock of my messy curls
behind one ear. In a gentle voice, he spoke again, “What do you think would have happened
if I hadn’t done that?”

“Christine would have handled that account, and we would have gone on as if it were
hers, nobody the wiser.”

“And you think your problems would have ended there? She would have simply assigned
you another project and given you credit for it and moved on?”

I bit my lip. Probably not. “Doubtful, but I would have eventually quit and moved
on.”

“Letting her win.”

“Yes.” I stood taller and shook his fingers from my cheek as he stroked my skin. “Riley,
I don’t care who wins. I just want her out of my life. If I had fought her, she would
have made my life miserable.”

“More miserable than she actually did?” He lifted one eyebrow.

Damn him. He had a point there too.

“I don’t think she ever would have stopped until she had me back and you gone. In
fact, I’m sure of it.”

He was probably right.

“And it wouldn’t have mattered if she worked at Talent Marketing Group or not. Once
she saw us together, you were on her hit list.” He stepped even closer until inches
separated us. His hand slid back to bury in my hair, his fingers threading into the
curly mess and tugging my head back so I fully faced him. “Don’t. Let. Her. Win.”

Is that what I was doing? I didn’t see it that way. The way I saw it, I didn’t want
to get involved in Riley’s fucked-up mess, and I sure didn’t want my life ruined.

“She got under your skin.”

True.

“She wants us to break things off.”

“I’m sure she does.”

“Do you think I would get back together with her?”

“I don’t care.”

“Don’t you?” He leaned closer.

I licked my lips, hating the way my body was drawn to his like a magnet. My panties
were wet, and I squeezed my legs together to stave off the desire brewing between
them. He smelled so damn good, and the intensity in his stare was enough to make anyone
go weak in the knees.

Okay. I cared. I couldn’t stand the visual of Riley with Christine. It made me want
to vomit. Even the thought of him being with her for so many years made my blood boil.

“No matter what you choose to do, Christine is going to jail, and I’m never going
to have anything to do with her. But it will piss me off if she succeeds in ruining
this fantastic thing I have with you because you’re afraid to take a chance on me.”

“I’m not afraid,” I retorted.

“Really?” He dared to kiss my nose and then gently set his lips on mine for a moment
before pulling back a few inches. “Mmm. You always taste so sweet. I hated missing
our weekend together. My cock was hard the entire time thinking of what I would have
rather been doing with you.”

“What were you doing?”

“I told you I was in Charlotte, with Harold and Parker, trying to sort things out
and get a handle on this situation.”

“How did her father get involved?”

“Parker called him.”

“Parker?”

“Yep. I didn’t have the balls to do it myself, and Parker was fed up. He called him
and told him to call off his daughter and get her ass out of Georgia and back to Virginia,
or we would fire his ass and find someone else to handle the account.”

I gasped.

“Yeah. So, I had no choice but to get involved and head to Charlotte Friday. I needed
to grow some balls and meet with Harold myself and tell him what happened a year ago.”

“And he believed you?”

“Not at first, but he was diplomatic since we’re one of his largest accounts and it
was clear we weren’t kidding around about firing him. Especially since Cade made the
trip too.”

“Geez.”

“Yeah.” He kissed my lips again. This time I didn’t draw back as quickly. God, he
made me melt. I didn’t want to react to him this way.

“You still lied to me.”

“I didn’t do it with malicious intent, baby. I did it to save your ass.”

I could see that, but I still didn’t like it. “Doesn’t matter. I don’t want you to
go behind my back ever and do something I asked you not to do, not for any reason.
If you disagreed with me, you should have explained yourself better instead.”

“Agreed.”

I released my tight grip around my middle and pushed on his chest to back him up a
pace. “Give me space, Riley. Stop crowding me.”

He stepped back and dropped his hand from its tangle in my hair. “Please, baby.”

His face was drawn with the fear I would leave.

I stepped out from between him and the couch and paced the room, trying to figure
out what to do without being completely surrounded by his overbearing warmth and scent.

Riley spun around to watch me. “I need you. We’re so good together.”

“You need to boss someone around,” I pointed out.

“Not someone.
You
.”

“We need a renegotiation.” Was I actually going to give him another shot? What was
the matter with me? I was weak from being in his house, that’s what. And so tired.
I didn’t want to argue anymore.

“I can do that. We’ll renegotiate several times a week at first, baby. That’s how
this works.”

“How
what
works, Riley?”

He waved a hand between us. “This. Our relationship.”

Was this really a relationship? I stopped pacing and crossed one leg in front of the
other, swaying a bit in an effort to clench my pussy. I crossed my arms under my chest
again. “I don’t know, Riley. I’m a bit jaded now.”

“I see that. Give me another chance.” He stepped tentatively closer. “You’re scared.
That’s understandable. This is a huge commitment. If I didn’t think you could do it,
I wouldn’t ask. If I didn’t think you were submissive, I wouldn’t have taken this
leap in the first place. Being a Dom is who I am. It’s a part of me. I can’t change
it. And I don’t think you’d want me to.”

“Actually, you didn’t think I was submissive when we first met. That’s precisely why
you took off and didn’t even have the balls to say a word to me first.”

“This is true. But I regretted that almost from the moment it happened. I even convinced
myself I could give up this way of life if I had you.”

“Seriously?” He’d never said anything like that before.

“Yeah. And then I saw you at that fundraiser and my heart jumped in my chest. I knew
I would do anything for another chance.”