Page 39 of Fated Love with You

He takes my hand and leads me toward the far side of the room, through a side door I hadn’t noticed before. The private bedroom suite.

I stop in the entryway, awestruck. The room is massive—floor-to-ceiling windows blacked out with heavy drapes, a chandelier overhead, and a king-sized bed made up in midnight gray.

He guides me into the connected bathroom, turns on the tub, and adds a splash of soap. The water warms quickly, bubbles rising until they spill over the lip and onto the tile.

Without a word, he undresses me. Slowly. Thoughtfully.

Then he shuts off the water and steps back just enough to speak.

“Four days is as long as I can give you. You’ll need to try to finish before then…”

“Yes…” is all I can manage. I’m still floating somewhere high.

He studies me, expression unreadable, as I sink slowly into the tub.

“Why the hell did you defy me and buy a one-way plane ticket after I told you not to leave?”

“I didn’t.” My voice is hoarse. “I think Kylie did it. Just in case. But I’m not going anywhere.”

He studies me, expression unreadable.

“Good,” he says. “Because you don’t get to run from this.”

End of Episode 12

Dangerous Delusions

EPISODE 13

Ryder

Three Days Later

Autumn hasn’t said a word since we left Resno’s.

We’re both seated in the backseat of a town car, the silence between us louder than anything outside.

She counted four million in real money and eight million in counterfeit. The last person I had in her position miscounted, and it took him six days. Her count perfectly matched the machine’s.

“Pull over here, please,” I say suddenly.

The driver nods and obeys.

I step out of the car and walk to her side, opening the door.

“Get out,” I say, my voice firm.

She obliges, and I pull her close to the bridge’s guard rail. We’re forty feet above the sea, and the hairs on the back of my neck are slowly rising one by one.

“Thank you for your services, Miss Jane,” I say, looking into her eyes. “I appreciate what you’ve done.”

“You could’ve told me this in the car.”

“I didn’t want the driver eavesdropping.”

“On athank you?”

“You’ve been quite the distraction for me,” I say. “And normally, I would—” I stop myself, letting the first part of that sentence linger in the air. “I don’t know what to do with you.”