Page 53 of Illicit Games

“You guys realize the party has begun downstairs, right?” Nathan interrupts. “And you two are the hosts.”

“Crap,” curses Rosalie. “Let’s move, people!”

I stand up, but before I can take a step, Nathan captures my wrist.

I tense at his touch, wanting to yank my arm out of his grip. He has lost the right to touch me. The presence of our friends holds me back from acting on impulse.

“We’ll join you downstairs in a minute,” he announces.

“Wasn’t two weeks enough to reunite with your fiancée, Nathan?” mocks Rosalie. “I need my best friend by my side tonight.”

“Rose,” commands Nova. “Leave them be.”

“Fine.” Waving a finger at Nathan, she warns, “Ten minutes, then I’m stealing her away.”

As soon as the three of them disappear, I rip my hand from his and put distance between us. “Don’t touch me, Nathan.”

“I don’t bite.”

“No, you just stab people in the back.”

“I’m getting rather sick of your double standards, Iris,” he retorts, irritated. “You’re acting like me breaking your trust is different and much worse than what you tried to do. If I deceived you for three years, so did you.”

“That is different.”

“How?”

“Because I never deceived you,” I cry out, angry tears burning my eyes. “My friendship and loyalty to you were real. I was willing to sacrifice two years of my life for you. When I said yes to you, I had given up on ever being with Kian. And when we did end up together, I came to talk to you and confess the truth because I cared about you. Instead of showing me the same decency, you blackmailed me into marrying you. That’s the bloody difference.” Wiping away the wayward tears, I murmur, “Everything I did was for love. For you, it was hate.”

A sardonic smile curves his mouth as he says, “Relationships built on lies are never real. If you were a true friend, like you boast you are, you wouldn’t have waited until Kian desired you back to come clean to me. Every day you kept quiet for the last three years, you stabbed me in the back. Our reasons may be different, but otherwise we’re the same.”

“So, you’re going to continue blackmailing me?”

“Depends.” His gaze sharpens lethally. “Are you still together with Kian? I know you’re still working for him.”

I don’t fall for the bait. “You mean after you told him I’m his stalker?”

“He was going to find out sooner or later.”

The lack of remorse in his taunt kills any affection I ever held for him. Nathan is a lost cause, driven by misplaced rage and loathing. If I don’t protect myself, he’ll take me down with him.

“I hope you realize that if you tell Kian about my role in his company, it wouldn’t just be me you’d be hurting, but endangering the justice those missing women deserve.”

“Then you better do as I say.”

I’m speechless.

“One day you’re going to wake up and regret the choices you’re making. By then, you’ll have pushed away every person who ever loved you, including me.”

Inching closer, he tips my chin with a fingertip, whispering, “It’s a good thing you never loved me.”

My heart thuds.

Dropping his hand, his mask slips back on. Moving toward the door, he says over his shoulder, “Our friends are waiting. Let’s go.”

Composing myself, I lift the long skirt of my gown and follow after him.

He’s waiting in the elevator, holding the door open for me. I step inside, keeping my distance as the car begins to descend.