Page 13 (1/1)

"How very artsy," I ers The idea of destroying the box doesn’t sit ithRebecca’s privacy So hy do I know I a to open this box? Why do I have to knohat is inside? "Curiosity killed the cat, Sara"

It doesn’t seeo to work I slide the flat end of the screwdriver between the lips of the lid and base and apply pressure The latch pops easily

My adrenaline surges andon a thread, why I feel like this box is so important, why I feel any of this is important Slowly, I lift the lid, and luxurious red velvet is the first thing I see I suck in a breath at what is cradled by that velvet and ain

Chapter Five

I blink at the unexpected contents of the box A paintbrush and a picture that has been torn into two pieces, so that only a woman is left This is Rebecca I don’t knohy it didn’t seem odd to me that I hadn’t seen any pictures of her in the e unit There hadn’t been a picture of her on the gallery website either Perhaps I didn’t notice these things before now because I didn’t want to knohat she looked like

Reaching for the photo, I hold it between ers and study it, study her She is beautiful and petite with long, sandy brown hair, and a brilliant smile that tells me that at the moe mesmerizes me and I wonder why she tore the picture I wonder as in it with her and who took the photo Even more so, I wonder why she kept the picture after she tore it up

My brow furrows asto save, but then, so is half of a picture I pick up the brush and run ers over the bristles that have a hint of a yellow paint at the tips The wood bears no o It’s clearly a senti she worked at the gallery So was the ht be are far reaching My sto about Chris and those greener than green eyes

I seal the picture and the paint brush back inside the box and set it on htstand My laptop is also on the bed with‘Chris Merit’ into the search bar and clicking on iet photos of two different people and realize that one is an older version of Chris His father had been a famous classical pianist who’d lived in Paris I don’t kno I forgot such a thing, or how I tied the ih the resele Chris and he comes up in Wikipedia He is thirty-five, not thirty-three, and he’s dated a couple of ue so I have no idea why I read into anything tonight with the man My lips thin as I note that he has never been married My mother’s words come back to y or he’s got skeletons in his closet A knot forms in my throat God, how I miss her, hoish she was still here so I could call her now Okay, so maybe I wouldn’t call her now and explain my obsession with another woman’s sex life I bite my lip Am I obsessed with another wo the idea If I’m obsessed, it’s with her safety

And if Chris has skeletons, could Rebecca have discovered them and become a liability? It sounds so hter bubbles fro, I realize Chris lives in Paris Chris one already

Unbidden, disappointment fills me Chris is the first ht, the CEO of a large computer company, whom I’d met at a charity event I’d soon realized he was the kind ofreasons The kind that dominates and controls, and makes you feel all fe you know of yourself to pieces I’m still not sure I understand why he appealed to me, or why men like Mark, who ooze that kind of power, still appeal to , like I had in the past, doesn’t see for me Chris, well, he doesn’t seem to be one of those power control freaks like Mark, but then I doubt I’ll ever see hiin to read

I told hiain He told me he’d decide when I see him and when I don’t I should have known I couldn’t simply walk away I should have known he’d come for me, and that I, weak as I am, would not be able to resist hi, I was in the storeroom in the ainst the wall and then tore down my panties His lips pressed close to my ear, his breath hot on my neck, as he said, ’you know the rules, you know I have to punish you’ I squeezed my eyes shut because I do know I know and not only do I know but I want him, too That’s what I’ve beco and all but ready to beg for the very thing I craved…punishment

The first smack of his hand on my ass was pure pain, no pleasure like in the past, but I didn’t scream I couldn’t scream Not when I could be heard Somehow, as it always does, the pain turned to pleasure The need for him was intense, complete He entered me and it was then I barely contained h to suit me I was, as always, powerless to the pleasure that is hile" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true">