Caught Up In You 3: Designer Love and Empty Things (Edgeplay) Read Free Page A

women here after being so intimate with him? The thought causes my throat to close up.
     “How are you feeling?” Connor’s leaning in the doorway holding a steaming mug of coffee.
     I force a smile. “Okay. I think I’ll be a little derelict in my duties today though. I have some personal stuff to take care of.” Visiting Pops is number one on the list. I don’t know if he’ll realize I missed a day, but I know it and the need to see him compels me. Then there’s the headache of replacing my driver’s license and my ATM card and getting a new cell phone.
     He moves into the room, telegraphing wariness with every step. “Baily, you can’t. Someone tried to kill you yesterday.”
     “What?” He can’t be serious. “I thought it was an accident.”
     He shakes his head. “No. The incident report states that it was a car bomb, although not a very effective one, since the electrical system caught fire before it detonated. I have the email if you’d like to see it.”
     I feel slightly ill. Somehow I’d convinced myself it was an accident. But knowing someone had made that happen….
     “You’re shaking.” Connor sets the mug down and wraps his arms around me. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you but you have to know it isn’t safe for you to just run around unprotected, at least not until we find whoever is behind this.”
     “It doesn’t make any sense,” I whisper, clinging to his already rumpled shirt. “Why would someone want to kill me?”
     He rubs my back. “I don’t even know that you’re the target.”
     I push back and meet his gaze as hope dawns over the cold landscape of my terror. “Then…?”
     “We don’t know that you’re not, either. At this point we don’t know anything, but I refuse to take chances with your life.”
     That steely determination is back in his voice and I know I have to stand my ground now. “Connor, you can’t keep me locked up in some safehouse forever. I have a life, things to do.”
     His jaw clenches and his eyes close. I see the struggle in him and sympathize. His intentions are noble—he wants to protect me. What I so easily dismissed as paranoia yesterday, now I see is actually caution.
     His lids lift and his gaze is so tormented it actually steals my breath. “I’m trying to do the right thing here, Baily, but I don’t know what to say to you to convince you of that. I’m not trying to keep you locked up, I’m trying to keep you safe. You have no idea how much you mean to me, how much it kills me to deny you anything. Knowing that you’re in danger because of me, that you almost fucking died because of me, it’s eating me alive.”
     It’s not an act. I gape at him as he stands and begins pacing the narrow confines of my messy room, muttering as though to himself. “I’m not used to this, to not knowing what to do, what’s right. Your life might be in danger. My instinct is to protect you at all costs. I can keep you here, guarded by force if necessary, but you’ll end up hating me for it. But letting you go on with a giant target on your back…either way I risk losing you.”
     I’m not an idiot. I’m not going to cut off my nose to spite my face. “Connor, it’s okay. My job is here. Most of the other stuff can wait. Maybe they’ll catch whoever planted the bomb soon and it won’t be an issue.”
     He stops and shoots me a plaintive look. “I don’t want to lose you.”
     I get up, following my heart to him, and wrap my arms around him. “I’m right here. I’m safe.” Beyond that I wouldn’t make any promises.
     He holds me for several minutes, his cheek resting on the top of my head. I’m completely enveloped in his warm embrace and I’ve never felt so cherished.
    A knock sounds on the front door. “I’ll get it. It’s probably your medicine being delivered,” Connor says, and shuts the bedroom door.
     I pull on a pair of yoga pants and a tank top and twist my still-wet hair up into a