Page 29 of Craved

And yet the bastard still hadn’t shared the Phase One and Two details. Which most likely meant that there was someone above Maxim in the hierarchy. Someone Killion trusted more than Maxim.

Someone duplicitous enough to be Killion’s true right hand, and to have no one in the world suspect a thing. Someone who just happened to appear in New York right as the time was drawing near.

Camilla.

As much as he hated to believe that the woman he’d once loved would willingly commit mass murder, he couldn’t escape the facts. Hadn’t Killion himself once told Maxim how essential Cami had been to the very creation of the D-Day project.

True, he never saw her in the office space, but that didn’t surprise him. Cami was supposed to appear to be a straight arrow with the FBI. So of course, it made the most sense for her to keep her distance.

“Maxim, please.”

She struggled beneath him, and he was certain that though part of her wanted him off, another part of her wanted him to take her. To make her linger at the edge with no satisfaction.

He should release her. Should walk away. Should leave her locked alone in this goddamn tiny room.

But he couldn’t. He wanted her, dammit. And not to punish her or himself. He wanted the woman he’d never truly had. The woman who still lived in his memories, corrupt though they might be.

He’d let himself feel the self-loathing tomorrow. Right now, he had to have her. Had to touch her. Had to lose himself in the memories of when life was good. When he’d believed they were a team. When he’d known he would never love another woman like he loved her.

That still held true. He never had. Never would.

Before, he thought that was a good thing.

Now, he knew better. He understood the woman he’d fallen for.

Hell, maybe they deserved each other after all.

The thought made him even harder. His. She’d been his for years, and now she was back again. He’d punish her—for everything she’d done, for the lies she’d told, for the evil she wanted to wreak on the world.

Oh, yes, he’d punish her.

But right now, all he wanted was to feel her beneath him again. To feel her shatter from the pleasure he gave, even if it was mixed with pain.

To watch that beautiful face when it went over.

He wanted to lose himself in the memories. To go back to a time before he knew of her deceit. To hold her. To fuck her. To love her.

“Cami,” he murmured, and her eyes fluttered open. He expected to see hate. What he saw was desire. His cock stiffened even as he felt a surge of pure lust laced with anger from her betrayal. “I’m going to make you scream,” he murmured, coming undone from her responsive cry of yes, yes, oh, please yes.

That’s where he lost himself. It was no longer revenge. No longer punishment. It was Maxim and Cami. It was power and passion, building and building until it exploded with an intensity he hadn’t experienced since the night he left her.

Then the glow faded and he remembered the betrayal. With a low groan of disgust, he pulled out of her, then went into the bathroom to clean up. When he returned, she was wrapped in the sheet, her back against the wall.

“Was it good for you, too?” He hadn’t meant to speak, but the words had burst out laden with sarcasm.

For a moment, he thought she would ignore him. Instead, she lifted her chin, met his eyes, and said, “Yes.”

He heard the truth in the word, and felt the sting of it like a slap.

And for the first time since he’d received her phone message, he wished there was a way to scale the wall of betrayal that stood between them. But it was only a passing thought, and he’d learned the hard way that wishes never came true.

Chapter Fifteen

“Well?” I say when the sheet is once again wrapped tight around me. I try to keep my voice steady, but inside, I’m trembling. Because, damn me, this isn’t a man I should want. He hates me, that much is clear.

I want to hate him, too. He’s aligned himself with evil, and I can’t want a man like that.

But I do. I want him even more desperately now.