“You alright?” Elizabeth asked. Her fork was poised in front of her mouth with a bite of glazed strawberry on the prongs.
“Wonderful,” I said.
She narrowed her eyes. Her hair was still messy from the bed. It was refreshing seeing her like this. It made me want to push her back on the bed where we were sitting cross legged with our food and taste the sweet glaze on her tongue. I wanted to have her again and again until we had to leave, but that was partly just because it’d help me stop thinking about what was coming.
“What?” I asked.
“You’re thinking about it, aren’t you?”
“Definitely not thinking about ‘it.’ I don’t even know what ‘it’ is.”
“Liar.” She set her fork down, then her eyes fell and she shook her head. “I’m sorry. I know it’s selfish to tell you to wait to tell me. It’s probably killing you. But I’m terrified of what you’re going to say, okay? I’ve had my eyes locked on one goal for as long as I can remember. Then you came along and I took a second to live for the first time. And it felt good. I just…” she opened her mouth, then shrugged as her eyes filled with tears. “I don’t want to realize I was an idiot for thinking I had you all to myself, or something. Or that you’re using a fake name because you’re married. Or that you’ve been—”
“Woah, woah.” I lifted up the tray of food and pushed it aside so I could pull her hands into mine. “It’s nothing like that. There’s nobody else.”
She clenched her jaw. Her blue eyes looked painfully beautiful as they welled with tears. Fuck. This woman could undo me with those tears. I wasn’t sure I could imagine anything I wouldn’t do to stop her from feeling this kind of hurt.
“Then what could be so bad?” she asked.
“You told me we had to wait two days. Am I allowed to tell you now?”
She took a deep breath and shuddered but nodded jerkily. “Okay. Do it.” She closed her eyes.
I had to take a deep breath of my own. “My friends and I sabotaged the business of your boss’ husband a few years ago. We used some methods of questionable legality, and she apparently has information that could get us all behind bars. I took the job at Glass Designs to find out what she has and do anything I can to stop her from taking it to court, even if it means sabotaging her and the company.”
Elizabeth opened her eyes. “What?”
“My friends and I sabotaged—”
“I heard you, but what? What the hell? You sabotaged a company? How? Why?”
“Would you believe me if I told you we went on a ten-year journey to take down a man named Russ Coleton?”
“The Russ Coleton? But his business—wait, that was you?”
“Not by myself, but yeah. Kind of. It’s a long story I can tell you sometime, if you’re not about to tell me to get the fuck away from you.”
She pinched the bridge of her nose. “My head is kind of spinning right now. Can you help me understand why this all means I should be pissed at you?”
“Oh,” I said. “Well, because you’re kind of this badass woman who is going to wind up taking over K.M. Glass Designs and I just told you I was willing to sabotage the whole thing to save the asses of me and three friends.”
She was quiet for what felt like an eternity, but I sensed the right move was to shut my mouth and let her think. When she finally looked up, something unreadable had changed behind her eyes. “Did he deserve it?”
“Mrs. Glass’ husband?”
She nodded.
“Yeah. He was cheating his employees. Faking profit numbers and lying to withhold paychecks, cut jobs, and pocket the profits. He was also getting ready to buy out a block of low-income housing to build a new factory and screw over more people. We hacked his accounts and leaked all his personal financial information to the press. They grabbed the story and fucked him. Apparently his wife took offense.”
Elizabeth sat back against the headboard, pulling her knees up and hugging them with a distant look on her face. “Wow.”
“Wow, as in, wow, I really do hate you and hope I never see you again? Or wow, how honorable of you to take down such a bad, bad man and lie to me in order to protect me?”
She raised an eyebrow. “What part of keeping this from me was protecting me?”
“Okay, I was hoping I could slip that one by. Lying to you to avoid screwing up our fragile but beautifully blossoming relationship.”
“Because lying is such a wonderful way to build the foundation of a relationship?”
“In my defense, I am risking the asses of three people I’ve known since middle school by telling you this. My own ass, too. If you go to Mrs. Glass with this, we’re all fucked. Keeping this secret wasn’t completely selfish.”