“Where was that I picked you up?” he asks, and his voice is deadly quiet. “Whose hotel was that?”
I know before I answer that he already knows the truth. There’s no point in lying. “Alexandre’s,” I say softly, and I see something crumple in his face, though he’s obviously trying not to let me see.
“Tell me one thing, Anastasia,” Liam says, and there’s a warning edge to his voice. “And don’t lie to me.”
He never uses my full name. It sends a shudder down my spine, fear and a thrill all at once, and I know I’m on a knife’s edge with him. What happens in the next moments will determine everything.
I have to tell him the truth. It’s all I can do.
“Did you call him?” Liam asks, his voice low and dangerous, and I shake my head.
“No,” I whisper, and I see him narrow his eyes as he steps toward me with the deadly grace of a panther, his green gaze fixed on mine.
His hand reaches out for me, but it’s not gentle. He doesn’t hurt me, not exactly, but his fingers close on my chin, holding my face still as he looks down at me with an expression so dark that for the first time, I’m a little afraid of Liam McGregor.
“You’ve pushed me to the very edge tonight, Ana,” he murmurs. “Don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not lying,” I promise, my voice trembling. “I didn’t call him. I was running away from the theatre, and he came out of an alleyway and grabbed me. He was following us. He picked me up and put us both into a taxi, and—”
“And it didn’t occur to you to scream? To tell the driver he was abducting you? To shout for help?” Liam glares down at me. “You just—went back to his hotel?”
“I thought about it,” I admit. “But I—”
“But part of you wanted to. Tell me the truth, Ana, all of it. You wanted to go with him.”
For a moment, the words hover between us, his fingers tight on my chin as he stares down at me, and I feel myself trembling in every part.
I’m terrified. And I’m also terribly, terribly aroused.
“Yes,” I whisper, looking up at him. “Part of me wanted to go back with him.”
“Because a part of you still loves him, even now. And you were angry with me.”
“Yes.”
“You wanted to hurt me.”
My eyes flutter closed, my heart tearing open yet again at the words that I hadn’t known were true until right this second.
I’d thought Liam didn’t know me, but he does. He might not have known that the ballet would upset me, but he knows something deeper. He knows a part of my soul that even I’m ashamed to see.
That part of the reason I went to Alexandre’s room, part of the reason I came so close to making that terrible mistake, was that Liam had hurt me tonight, unwitting as it was.
And I’d wanted to hurt him in return.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper, my eyes still closed. I don’t want to open them and see the expression I know must be on Liam’s face. I don’t want to see that I’ve hurt him, see the possibility of ending everything there in his eyes.
His hand is still on my chin, holding it. “Did you fuck him?” His voice is dark, angry. “Tell me the truth, Ana.”
“No,” I whisper, squeezing my eyes tighter against the threatening tears. “I swear—”
“Look at me and say that again,” Liam growls, his fingers tightening on my jaw. “Tell me you didn’t fuck him.”
“I didn’t—”
“Open your eyes, Ana!”
His voice rumbles over my skin, and my eyes fly open, staring up into his brittle green gaze, glittering darkly in the shadowy entryway.