“To get information.”
“On Caroline?”
That made me blink. “No. Why would I want information on Caroline?”
“The senator?” He began tapping the arm of the chair with his middle finger. A small sign of impatience.
“No. I know everything I need to know about the senator.”
“The foundation?” The foundation? I felt a strange chill. What didn’t I know about the foundation?
“You,” I said, tired of the guessing. “I went to the Morellis to get information about you.”
His finger stopped tapping on the chair.
“What did you want to know about me?” he asked, his voice terrifyingly careful.
“Who you are? Where you came from? Why Caroline trusts you so much? So fast?”
“You didn’t need to go to a Morelli for that,” he said.
“Well, you weren’t telling me anything.”
“Because I’m no one,” he said.
“You keep saying that, but Caroline found you in Ireland and brought you back here for something.”
“I have skills—”
“Eden called you a junkyard dog.”
His head snapped back at that as if the words hit a nerve. “She would know, I guess.”
“Is that what you are?”
“No,” he said. “It’s what I was. Caroline found me and gave me a chance to be something else. I took it. That’s all, Poppy. That’s the story of me.”
“Who put you in the hospital when you were young?”
He stood up from the chair in one fluid rush. Stalked me across the room, and I scuttled like a crab along the wall heading for that French door.
My heartbeat poundedin my ears, and I was aware that this man had a line and with that question it was probably somewhere behind me.
He smacked his hand against the wall beside my head, and I flinched at the sound. Expecting it to be my face that he hit. I slowly opened my eyes to find him watching me. So unreadable. A million miles deep.
“How bad do you want to know?” he asked. He stepped up against me, the hand I’d held out was useless against him. He pushed it back against me with his chest. His skin was hot under his fine shirt.
“I... don’t,” I said. My bravery gone. I was a paper doll. Crumpled when pressed.
“Oh, what a liar you are.”
“Okay, you wanted to scare me? You wanted to warn me? Great. You did it. I’ll stay away from Eden Morelli.” I thought briefly of that favor I owed her, but I wasn’t going to tell him about that. Or Jacob.
I wasn’t going to tell him anything, anymore. I pushed against him, but he didn’t budge. It was just the heat of his body. Against my hand. Against me. The longer he stayed there, unmoving, his heart beating against my hand, I started to wonder if this was a different game.
I looked up at him, the memories of his body pushing mine against that door, an unwelcome heat in my brain. In my body.
The hand I had pressed against his chest, shifted. Stroked. Over the firm curve of his chest, I brushed the bead of his nipple with my pinky, and his body trembled.Trembled. I did it again. Harder. I used just a little, the edge of my nail, and he licked his lip.