“Do you know about stock options?” he asked.
“Not one bit,” I replied honestly.
“Well, I’m trying to create a type of financial product that will give returns of at least two percent a month.”
“Two percent doesn’t seem too greedy to me,” I ventured.
“It doesn’t sound like much, but when you are talking about the kind of volumes they want to attain it becomes a metric that’s almost impossible to achieve unless … it’s some form of Ponzi scheme.”
I frowned. “Don’t they know that?”
“They are aware,” he said softly.
My jaw dropped. “They want you to create a Ponzi scheme for them, don’t they?”
He nodded slowly.
“And how much are we talking about?”
He sighed. “Millions.”
“Wow!” I stopped suddenly. “Ponzi schemes are illegal. Couldn’t you go to prison for setting it up?’
“Yeah,” he agreed grimly.
“So why are you doing it? Why take the risk? Don’t you have enough money already?”
“It’s complicated, Willow.” His lips twisted into a bitter smile. “They have leverage on me … for now. But I’m going to clean it all up. I have a plan.”
I was suddenly frightened for him. All my dreams of us being together felt fragile, breakable. What if he ended up in prison? I had so many more questions about his background to ask him about, but at the same time, I didn’t want to pry too much and make him feel like he was being interviewed. A strange coldness invaded me. I hugged myself and rubbed my arms.
“Trust me. I know what I am doing,” he said softly.
“Okay,’ I said softly. I looked at him. Suddenly, I was sorry. I had harbored such harsh thoughts about him when in fact, he was being squeezed by people who obviously had something on him. What, I didn’t know. But whatever it was it was bad enough to make him do something that could land him in prison. “Now I can see why you’ve been so occupied. You’re completely forgiven for not contacting me in the last two days.”
There was a gentle smile across his face. “I wasn’t completely forgiven earlier?”
“No,” I replied shyly, as my teeth bit down on my bottom lip. I couldn’t even look at him.
“That kiss this afternoon, didn’t do it?” he teased.
“Really? You thought one kiss should have been enough to obtain my complete forgiveness?”
He turned those incredible eyes on me. I was so painfully aware of him it was becoming harder and harder to breathe.
“What would it have taken?”
I swallowed the lump in my throat and let my eyes slide away. “I’m not sure yet. I’ll have to think about it.”
He leaned forward and his scent filled my nostrils. It was some expensive cologne, but underneath it there was something familiar. The smell of earth. On a hot summer day. “You smell familiar,” I whispered.
Something flashed in his eyes, but it was gone so fast, I thought I imagined it. I felt I was dangerously close to losing my mind. Before I could tell what he was going to do, my chin was in his hand. Then he kissed me. It was fire.
I thought my heart had stopped beating. Molten desire pooled between my thighs, and I lost my head. The box I’d been holding left my hands and tumbled to the floor. I jumped up with a gasp, my heart lurching at the sight of the food that I had spilled onto his new carpet.
“Oh my God! I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said.
“Where’s your cleaning supplies closet?” I asked, jumping up in a panic. “I’ll take care of this right now.”
“Willow,” he called as he stood and clamped his hands around my arms. His gaze bored into my eyes. “Calm down. It’s not a big deal.”
“We can’t let the food soak into the carpet or it’ll leave a stain. Please, just tell me where the cleaning supplies closet is.”
“I have no idea where the cleaning supplies closet is,” he admitted, “and I have no intention of letting you clean my carpet. If it stains, it fucking stains. So fucking what.”
I chewed my bottom lip. “You really don’t care.”
“No, I really don’t care.”
“Okay. At least, let me clean it up with a tissue.”
He let go of me and stepped away. “Okay, if it’s going to make you feel better.”
I quickly picked up the food and cleaned up using the paper napkins and water. Fortunately, it was only lemon squid so I managed to get it looking almost back to what it was. Hopefully, when it dried it wouldn’t show at all.
“There,” I said, with satisfaction. “That’s better.”
“Feel better?” he asked, watching me expressionlessly.
“Yup.” I popped myself back down on the sofa. We still had some dumplings left and they must be cold by now and the last thing I wanted to do was eat, I leaned forward and reached for them. Through it all I could feel his gaze on me … watching me, and it made me burn.