Kian spoke up from behind me. His voice was soft enough so Erica wouldn’t hear. “You had an upset stomach, so you stopped to grab some food.”

I whirled around, taking in the sight of him, as his lie stumbled from my lips.

His hair was wet. His clothes were soaked, but he had never looked so good. His eyes were stormy and heated, holding my gaze. His jaw clenched, making the air snap with tension between us. I licked my lips and averted my eyes. Erica would hear the lust in my voice. I didn’t need a new interrogation from her.

Erica believed it and questioned once more if I was pregnant. She wanted to make sure.

“No,” I said into the phone, staring right back at Kian. “I’m not. I just had an upset stomach. I’m fine now.”

“Are you coming home soon? If you aren’t, I’m coming to eat with you. Where are you at?”

“Uh…” I had no idea.

My eyes got big, and Kian moved closer.

He murmured into my other ear, his hand touching my hand at the same time, “You’ve not been discovered yet. You should return home and be there for as long as you can.”

“I-I’m coming home,” I stammered into the phone.

“Well, good then.” Her relief was obvious. “I have to warn you about the other part. If your stomach really is okay, Jake wants us all to go to a house party with him. Apparently, we’re his new best friends, even Wanker, too. I’m guessing Susan and Tara have officially cut the strings. Doesn’t he have other friends? He’s adamant that we come with him. What’s that about? Wait, I know. No matter what he says, it’s you. He still wants in your pants.”

My tongue lay heavy on the bottom of my mouth. I had no words for her. Kian was standing so close to me, watching me the entire time. He could hear everything my roommate said. The tortured look from before was gone. It was replaced with something else, something ominous, something I wasn’t going to like.

His hand left my hand and fell to my hip. A tingle started as his thumb slipped under my shirt and rubbed over my skin, back and forth, back and forth. And Erica was still talking. I couldn’t hear her anymore. My pulse was so loud with my blood rushing through me.

“Tell her you’ll be home in a few minutes. I’ll give you a ride.”

The words fell from my lips.

She said good-bye, and so did I. The phone call was disconnected, and then Kian took the phone from me. I noticed all of this in the back of my mind, but the forefront was fully focused on Kian. He was so close. I wanted to close the distance again.

Instead, I asked, “Where did you go?”

“To clear my head.” His gaze lingered on my lips. His eyes darkened, and then his hand caught the back of my head in a commanding hold.

I did nothing. I waited, my heart about bursting out of my chest. “And?”

“And”—his forehead rested against mine—“I meant what I said. If I take you, I want you to be mine all the way. Not mine in hiding. Not mine when you have a separate life. Mine. Just mine.”

“Kian,” I whispered. My hands found his arms, and I held on to him. “That—”

He cut me off, his chest heaving up and down, “Can’t be done until you’re forced to go public.” His hand squeezed my neck.

He paused, dipping down so that his lips touched mine. It was so brief, so quick. It was a fleeting graze. My heart skipped a beat.

He added, “And I could never ask that of you. I won’t. I’ll do everything in my power to help hide you.”

“Kian?” I pulled back. What was he saying? I sensed a different urgency from him.

Tilting my head to the side, I gazed at him. He did look different. A resignation had settled on his shoulders, and it kicked up a flare in me.

What was happening? “What’s going on?”

His hand pulled me close. “I came here to watch over you. I wanted to be close to you, and, yes, I wanted to be with you. I was wrong.”

“What?” No…

His hand gentled on my neck, and his thumb began rubbing up and down in a soothing caress. “I shouldn’t have come here. I should’ve left once I knew you were fine. You were happy, Jo, and I messed that up.”

“You didn’t.”

A voice inside my head said, He did. Let him go. You can still be free.

I shut it up.

“All those times in the courtroom, I felt like you knew me, like you were the only one who could know me. I wanted you to be let free. I didn’t want you to go to prison, and you’re out now. And you said your team will do everything possible to keep you from going back.”

“This is your life.”

No.

My heart pressed against my rib cage. It wanted out.

He added, “If you’re found, your life will be ruined. If you hide again, I won’t find you a second time. I’ll have to let you go, so I’m doing it now. I’m letting go. I booked my flight. I’ll be returning home, and I’ll make a public statement.”

“What will you say?”

“The real scandal is the dirty judge. The DA is trying to cover it up by making the media look for you. I’ll tell them the real story. A dirty judge is a bigger story than where you are. You’ll be forgotten in a week. And I’ll stay away.”

“No.” My heart was splitting in two. I closed my eyes.

“I’ll stay away and make sure that you’ll never worry about the media finding you.”

“No, no, no.” I grabbed on to him.

He cradled me to him, his hand leaving my neck to smooth down my back in comfort. He propped his chin on top of my head, his other arm holding my shoulder, holding me to him. “This is for the best.”

I winced, closing my eyes even tighter, as I burrowed into his chest. I didn’t want to let him go and even thinking about it, I wrapped my arms tighter around him.

I drove Jo home myself. She was quiet on the way, and a few times I looked over. I felt like I should say something, anything, to ease her pain, but it was weighing on me, too. And when she held my gaze, right before getting out of the car, I saw the same pain in her eyes. There was nothing to say. Anything I said would’ve cheapened the situation, or taken away what we were both feeling, but when she got out without a word, it was like a silent rejection.

I drew in a shuddering breath, gripped the steering wheel tighter, and tried not to think about who I was driving away from as I went back to my penthouse. Once I got inside, my phone rang. It was Cal, and he never called with good news, not this late at night.

“What’s wrong?”

“She’s public.”

My blood turned cold. “How?”

“You didn’t tell me that she’d left a note for you in the hotel room.” His tone was accusing.

My eyes narrowed. I bristled. “Because that was none of your business.”

“Yeah, well, it’s my business now. A housekeeper had to go back into the room. She’d left something from cleaning it in the morning, and then she saw the note. She was so kind to take a picture of it, and Jo had signed it as Jordan.”

“It’s been days. Why is this now going public?”

“It took time. She sold the note to a local news station. They went to the hotel and got the tapes. There’s a tape of her leaving the room. They backtracked from there, and you guessed it.”

Shit!

“They found Jo Keen, and they think it’s hilarious that her roommate was one of the reporters who interviewed you.” Cal paused, grunting into the phone. “Find her. Call your lawyers. Call her lawyers. Shut this down now.”

“I dropped her off at her place.”

“Did you put the tracking app on her phone?”

“She was sleeping when I got back before, and I did it then.”

“Hold on. I can trace her from here, and…she’s on the move. She’s not at her apartment.”