GONE - Part Three (The GONE Series Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page A

I want to breathe again and I can't do that until he tells me how my picture ended up on that screen.  "I'll get my purse and my keys."
     
    ***
     
    "You were shivering in the taxi on the way here." He wraps his arm around my shoulders. "Why don't you sit down? I'll make you some tea."
    It's too kind of a gesture for the moment. I'm shivering because I'm a jumble of nerves. He spent the entire ride over talking on his phone to his assistant, Bruce. Clive doesn't stop working, even on the weekends and judging by the single side of the conversation I was privy to, he'll be spending much of tomorrow in his office in meetings with associates from Europe.
    "I don't want anything." I pull away from him and move towards an arm chair. "I'd like to talk about yesterday."
    He rubs his hand over the front of his neck before he nods. "I know you're devastated over what happened, Lilly."
    The words hold more meaning than the delivery he provides. He's very calm and in control. I want him to be as torn up over what happened to me as I am but I've learned over the years of being on my own that we all have to own our emotions. We can't look to others for compassion or sympathy. I'm looking at him right now and all I see is a man with a rehearsed answer for any question I'm about to ask.
    "You were the last person to have that picture, Clive." Easing into this with pleasantries and small talk isn't going to help me find the truth about what happened. I want answers. I need them and now that I'm in his condo, I'm not planning on leaving until I have them.
    He walks towards where I'm sitting and for a very brief moment I wonder if he's going to drop to his knees and kiss me. My resolve is strong but when he's so close to me, the want is right there, rounding the corner and almost overtaking my willpower to resist him.
    He sits on the edge of the table near me. I tuck my legs up, not wanting him to touch me. The motion doesn't go unnoticed. He stares at my jeans briefly before he pulls his darkened gaze to my face. "Ask me already, Lilly. Just ask."
    I look down at his hands. They're knotted together in a twisted mess. He's cracking his knuckles and snaking the fingers of his left hand with the right. His anxiety is as evident as mine. I see it now.
    "Ask you what?" I push back not wanting to be put on the spot.
    "You know what." He leans back to rest one hand against the glass of the table. "Just ask."
    Once I toss the question out there the entire dynamic of our relationship will shift. I'll be the accuser and if he had nothing to do with the picture being displayed, I'll have to live with the regret of doubting his word. I scratch the back of my head, trying to figure out a way out. I want the things he said to me while we stood in the living room of my parent's home to be real. I want to believe that the adoration I feel in his kiss is sincere. I want that. I don't want to lose it.
    "I am crazy about you, Lilly." He swallows so hard I can hear it. "I am so fucking crazy about you."
    I cast my gaze down so I can focus my thoughts. I run my hand along the arm of the chair. "I know that you care about me."
    "It's so much more than that." The soft rasp in his voice is disarming. "I love being around you. I never smiled before I met you. I never wanted to smile.
    They are beautiful and thoughtful words that I would have fallen into two days ago. Now, I know that the truth is buried somewhere within them. If he didn't have anything to do with the picture being broadcast for the entire room to see, he would have said as much. He would have just come out and told me.
    "You and Parker are the only two people who saw that picture." I point my finger at him. "I want to know how it happened. I want you to tell me, Clive."
    His head drops to his hands. "Someone else saw the picture. I believe someone else has a copy and it's my fault."
     

Chapter 9
     
    "Who?" My legs dart out so quickly that my feet smash into the edge of the table. "Who has a