Seductive Secrecy (Shadows series) Read Online Free PDF Page B

nodded, hooked my bag over one of the chair backs at his kitchen table and took a seat on the couch. As he returned to the living room, he handed me a bottle and sat in the loveseat across from me, his knees spread wide, his hands crossed between them. I noticed how much his look had changed in the past few months. Dallas’s style was much more relaxed and athletic than the cold, trendy apparel that Cameron wore. Tonight, he was dressed in a light gray T-shirt and darker-tone jeans with white piping down the hem. The sides of his hair were gelled toward the middle to create a short mohawk, and the whiskers of scruff on his cheeks were all trimmed to the same length. I used to watch him shave it with clippers into the very same style.
    It was a good memory.
    “I hate that I hardly ever see you anymore with all the traveling you’ve been doing,” I said.
    “I know. Things should settle down some in the next few months.” His eyes slowly roamed my face, searching my features. “Something’s off with you. What happened…what’s wrong?”
    I shook my head. This wasn’t the reason I’d come here. I missed him, and I wasn’t going to spend the little time we had together complaining about Lora, someone I had absolutely no control over.
    “Has he hurt you?”
    Something told him it was Cameron who had upset me.
    “No…not really.”
    Dallas had met Cameron the few times he had visited our apartment. It wasn’t entirely awkward; they were very cordial to each other, but I didn’t get the sense that they would ever become friends. As much as Dallas wanted to like him, I had chosen Cameron over him and there had to be at least a little resentment there. But there were deeper layers than that. Dallas had been in love with me. I was employed at the mansion, having sex with him and clients in the same evening. And what he wanted from me—a relationship, commitment, an affirmation of how strong my feelings were for himI had given to Cameron instead. I knew how much I’d hurt him, and yet here he was as always, wanting to help me anyway.
    “Talk to me, Cee” He cut himself off, realizing what he had just said. And as he did, my eyes widened and my back stiffened. “Charlie…I’m sorry. I’m still getting used to it. I just called you that for so long.”
    Cee had been the name I used inside the mansion, the character I turned into when I left my clothes in the limo and transformed into a fantasy. It had also been the name that most of the men outside the house had called me, the ones I had given only my body to, because I hadn’t let them in enough to really know Charlie. Dallas was an exception, but the name had stuck. When I had purged the truth to him, we decided to put Cee to rest. It was more difficult for him that we thought it would be.
    I nodded and let it pass. “It’s really not a big deal. I just got a little…jealous tonight.”
    He smirked.
    “I know. It’s ridiculous.”
    “It’s not ridiculous at all. In fact, it’s refreshing to know you’re finally feeling something inside that little body of yours. It means you’re human after all.”
    Dallas really did know a completely different side of me; even though we’d dated for a year, we had an open relationship that was mostly based on sex. I had given the others before him even less of me. Jealousy was a feeling I had never really had before.
    He tilted his head, his keen stare once again surveying my expression. “You love him, don’t you?”
    Love .
    That was a word I’d only ever used when considering Emma. Before the car accident had taken her, she was my family, my best friend, my escape from the abuse I experienced at home. But once she was gone, that word had left me, too. What I had with Lilly was so damagedI may have said the word to her, but there was really no meaning behind it. And I knew I didn’t feel that for my father…not yet, at least. And what was happening between Cameron and me was still so new. I’d only been