This Darkest Man by Sinden West Page B

and we’ll—”
    “I
have to go.” I pulled free of his grasp, nearly stumbling and he reached out
and caught me.
    “Stop
acting like you’re scared of me, Matilda,” he said gently. “Although, you’re
scared of everything, aren’t you?”
    I
wanted to tell him that I wasn’t. That I wasn’t scared of the dark, and that
Clay saw that and admired that…Except Clay wasn’t really Clay. Was he even
real? My shoulders sagged and I lowered my head, feeling dejected at the
memory.
    “Let
me walk you back to your office? Are you near here?” He gently took my purse
from me. We walked in silence until we reached the impressive glass front of
the law firm. He looked up at the name emblazoned across it and let out a
whistle. “Very nice, Matilda. I’m proud of you for getting a job here.”
    No
you’re not ,
I wanted to say, but of course I didn’t.
    “I’m
going to be late.”
    His
eyes flicked back to me and he gave me a brief smile before handing me back my
bag. “I’ll meet you after work. We can—”
    “No.”
My voice was barely above a whisper. “You took me to that awful party. You
would have made me have sex with both you and that other man. If those men
hadn’t—”
    “I
wouldn’t have made you do anything!” he burst out. “I was just trying to spice
things up, for god’s sake. Yeah, I took you to a sex club but I never made you
do anything, nor would I have. I thought that you might enjoy it; that it would
break you out of your shell. Lots of people do it. Wanting to have a threesome
doesn’t make me a bad person, Matilda.”
    “No.
But being controlling and abusive does,” I rushed out.
    He
looked like I’d slapped him for a moment. “I never hit you.”
    “You
didn’t have to. You did with your words and threats instead.” I channeled Erin
when I said that, repeating word for word the things she had said to me to make
me see sense. “And what we did to Jeremy…”
    His
shoulders seemed to sag, and for the first time, he looked defeated. “I know I
did some terrible things. I know that I have some issues, but let me make it up
to you.”
    “No,”
I managed to say, spinning on my heel and hurrying through the glass doors like
they were my last line of defense. He didn’t follow me but I didn’t feel safe
until I was in the lift and heading skyward.
    “Are
you all right?” a woman asked. “You look very pale.”
    “I’m
fine.” And I was fine. I had to be. I wouldn’t let him control me anymore.

Chapter Nine
    I
worked late, scared that if I walked out at five that I would see Josh lying in
wait for me. It was dark when I left, and I quickly scanned the area before
giving a sigh of relief that he wasn’t anywhere to be seen. I smiled and shoved
my hands in the pockets of my coat. It was good that it was dark now; I had
power in the dark.
    I
stopped at a newsagent just as they were closing to buy a newspaper. As I
handed over the money, I spied a magazine and my mouth dropped open. “And that.
I’ll take that one.” I pointed, waving my finger at it.
    The
man gave a knowing smile. “All the young girls who normally buy Cosmo have been
grabbing copies. Just goes to show what a good-looking man on the cover can do.
Half those girls wouldn’t know anything about the business world in their empty
heads.” He fetched a copy for me. “They call him the Snake. The article is a
bit of a hatchet job, but no one can deny that he’s made Hellman Corporation
one of the big players in the hotel industry.”
    My
eyes snapped to him. “What did you say?”
    “He
runs Hellman; they own a ton of international hotel chains. Anyway, are you
going to buy that or just look at the pretty guy on the cover?” He cackled as I
handed over the money and walked away, somewhat shell shocked and clutching the
magazine in my hand. I nearly ran home, sure that once I got there and stared
at the cover again that the image would have changed. It couldn’t be him. There
was no