Glimmer (Glimmer and Glow 1) - Page 24

“Do you remember how I told you about that man on the Durand board? The one who grew up in the Austin neighborhood in Chicago?”

She nodded warily. He made a subtle gesture with his hand in the direction of his abdomen.

She spun around fully.

“You were talking about yourself?” she asked numbly.

He nodded.

Her mouth fell open in disbelief. “You. You came here as a camper when you were twelve years old?”

“It saved my life,” he said with absolute certainty. “If it weren’t for Camp Durand, I’d be dead or rotting in a prison cell right now.”

She just stared. Her brain couldn’t seem to absorb the news. Smooth, intimidating, supremely confident Dylan Fall had once been described in a camper packet like the one she’d received last night? Her imaginings about that piratical, ruthless edge to him had a basis. What had that long-ago assessment said? Teachers have noted flashes of pure brilliance interspersed with belligerence and uncooperativeness, frequent school absences and tardiness, aggression and frequent fighting.

She imagined the words, of course. Still, the description somehow fit his independence and that blade hinted at just beneath the polished sophistication, that vague, but ever-present idea that if you didn’t give him exactly what he wanted, you just might end up pinned against the wall, staring helplessly into Fall’s shining dark eyes and feeling the carefully concealed razor edge of his personality firsthand.

Alice certainly understood that edge all too well now, although not in the aggressive sense. The sexual one.

“So you see, I have more than a glimmer of understanding of what you’re experiencing here,” he said. “You feel like an outsider. Part of you is sure that at any moment, someone is going to discover the truth about you, and kick you out on your ass.”

“You think we’re alike?” she asked with sarcastic incredulity. “You think you know me because you were a little kid at Camp Durand? I’m not a twelve-year-old child.”

“I’m not either,” he bit out, the sizzling thread of anger in his tone making the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stand up on end. For a moment, neither of them spoke while Dylan seemed to master his flash of anger.

“I’m a thirty-four-year-old man who is the leader of one of the most successful, profitable companies in the world. My everyday decisions affect thousands of Durand employees and their families across the globe. But there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t have some distant thought—no matter how brief—that someone isn’t going to expose me for what I am, and kick me straight back to the gutter where I belong.”

The silence throbbed in her ears. She couldn’t draw breath.

After a tense few seconds, he exhaled and shook his head as if to clear it.

“Leave your cabin at exactly nine thirty tonight and head toward the stables. Your duties will be finished by nine, and the night staff will take over supervision of the kids. The counselors are free to do what they want after that. Make up a story to your roommate and leave your cabin.”

“I don’t understand,” Alice said honestly. “Why should I?”

“Because you need something to ground you while you’re here. You’re overwhelmed. You’re second-guessing yourself constantly. I see it on your face.”

She made a sound of self-disgust. Was she that transparent? “Nobody else seems to think so,” she said in her defense, thinking of Thad saying he’d never guessed she was sick following the zip-line challenge.

“Nobody else probably can read you like I can,” he said with a silky calmness that infuriated her. “I told you. We have something in common. Are you really going to try to convince me that you haven’t been overwhelmed being here?”

She clenched her teeth and raised her chin.

“That’s what I thought,” he said when she refused to confirm or deny it. “You’ll come to the house. I want you there.”

“For sex,” she stated more than asked, her voice flat with amazement at his gargantuan presumption.

“You could come to study the Durand reports, like I asked you to last night. Or you could come to talk. Or you could come and get what you just got in this office. Many times over, if I have my say about it,” he added with a hard glance that sent a thrill through her. He paused. “Are you scared right now, Alice?”

“No,” she bit out honestly.

“Right. You’re pissed. You’re worked up,” he emphasized, taking a step toward her. “But you’re not scared.” He shrugged slightly in a “well, then?” gesture. “I’ll leave what we do during the night up to you.”

“I’m not traipsing around in these woods at night by myself after what happened out there,” she said, pointing in the general direction of the woods.

“Good. I don’t want you wandering around by yourself until I get a handle on what happened. Stick with your friends, staff, and the kids in the meantime. Don’t wander off.” He noticed her expression and guessed at her amazement. “I’ll be waiting for you when you leave your cabin tonight. I’ll make sure no one sees us. This is between you and me, and I expect you to keep it that way,” he said with a hard, pointed glance. “But I’ll be there. In the woods. Head toward the stables. I’ll join you just as soon as you’re out of anyone’s vision. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

She swallowed thickly at his forceful repetition of what he’d said earlier.

Tags: Beth Kery Glimmer and Glow Erotic
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