KILLING ME SOFTLY by Jenna Mills Read Free Book Online

cheeks could go even paler, creating the kind of stark, washed-out image of a black-and-white photograph, making her look … lost, like a woman out of time and place, who just didn't … belong.
    "And I want to know why." The admission surprised him. "Did he do this to you?" he asked, watching closer for flickers of recognition or flares of guilt. "Is that how he controls you?"
    Confusion flitted through her eyes. "What are you talking about?"
    He was a trained interrogator. He knew the signs of deception. Sometimes they were obvious, such as a twitch. Other times they were more subtle, revelation coming only through pupils going wide or a change in the rhythm of the breath.
    Renee gave away nothing.
    "The man who sent you here," he clarified, hating the words even as he spoke them. "The man who thinks he can use a woman to break me."
    Again.
    Her eyes darkened. "No one sent me here to break you," she said, then moved toward one of the windows he cleaned every morning. Light glowed from inside, illuminating the pictures visible from the porch. Dead center hung a photograph of an old oak, its trunk more than three times the size of his waist, its branches so thick that those dipping to the ground made perfect benches. "I just needed to feel closer to Savannah."
    "Then you've come to the wrong place." There was nothing of Savannah left here. He'd seen to that.
    She turned toward a second picture, this one smaller, more obscure, not in his usual palette of blacks and whites and grays, but with a splash of yellow. A butterfly. It hovered over a honeysuckle, starkly visible against the curve of a woman's shadow thrown across the ground.
    Slowly, her hand came to rest against the glass. "You're very talented," she whispered, and the words stabbed deep.
    Renee Fox was not the first woman to remark on his talent.
    Cain stared at the butterfly, but saw a woman stretched out among tangled black sheets, thick blond hair flirting with her shoulders, a gleam to her slumberous blue eyes, her body nude save for the sheen of perspiration.
    You, Robi, are a man of excruciating talent…
    Savannah had not been talking about his photographs.
    With a fierce shove, Cain stalked to the door of the gallery, reached inside and flicked off the light. "I didn't take that picture."
    "Then why is it hanging in your gallery?"
    He pulled the door closed and stabbed his key into the lock. "Because it's mine."
    Out of the corner of his eye he saw her move toward him. "How much for it?"
    "It's not for sale."
    She stopped so close he could feel the warmth of her body swirl against the night. "Everything has a price, isn't that what you said?"
    The burn started low, spread fast. He turned to see her standing suspended between shadow and light, and realized the slow burn came from neither anger nor mistrust. "Sweet Mary, I may live to regret this, but I've decided you can stay."
     
    The faint light of the moon played across Cain's wide cheekbones and emphasized the whiskers shading his jaw, somehow making him look soft when Renee knew without doubt everything about Cain Robichaud was unmistakably hard.
    He'd decided? To let her stay? An irritated retort burned through her, but she bit it back, knowing he was right. Whether out of fear or respect, the people of Bayou de Foi jumped when the man many believed guilty of murder barked an order.
    If Cain Robichaud wanted her gone, she didn't stand a chance.
    If … Cain … wanted … her.
    Hearing the words strung together, even if only in her own mind, sent a shiver whispering deep.
    "It's been a long time since I've had someone to play with," he added thickly, and the words wound like silken threads around her heart. "Most people are too afraid I'm going to kill them."
    Renee just stared. She told herself to say something. Knew she should say something. But her throat had gone tight, and whatever words he deserved, jammed there.
    "So tell me, cher , just so we're clear. What kind of game are we playing? What kind