Wired by Liz Maverick Read Free Book Online

unhooked my hand and took it in his, bending down to kiss the back.
This doesn’t happen in real life. Men like this don’t happen in real life
. When his lips left my skin and he looked into my eyes, I felt like the most important, fascinating person in the world. That it felt so good made me want to cringe.
    I found my voice, just barely. “I don’t know people like you,” I gasped.
    â€œDo you want to?”
    It was a strange question to ask, and I honestly didn’t know the answer. Would it be odd if I said yes? My brain might be totally scrambled here, but it wasn’t so scrambled that I couldn’t see and admit the truth about myself. I had no life. I had no friends. I had no family. I just had work, which lately I’d even had trouble remembering. And it had had trouble remembering me. On the face of things, Leonardo Kaysar represented the kind of something—the kind of someone—I’d fantasized about after falling asleepin the early morning in front of movies chronicling lives I’d never lead and adventures I’d never have.
    â€œMason was right when he said you were a dangerous man.”
    â€œYes, he was,” Leonardo said with a smile. His hand fell away. “I’m dangerous to
him
.”
    â€œWhy do you guys hate each other so much?” I asked.
    He turned away, then back to me. “My father was a great man,” he said incongruously. “He was intelligent and successful and all of that, but he also lived for his family.”
    I swallowed hard, realizing that as much as Kaysar knew about my inner life, it shouldn’t surprise me that he knew my personal history. Did he know what I would give for a father who sounded like his?
    â€œMason took the meaning out of life for him and never showed an ounce of remorse,” Leonardo continued. “When you most desperately need loyalty from him, that will be the moment you will know without a doubt that all you have from Mason Merrick is betrayal. He would kill you if he had to, to get what he wants.”
    My jaw dropped. “You’re crazy. He would never
kill
me. You’re not really saying that, right?” I asked, feeling oddly caught between laughing and crying. These were simply words, a suggestion. I didn’t know why they should affect me like they did. “He just walked me home. He’s had a million chances to—”
    Leonardo gave a casual shrug. “At the moment, it’s not advantageous for him. But make no mistake,what he is doing now is ingratiating himself, making you trust him so that you will stay near him.”
    I narrowed my eyes. Maybe Leonardo really
did
know about my history, as he seemed to know about my tendency to live life through a TV screen or the pages of a book. But distrust filled me. “Maybe that’s more like what
you’re
trying to do.”
    Kaysar didn’t seem the least bit concerned by my accusation, and I was getting closer and closer to completely losing my shit.
    â€œWhy are you telling me this?” I finally asked. “Why are you here if you don’t want to hurt me or take me with you or whatever?”
    A look of irritation crossed his face. “To have a moment for us before Mason completely poisons you against me. It’s bad enough that he knew you before. He has the advantage of planting whatever story he so chooses, which gives me the disadvantage of trying to prove to you otherwise.”
    â€œYou haven’t proven a thing to me yet,” I said. “Neither of you has.”
    Leonardo ran his fingers lightly across my cheek. “Mason’s true colors will do it all for me, and then you will know that I have not been lying to you, that I want to work with you, not against you.”
    His cell phone must have been on vibrate; his hands suddenly fell away from me and he took a step back to take the call. “Please excuse me, Roxanne.” A few silent moments later, he