Read Online What He Desires (What He Wants, Book Five) (An Alpha Billionaire Romance) by Hannah Ford - Free Book Online Page A

seesaw, flying up into the air, only
instead of coming down, it felt like I was being throw off into the air before
crashing straight onto the ground.
    “Are you going to tell me what the hell
is going on?”   My voice was halfway
between panic and desperation, with a dose of shrill added in for good
measure.   My heart was pounding,
adrenaline pulsing through my body, the fight or flight instinct in full
effect.   I wasn’t sure if I should
slap him across the face, or run out of there and never talk to him again.
    If this wasn’t proof he was a murderer, I
didn’t know what was.   I wasn’t
sure why I was even standing there, asking for an explanation.
    He kept going through the pictures, page
by page, maddeningly slowly, until I felt like I wanted to scream.
    When he was done, he slid them carefully
back into the folder and placed the folder back in his filing cabinet.
    “Charlotte,” he said.
    “Stop saying my name.”   I hated the way it made me feel,
hearing him say my name like that.   It felt too intimate, too close, the
way he said it, like he knew me.   When the truth was, he didn’t know me at all.   And I didn’t know him.   This whole thing we’d been doing, the sex and the games and the control
– that’s all it was.   Just
games.
    Dangerous, risky games that might cost me
my life.
    “I was following Katie,” Noah said.
    I closed my eyes, and my breath started
coming in rapid gasps, so fast that I was afraid I was going to have a panic
attack. I hadn’t had a panic attack since those last days with my dad, since he
was lying in bed dying, and I was there with him, all alone, not sure what to
do. I took in a long deep breath through my nose, counting to three beats, then holding it for three beats before exhaling for three
beats.   It helped a little bit, but
as soon as I was stopped counting, my breath started coming fast again.
    “Charlotte, please,” Noah said.   “Let me get you some water.   Sit down.   You need to let me explain – ”
    “Don’t,” I said.   “No.   I’m done with this.”
    Noah stood there, his eyes boring into
mine, blazing with fury.   And something else, something right below the surface.
    Hurt.
    He was hurt I didn’t trust him, that I
didn’t believe him.   But I was done
playing these crazy games.
    Noah Cutler was a murderer.
    And I needed to stay far, far away from
him.

 
    ***

 
    The day had turned overcast and dreary,
and I walked fast toward the subway, ignoring Noah’s car, which was parked in
front of his apartment.
    I ducked into the bodega on the corner
and bought myself a cheap phone charger, the kind that would probably last me
two days before breaking, and a bottle of water.   As soon as I was out on the sidewalk I opened the bottle and
gulped down half of it.   A second
later, my mouth was dry again, my lips like sandpaper,
my tongue thick and heavy.
    My heart was still beating rapidly, even
faster now that I’d been walking, and I could feel a tiny bit of sweat starting
to pool in the small of my back.   I
wasn’t wearing a coat, but I was still hot, even though the day wasn’t particularly
warm.
    I drank some more water and forced myself
to slow my pace as I walked.   There
was a sharp pain starting in my side, almost like a stitch, and even though I’d
slowed down it began to take over my entire stomach, fading and bleeding into a
dull ache.
    As I stepped down into the subway
station, I felt suddenly claustrophobic, like I was stepping into a coffin.   Get
it together, Charlotte, I told myself.   Relax.
    A second later, I was being swallowed up
by the crowd as we filed into the subway car. I took a seat in between a woman
with a yellow umbrella and a college kid wearing a pair of jeans and a
sweatshirt.   The ride to campus was
at least twenty minutes, but I had no memory of it when I stepped out of the
car.   It was like my mind was
disconnected from reality.
    When I got to campus, I realized I was
going