Read Online You Are Mine by Jackie Ashenden - Free Book Online Page A

door.
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    Eva had a more-sleepless-than-normal night and woke up the next morning feeling like absolute shit. Business as usual in other words.
    She didn’t think about Zac as she painstakingly made herself coffee with the notorious and temperamental espresso machine she liked to use. She’d pushed what had happened the night before to the far reaches of her mind, and that’s where it was going to stay for as long as she could manage it.
    Wrapping her fingers around the vast, white china mug she liked to drink her coffee out of, she headed back into the lounge, intending to check on the results of her search.
    Only to stop dead in the doorway. Her heart beating so fast she thought it might explode out of her chest.
    There was no one there, her lounge empty of anything but her computer desk. But every nerve ending she had insisted that there was danger. That her sanctuary had been breached again.
    Stupid. This was stupid.
    She tried to calm her racing heartbeat with a few deep breaths. Only to catch a faint, spicy scent, familiar and warm. It was so faint it was barely there, but she could smell it nonetheless. Zac’s aftershave.
    A shiver whispered over her skin.
    You. I want you.
    The prick. That had never been part of their friendship and how dare he introduce it. How dare he change things. She’d never given him any reason to think there could be something between them, none at all. So why the hell he thought he could share that with her, she had no freaking idea. Because it wasn’t as if she was suddenly going to fall into his arms, God no.
    And as for demanding her trust like she could give it just like that … Well, he was shit out of luck there too.
    Don’t you think he’s earned it?
    Clearly he thought he had. And sure, after seven years, perhaps a normal person would have trusted him. But she wasn’t a normal person. Trust wasn’t something she gave lightly, if at all. In fact, after what had happened in that house and on the streets, it was highly unlikely that she’d trust anyone ever again.
    Forcing herself to move, she walked over to her desk, coffee clutched in her icy fingers.
    It’s been an honor and a privilege to have known you.
    She sat down in her chair, the weight of her anger heavy as lead. Fucking men. They were all the same. They demanded things from you, and if you didn’t give in to them, then they acted like bastards. Who’d have thought Zac Rutherford would be the same as all the rest?
    The weight shifted inside her, growing sharp edges. Disappointment. Hurt. Betrayal. Seven years he’d been her friend and now, because she wouldn’t give him what he wanted, he’d left. Jesus, like he was any better. He’d never told her anything about himself, never trusted her with any piece of who he was. Why should she do the same for him?
    Screw him. She didn’t need him. She didn’t need anyone.
    Putting down her coffee and ignoring the painful feeling in her chest, Eva quickly ran through her searches again.
    This was more important anyway. She needed to find out the identity of this guy, figure out if there was a connection between what had happened to Alex and the threats to her. Whether that was related to the human trafficking ring they’d discovered in Conrad’s club.
    And she didn’t need Zac for that.
    Eva scowled at the monitor in front of her. The searches hadn’t thrown up anything overnight, but on the other hand, they hadn’t led to her being discovered yet either. Always a good thing.
    Gulping at her coffee, she went through her normal vast amount of emails then dealt with a number of issues that had cropped up during the night with Void Angel. The usual run-of-the-mill stuff. She’d set her special human trafficking team on the trail of linking any known trafficking rings with Conrad South’s casino. So far they hadn’t found anything, but it was only a