Page 20 of Brutal
I fire up my laptop and hover my fingers over the keys.
If that night wasn’t spontaneous, then someone knew where it would end.
I look again at the pinned photos.
Arthur. Controlled and composed.
Nathaniel. Polished and precise.
Samson.
I stare at his image a second longer than I mean to.
Even in a still photograph, I see something coiled inside him. It’s not obvious. In fact, if you don’t know it’s there, I doubt you’d see it at all.
But it’s there.
Something inside him.
Something almost beastlike. Something I should fear. Instead, all I can think of is what his hands might feel like on my body, his lips on mine.
Samson Vexley might have been standing on that dock.
My stomach tightens.
If he was there…
Then he knows what really happened. The thought should sharpen my focus.
Instead, something else moves under it.
Heat. Desire. Lust.
Fuck. Maybe it’s just been too long since I’ve had a good lay.
I look away abruptly and step back from the board.
Attraction to Samson Vexley is exactly the kind of complication I don’t need.
He’s a lead. That’s all.
A door.
One I intend to open.
He’s relevant because of who he is. Because of what he might know. Because he stands closer to the center of this than anyone I’ve managed to get near.
That’s it.
Not because of the way he looked at me.
Not because I didn’t walk away.
I close my eyes a moment, try to steady my breathing.
When I open them, my phone lights up on the desk. I reach for it. A text from an unknown number. I tap the screen to open the message.
I shouldn’t have walked away from you.
