Free Craving Her (Keeping Her Series Book 4) by Kelly Lucille Page B

“Again
you surprise me.”
    And she knew it was a
lie, both the emotion and the words.  What the hell game was he playing?  
“I doubt that.”  She met Shawn’s eyes, his emotions were surprisingly clear to
her at that moment in the stark planes of his face and his gold raptor eyes. 
He was already hunting.  She spoke to the man on the phone, but her eyes were
only for the predator in front of her.  That the look in his eyes was seriously
hot she refused to think about. “You know enough about Lionsgate to know what
you’re dealing with,” she paused.  “Or at least you think you do.  Because if
you really knew what you were inviting with this mate foolishness you would
never have started this.”
    “I am willing to take my
chances to get what is mine.”
    Cleo could not help
raising of her brow at that.  What a presumptuous ass.   “That’s
quite a statement, when you have absolutely no right to call me yours, in any
way, shape, or form.  But I’m sure you have some half-baked self-deluded reason
to think it, and frankly, I just don’t have the energy to deal with crazy
tonight.  But I have to ask, why are you calling me now?  It seems the time to
call would have been for a date, before the embarrassing kidnapping
attempt . . . both of them.”
    “I will admit when I
started this I made assumptions based on false information.  I won’t make that
mistake again.”
    “Your false information
is still going strong if you think I’m in any way yours.”
    “On the contrary, I have
known you would be mine for quite a while.  I assure you I keep what’s mine.”
    “Yeah blah, blah, blah,
whatever.  How is your nephew?”  Her voice was dismissive as she studied her
nails.
    “Yes, William,” Gerent
said just as emotionless, but there was a cold bite that issued a warning all
the same.  “He had to be punished, of course.”  Then his voice dropped to
threatening.  “I don’t like to be embarrassed.”
    Cleo snorted, dropping
her hand to her lap with a slap.  “With your fucked up decision-making skills,
I doubt that was the first time you embarrassed yourself, nor will it be your
last.  You’re doing a pretty good job of it right now.”
    This time the silence was
long and frosty.  She made big eyes at Miley who looked like she was in pain
listening to Cleo’s conversation, and shaking her head when Cleo crossed her
eyes.  Meanwhile, Cleo turned at a sound and saw her father and Logan standing
right inside the kitchen.  Logan made a winding motion with his hand she
understood.  Keep the dirt bag talking .  Eli must be on the cyber prowl
somewhere close.  Locating Gerent would go a long way in ending this.  It was
rare that anyone would have been able to duck Lionsgate.  It said a lot about
the man she was talking to that they had not already neutralized this target. 
It didn’t make her want to be nicer though.
    Cleo lifted her chin to
acknowledge the command even as she turned her attention back to her phone. 
She didn’t moderate her disrespectful tone however.  She wasn’t that good an
actress.  “You still there?”
    “Just picturing how I
will punish you when I finally have you.”  She could hear the anger in his
voice this time, it was the real deal.  “I can guarantee you won’t speak so
vulgar and disrespectful to me again.”
    “I can actually guarantee
I will,” she muttered.  She wasn’t sure who was more pissed listening to this
conversation, but she was sure she was in the top three.  At least.  “Did you
call with a plan in mind, or were you just feeling like you didn’t get your toy
and wanted to whine about it.  ‘Cause that seems a bit ‘spoiled douche bag’, I
mean, in a really obvious way.”  She heard a thunk and turned to see Miley had
dropped her head to her arms and was shaking her head against them.  She was
not the only one shaking her head as she looked around the room.  Everyone else
seemed to be dealing with their own