Page 79 of Risky Obsession

“Yes, it was. I told you, your smooth-talking shit won’t work on me.”

“Oh. You want me to talk dirty?”

Trying not to laugh, I walked away.

“What? Tory . . . come on, this is fun. Aren’t you having fun?”

Tory was having too much fun. That was the problem. With each pounding step I made to increase the distance between us, I knew that whatever was going on between Kane and me was bigger than finding lost Nazi gold.

I really liked him.

And my heart cracked into pieces knowing that when the truth came out, he would never forgive me.

CHAPTER 17

Kane

After we’d eaten a meal at a café of Tory’s choosing, we drove around town, but while trying to find a hotel that had a vacancy sign, she was doing a damn good job of giving me the silent treatment.

I had never had to pursue a woman before, but that was mostly because I hadn’t found a woman who fascinated me enough to care. Tory did. Every other woman I’d been with, I’d known almost from the moment we met, that we were not destined to be together.

Tory was tickling that fancy for me, and it was both thrilling and frustrating. She was making getting to know her damn hard, yet her secretiveness only intrigued me more.

After we had exhausted all potential accommodation options in town, I pulled over to the side of the road.

Tory blinked at me like I’d snapped her from a spell. Or a nightmare. “What’s wrong?”

“You tell me. You’ve barely said three words since we finished our lunch.”

Her shoulders sagged, and she glided her good hand over her jeans like she was contemplating an appropriate reply. “I’m just tired. That’s all.”

“Okay. When we find a hotel, you can rest for the afternoon, while I shop for everything else we need.”

“No. No. I’ll be fine.”

I pressed my hand over the back of hers. “Tory, please. Will you just let me look after you?”

She tugged her bottom lip into her mouth and nodded.

“Good. Now, I doubt we’re going to find any accommodation near this antique fair. Let’s see where the gala is tonight. Maybe we can find accommodation near there.” I pulled the flyer that we’d taken from the jewelry store woman out of my pocket and unfolded it.

“Schloss Abenddämmerung,” I said, attempting to read the name of the venue on the flyer. “Looks impressive.” I handed the flyer to Tory and opened Google on my phone. “Let’s see where it is.”

After checking the spelling three times, I found the castle on Google. “Wow, that’s not just any castle.”

“It’s huge.”

“I’ll say. Schloss Abenddämmerung dates back to the twelfth century and was originally built by Friedrich von Abenddämmerung, a knight known for his courage and cunning. Gotta love how they write these things.” I grinned at her.

She seemed to collect herself as she leaned toward me.

I swept my finger across the screen, showing her several images of the sprawling stone fortress.

“Wow. That wall and moat are going to make it hard to sneak in.”

“Who said anything about sneaking in?” I asked. “We’ll walk in just like all the other guests.”

She huffed. “I hope you’re right.”