by Lana Grayson
“No, no.” He waved to the panicking secretary, eager to help but unable to prevent Max from taking his rightful place at my side. “It’s okay. I’ll see them without an appointment.”
“Yes,” I said. “You will.”
Wescott nodded as his secretary closed the doors. “I hadn’t expected to meet with you today, but it isn’t like the Bennetts are required to follow social etiquette.”
He tested me.
It was a mistake.
“I was under the impression my emails, calls, and invitations would serve as interest in a meeting.”
“I’m a very busy man, Nicholas.” Wescott offered me a seat with an extended hand. It wasn’t a friendly gesture. His voice chilled like broken marble. “I’m sure you understand.”
“I assure you, this matter will take very little time to resolve.”
Wescott nodded. He offered a drink. We declined.
“You want me to sign the Josmik amendment,” he said.
“Yes.”
“Strange.”
Max said nothing. He waited for my order. But something in Wescott’s tone interested me.
“Do you have an objection?” I asked. “Allow me to ease your concerns.”
“Forgive me, but this amendment is quite bewildering,” he said. “Why would Nicholas Bennett storm my office and demand that I sign the very document that removes his family from power and awards it to an Atwood?”
“You took no issue in signing your stock over to the Atwoods. Does it matter what happens with the Bennett Corporation once you’ve taken your investments elsewhere?”
Wescott gestured across his desk. “It’s curious. Two Bennetts in my office, urging me to consider an agreement that will destroy their company. This goes beyond Daddy issues.”
“I’m asking you to sign the agreement,” I said. “Simple as that.”
“Why?”
I wouldn’t explain my actions to anyone but Sarah. “It’s irrelevant.”
“But it isn’t. Don’t tell me you’re doing this for the benefit of the Atwood girl.”
“My motivations may differ from those of my step-sister.”
“Step-sister? I doubt that’s how you think of her.”
“We don’t have a lot of time to piss around,” Max said. “Sign the damn agreement so we don’t end our professional relationship on bad terms.”
Wescott wasn’t threatened. He knew it would come to this.
“Nicholas, a few months ago, you called this office to arrange a meeting. You were adamant about ending the Josmik Trust. You promised a new model for the corporation with innovation and research and development to drive our profits. You almost convinced me to void my portion and remain within the company. I might have believed in you.” He narrowed his eyes. “Was that all a lie?”
“The situation changed.”
“No. It remained the same. Business as usual for the Bennetts. Cutthroat and ruthless and…” He nodded toward Max. “Violent, when the situation calls for it. I’m not an optimist, Nicholas. The world is full of darkness, and we’re fools if we deny that presence in our souls.”
“Hardly relevant.”
“Whatever happened between your family and Sarah Atwood only made her stronger. I’m glad for it, if only to have someone willing to end your reign.”
He picked up the amendment, signing his name along the line.
“I have no issue in awarding the girl what is hers,” he said.
“Then why did you wait?”
Wescott capped his pen. “She didn’t agree to my terms.”
Sarah didn’t mention anything about terms. She told me he refused to sign.
“What did you ask of her?” I asked.
“It doesn’t matter now. I see that I was right.” He gestured to Max. “Had I not signed, I’m sure Maxwell Bennett would have negotiated in his own ways.”
“I live to serve,” Max said.
Wescott nodded. “Don’t we all? But this is the root of the problem, Nicholas. I had hopes for you.”
“Don’t discount me yet,” I said.
He pushed the contract to me. “I never meant to delay her fortune or deny what belongs to her. I didn’t sign this amendment because I knew, eventually, the girl would return the stock to you.”
I said nothing though the implication burned.
“I hoped someone could lead the Bennett Corporation in the right direction. That was why I sold. I thought you would be different, but you’ve proved my instincts were correct. I’m disappointed.”
“Don’t be,” I said. “I won’t explain myself to you, and I’ll choose to forget your insults. You can believe me when I say I’m acting in the best interests of my family. I will do everything in my power to protect the ones I love.”
“I don’t doubt that. I only question how you plan to protect them. You have always wanted to control everyone and everything. And when people don’t obey you?” He nodded to Max. “You send in the dogs.”
Max lunged, but I stopped him before mistakes were made.
“No matter your reasons, no matter your intentions, one thing is perfectly clear to the world.” Wescott leaned close, his voice low. “You would ruin others to protect your own. And that, Nicholas Bennett, is why you are no better a man than your father.”
21
Sarah
My fingers curled around the barrel of the baseball bat.
The knock rattled the chalet, each strike against the door echoing from the loft to the living room.
I regretted the pleasant fire in the hearth. The smoke was probably visible. It didn’t matter how deeply I hid within the wilderness, even a cozy fire was irresponsible.
The bat scraped off the floor, but I cringed as the steps creaked under my feet.
I learned which stairs squealed during the month I’d spent hiding within the mountain chalet. I planned escape routes, planted weapons, and prepared myself for any and all danger.
And I forgot it all in a single moment of panic.
Another knock.
Each bang slammed my heart into my ribs.
Who even knew I was here?
I checked the track phone. No messages from my step-brothers. No heads-up about a visit or a warning of danger.
I hated how I shuffled toward the door, despised myself for slinking against the wall, and loathed every pathetic breath that puffed, scared and timid and wracked with the threat of my godforsaken asthma. I needed to breathe if I had any hope of defending myself.
The forest was supposed to be beyond rural. Nearly empty. Still, I woke from a nightmare in the morning, kicked from the sheets, and collapsed with my inhaler.
Something bad was going to happen.
But something even worse would punish anyone who dared to attack me.
The bat rose. I pitched the door open.
A goldendoodle yelped, burst into the living room, and launched at my chest. We both went down, and Hamlet pinned me against the woven rug. I laughed, hugging the furry monster and scratching behind his ears as he licked, yipped, and tripped over himself to love me harder.
The tears blurred my vision.
Nicholas.
I couldn’t speak.
I struggled against Hamlet. Nicholas embraced me before I stood, hauling me from the floor and crushing me against his chest. I worried he’d squeeze until I broke in half, and I cried thinking he wouldn’t hold me tightly enough.
His clean, masculine scent enveloped me in the familiar clutch of safety and possession. I dreamt of his eyes—longed for the golden warmth, relentless dedication, and absolute devotion that shattered my defenses and left me so vulnerable for him, to him.
His words rushed, resonating with a velvet confidence that trapped me within his control before I could even ask how or why he finally came for me.
“I had to see you.” His voice warmed, dripping like melting wax and scorching me with the same heat. “I shouldn’t be here, but I had to see you.”
His kiss
silenced my questions and stole my protests.
I was lost for a month.
Alone and desperate, I attacked the shadows and hid from every light. I huddled in the cabin, too anxious to brave the ten mile trip into town for another box of cereal or a gallon of milk.
One month of waiting in silence.
Of isolation from the world.
Of complete and total abandonment.
Nicholas meant to protect me. He promised to free me from Darius and hide me until he foolishly gambled with my life, his company, and the stock I didn’t yet possess. He worked to save me from the board’s cruelty.
And his father’s violence.
A month I huddled alone, waking in fear and living in solitude.
And all I wanted was Nicholas.
His kiss revived me, thawing the parts of me lost beneath the layers of fear and aggression. I fell into his strength, tangling my arms over his neck, pulling my body against his.
I’d never be close enough, not when the days and the miles had separated us for so long.
I savored every brush of his lips and welcomed the greedy, flicking temptation of his tongue against mine. My hands dug into his suit jacket.
“Are you okay?” He whispered, threading his fingers through my hair to study my face, my lips, my neck. He didn’t wait for my answer, bending to taste the silken skin of my throat. “Are you safe?”
I nodded. I hummed as he suckled against the hollow of my neck. “Were you followed?”
“No.”
“I missed you.”
“I shouldn’t be here.”
Nicholas’s voice ground need against restraint, but even a Bennett’s willpower could be tempted. He reached for me, lifting me into his arms.
“Why did you come?”
“I couldn’t stop myself.”
He carried me up the stairs, kicking the door the bedroom open and lying me upon the rumpled sheets. I blushed as pink as the pajamas. Nicholas pushed me onto the pillows before tossing his jacket on the floor.
“You left me.” I raised onto my elbows. It only encouraged him. Nicholas pressed against me, pinning me between him and the bed. No better place existed than trapped beneath him, struggling only to shed the layers of frustrating material between our desperate bodies. “You left me here all alone. You didn’t call me.”
His kiss silenced my protest.
“You didn’t come to see me.”
His touch subdued my anger.
“You didn’t even say goodbye.”
He burned with an apology he’d never give. “I didn’t want anyone finding where we took you. I was obsessed with keeping you safe. I couldn’t let him find you.”
He touched my cheek, gentle and cautious, as though I’d shatter from his first touch.
I probably would.
I’d crack into a hundred shards from his stare, a thousand fragments under his hands, and disintegrate completely the instant he loved me.
The last time Nicholas Bennett dared to brush my skin, I was betrayed, bruised and nearly broken. Not every injury was visible. I survived, but the ache hadn’t.
A part of me was stolen and destroyed. The destruction left behind couldn’t be healed alone. Too much time passed without him, too many nights spent reliving a terrible memory.
I needed him.
All of them.
And instead, my step-brothers hid me to prevent it from happening again. To prevent worse.
“I wished you would come for me,” I whispered. “I laid in bed and listened, terrified something would happen, that I’d be taken or hurt or killed before I could see you again.”
“I don’t want you to be afraid anymore. I’m doing everything to keep you safe. You are my first and only priority.” He exhaled, his breath hot against my neck. “I’ll never forgive myself for what I did. I’d rip out my heart if you asked it.”
I kissed him. “Don’t do this to yourself.”
“I hurt you.”
“Then heal me.”
“I don’t trust myself.”
That was easy to fix. I pushed upwards, capturing his lips with the promise I meant before the horror and the love I gave after.
“I do trust you, Nicholas Bennett. I love you. And I missed you.”
He groaned. “Me too. More than you could possibly know.”
His fingers gripped the pajama top, and he pulled the little tank over my head, savoring the delicate swell of my curves with a silent appreciation reflected in a telltale smirk. His fingertips brushed pure magic over my flushing skin. His hand searched my body, teasing the tiny bud of my nipple with a gentle amusement. We both stilled as he traced lower, resting over my flat tummy.
“Did you…” He didn’t want to ask. I didn’t want to think of it—a child conceived in an act that ugly and cruel. “Did you have your…?”
“On schedule, as always.”
His expression hardened. “Good.”
It was the first time he had reacted positively to the news. He stilled, imagining that day, those events, the pain. I took his hand, kissing those loving fingers that so delighted me with just a touch.
It wasn’t just me affected by Darius’s cruelty.
We needed this. We needed each other, to prove what had happened hadn’t destroyed us. We’d love each other and banish the memories back into nightmare.
I pulled him down, welcoming his kiss with an encouraging murmur. A soft heat chased away any lingering hesitations. Our lips met once more.
A promise.
A vow.
A devotion we hadn’t dared to admit and a love that survived pain and brutality, guns and monsters, greed and vengeance.
We won. We were together.
I had no idea how long we had, but it didn’t matter. Every second wrapped within his embrace passed in both heartbeat and infinity. His touch was greater than time, more powerful than even the fear of losing what little moments we had. I gasped, pained as his hands dared to leave my body to unbutton his shirt.
We kissed in need.
We touched in desperation.
We savored in pain.
We whispered our love in every breath because we feared we’d never have the chance to speak it again.
Nicholas’s kisses traced down. He exposed my neck, murmuring as he studied my pale skin.
“I’ve become accustomed to you in a collar,” he said.
“Regretting my freedom?”
His kisses graced where the leather once tightened, his lips pressing hard against the flushed skin that pulsed so quickly under his command.
“You tell me, Ms. Atwood. Did I ever need a leash to take you?”
“No. I bound myself to you,” I whispered. “My choice. Maybe my own foolishness.”
“You understood where you belonged.”
“With you.”
Nicholas lowered his head, stealing the chance to slip the raspberry bud peeking from my breast into his mouth.
“Always.”
“Do you promise?”
The roll of his tongue stiffened my every muscle. I arched into his mouth. He suckled, hard, drawing me deeper and savoring my sweetened whimper.
“I told you, Sarah. Every night when you returned to my bed and as I took you when the sun rose—you are mine just as I’m yours. I swear to you, nothing will ever keep us apart.”
I bit my lip. “Except this.”
“Only for now, while I make the plans,” he said. “It won’t always be this way.”
“Concessions?”
His kiss aimed lower. “One I will reward you for surrendering.”
His fingers tickled at the waistband of my pants. I held my breath as Nicholas tugged them over my hips. He gazed at the part of me I fought so hard to forget during the month spent hiding from the world, hiding from the memory.
His touch eased the tension tightening my thighs. He gently parted my legs, slipping between the softness with yielding kisses and gentle murmurs.
“Don’t figh
t me, Sarah,” he whispered. “I only want to please you.”
My breath caught as the first of his touches simply explored. He teased my presented body, and the rush of desperate slickness surrendered at his touch, his whisper. I gripped the sheets tighter, if only to ease the burst of pressure spiking through my core.
It wasn’t dangerous or frightening.
Every caress of his lips, every stroke of his tongue rewarded my slit with a delighted shiver of comfort, trust, and the mounting strain that I had suppressed in fear of the haunting memories. The only relief I offered myself came in bursts of frustration, waking between night and dawn, terror and fantasy.
But this…his attention. The dipping of his tongue tasted my sweetness. Every flick and tremble belonged to him as he savored me like a rewarded lover. He suckled my clit, earning a wavering mew. The quick excitement stirred me too fast, too quickly.
“Don’t hold back,” Nicholas said. “I plan on giving you everything you deserve, everything you can handle. Then I’ll delight you with everything more.”
As long as it was him.
As long as Nicholas delivered me there.
I could handle anything, give anything, take everything just as long as it was Nicholas who stole me to that edge, teased me with the promise of his love, and then captured me within his arms as the swell stole my breath.
I was lost in the aching instinct, trapped within a pleasure so raw and right I’d climb it again and again just to cherish the simple comfort of his possession.
I twisted the blankets, calling his name and earning his excitement. His kisses became licks, and his tastes sheer feasts of my body. He tortured me with promise and tore me from the world and my sanity until my strength faded.
I whispered his name as a delicate plea for more and a command to spare me the endless ripples of a blissful agony that bent me to his will.
“I need you.” As though he couldn’t have read my begging, felt my aching, tasted my desperation. The honesty in my voice weakened as my body shuddered in a fragile crest once more. “Nicholas, please.”
“I’ve dreamt of you whispering that to me.” Nicholas lifted himself from the bed, casting away his belt before I tensed in memory. “Every night, Sarah. I’ve wanted nothing more than to prove how much I love you, how sorry I am for…everything.”